Day 11: December 29, 2009
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Monday ended in Van Horn, Texas. It's a place I targeted because it would allow my indecision to continue a little longer. I didn't give much thought to my return route until I reached the end of US-62 and one possibility that occurred to me in my El Paso motel room was following US-67 part of the way home. That route begins in Presidio, Texas, about 200 crow miles from El Paso so starting at its southern terminus was feasible. Van Horn is the point where I would leave the expressway if Presidio became a target. There were other options and possibilities but the weather made them all moot. I knew snow was coming and ruled out Presidio even before I left El Paso. Lots of other people were on the road and also knew about the snow. I got the third to the last room at a Van Horn Super 8 in filled with folks worried about predictions that lots of snow was possible. Lots of snow didn't materialize but some snow did.

The first two pictures show the view outside my motel room when I first stepped out. There was no snow falling and much pavement was bare when I actually left but snow as deep as three inches waited to be cleared from the car.

I headed up the ramp to I-10 and stayed well below the posted speed limit.
I was getting a little itchy after more that 150 miles of sometimes messy expressway so, even though it was snowing a bit at the time, I turned off at the big brown crater sign. The Odessa Meteor Crater was formed about the same time as the more famous and more expensive one in Arizona. In the Odessa crater's case, the 50,000 years have served to largely fill it in. The adjacent museum is small but mighty with meteors from all around the world on display. In the center of the main room, a large one from Argentina sits next to a somewhat smaller one from the local area. A path leads through the crater site but the snow, wind, and temperature caused me to pass on walking it.
After another hundred or so miles, I found pale white windmills in a pale white sky interesting enough to stop for a picture.

Sixty miles later, I hung it up in Abilene, Texas. Weather dictates that the route home will be all or mostly expressway so, even though I imagine I'll find something to post, it may get really boring

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