Our first day after San Diego we drove towards Arizona with the hope of getting some miles under our belts. It’s was a little weird to be back in the van driving after so many days where we were in one place. Luckily, the batteries did just fine with a few days of rest and our fridge was still holding food cold.
We stopped for the night in Yuma, AZ and then continued on to Tucson. We really enjoyed the art scene there. We also enjoyed both the east and west side of Saguaro National Park. We were even able to take a beautiful bike ride through the cacti. The sunsets there were amazing! Libby loved the U of A Center for Creative Photography where many of Ansel Adams photos are on display.
El Paso was our next stop on the journey. Our first night in town we explored Winter Fest which was a fun downtown light display with an ice skating rink. We didn’t go ice skating but we did love seeing the interesting stores on El Paso Street. We were lucky enough to get tamale making lessons from Roman & Adriana while we were in town. These two awesome souls are with One Grub, a vegan focused food project in El Paso that is working on opening a food hub with a pay-what-you-can cafe. Later that night they took us to L & J’s, a famous Texas spot, for an amazing dinner. The next day we walked up the steep incline of Scenic Drive with the dogs. The 1.5 mile long road is closed to traffic every Sunday so pedestrians and cyclists can enjoy it. The dogs were being stalked by some very large hawks so we made it a quick walk. 
El Paso has also recently brought back their trolley system. We loved seeing the retro styles touring around the town. That afternoon was spent listening to an El Paso historian talking about the history of the KKK in this area. We wanted to attend this presentation because we had just finished reading Ron Stallworth’s The Black Klansman. At the finale of the presentation, the presenter asked for questions and an audience member introduced the person sitting next to her as “the real Black Klansman”. We were floored that Ron Stallworth just happened to be in the same audience. Brad ran right out to get our copy of the book from the van which he graciously autographed.
The next stop on the adventure was to Carlsbad Caverns. This was a major item on Libby’s bucket list and she was so excited to get to see it. We were 79 stories underground exploring stalagmites and stalactites. Surprisingly, it was warmer underground than it was in Carlsbad! 
After the Caverns we continued the long trek through Texas. Waco, TX was our next major stop, and it is another cute college town. We walked along the river walk and got coffee at Common Grounds, right by Baylor University. We had to stop at Magnolia – the home furnishing store created by Chip and Joanna Gains from HGTV. The crowds weren’t too bad while we were there since it was a random weekday, but apparently things can get a little crazy around the weekends. They have a bakery on-site that sells over 3000 cupcakes every DAY.
Once we made it to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, our first stop was at the pay-what-you-can Taste Project for lunch. It was great to see Jeff again. Taste is located in the Southwest corner of Fort Worth and has been open for just about a year. They are doing great work in that community. We brought Lib’s sister Katie and had another amazing meal.
On the Dallas side of things, we also got to catch up with Cam & Kate and introduce these great friends of our to Katie and Rich. They are practically neighbors now that Katie and Rich have moved to Plano.
Lib’s dad happened to be in town this weekend as well and we all got to tour Katie and Rich’s new home that is still in progress. For a city of over 300,000 people, Plano has a really quaint little downtown area very close to where they are building their house. We went through the free Interurban Railway Museum and had dinner at an amazing Austrian/German restaurant. And yes, we definitely had schnitzel with noodles. 🙂
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