I swore I'd never go back to Texas, but I couldn't miss my sister's handfasting, and she promised everything would be dead and there'd be nothing I'd be allergic to and my mom needed someone to drive her. I actually ended up enjoying myself!
We left on Thursday - I drove about 45 min. to a regional bus that took us to O'Hare. I've driven there myself before and this is easier. We got into El Paso around noon (I had forgotten about the time change) and I actually managed to get to my sister's house without getting lost! We went to the
San Elizario mission where the plan was to light a candle. That didn't work out, but the little museum was open, so that was cool. I had forgotten the sound of mourning doves cooing in the sun. I spent the evening with my sister (and Frankie the cat - Penny honored me with headbutts and then vanished for the duration), while her partner and our respective parents went out to eat, which was really nice.
Friday I had a sinus headache (there was SOME pollen, but probably also it was partially stress and the cigarette smoke in the kind of shitty hotel). I ended up driving around El Paso - I became very familiar with I-10, as my rather iffy phone navigation seemed to like that road. It was interesting - I saw some parts of downtown and the university. I met up with the rest of my family who had gotten an airbnb, and then we had dinner and my sister's handfasting ceremony. The weather was gorgeous - cool and not super breezy - and I met some of my sister-in-laws and nieces for the first time.
Saturday I took my mom out to breakfast and then visited one of the El Paso library branches that had recently been renovated. My sister's partner, Jake, asked if it was weird or would I like to visit some libraries and I assured him that, while I do not know of any other professions that do this, it is indeed a thing for librarians to visit other libraries while on vacation lol. It was pretty cool. We had lunch at my sister's house and said goodbye to family - most of them were leaving early to try and get back home before the eclipse - then those of us that were left went to some local botanical gardens for pictures. I had forgotten how much I love Texas Mountain Laurel! It's kind of a crossover between lilacs and wisteria. I also saw several birds, including quail and a mockingbird - haven't seen one of those in forever. Jake drove us around El Paso - he's a great tour guide - and then we had dinner at a Japanese fusion restaurant my sister likes. I ate spicy stuff and tried new things (big deal for me lol).
On Sunday I had breakfast with my dad and then drove to New Mexico. I went by White Sands Park which was pretty amazing - it's actually really... white! and I don't know if different things grow there because of the gypsum, or it just looks that way because of the white sand, but there were green pops of color in bushes etc. against the sand. I met up with my friend
Ami in Alamagordo and got a personal tour of her library and then we visited the small but adorable local zoo - it was amazing how much cooler it was, just because it had trees and water! I was pretty impressed with myself for being able to drive all the way there and back and not getting lost. I did have to call on the way to make sure I was going in the right direction, and make a couple u-turns and backtracks, but those don't count.
Monday was a long day of traveling - I took my mom to breakfast and then we waited at the airport from around 10:30 until our plane left at 1:30. The eclipse was only 80% there, but I didn't want to try driving during it. It was a fairly short flight back to Chicago, but of course the bus was leaving right as we got there so we had to wait another hour for the next one and finally got home around 9:30.
Tuesday was downloading pictures and putting things away and then back to work on Wednesday! I learned that my phone kinda sorta does navigation - but it doesn't really have internet so if you make a wrong turn it just recalibrates for about 15 minutes and then gives up and dies. El Paso, at least the small section of it that I drove around in, has really nice roads and clear road signs (except for the parts under construction). Mexico is much more colorful - you can see the painted houses over the fence. The desert landscape isn't one that I personally like, but I can see the appeal and as long as it's not hot, I'd like to visit again someday.
