By this point, we had acquired some serious mileage out in the desert, so driving from California to Texas wasn't so daunting. Also, we had a few points of interest on the way to stretch our legs and look at something other than cacti and sand. Because yes, there is an overwhelming amount of both. Oh and as you drive along Highway 8, you get really close to the Mexican border. Like, you can see the "wall". And there are checkpoints along the way, too, although if you look Caucasian they probably won't even ask you anything and just wish you a nice day. It's still quite stressful, though. Anyway, we wanted to go see the Organ Pipe Cactus in the beginning, but since it was a 3-hour detour to see a(nother) cactus, we didn't. Must be nice if you're in the area, though. Here's a few pictures we took on the road between California and New Mexico.
So, there wasn't much to see in Tucson, but the Rattlesnake Bridge was a really nice art-meets-function kind of situation! We went through its mouth and out the back, and to our surprise there was a rattling sound as we passed underneath the tail. 🐍 Pretty cool, eh?
In Tucson, the roads are laid out in a grid fashion, so those running east to west are "streets", and north to south are "avenues". Except there's also a few diagonal ones... called "stravenues"! They're abbreviated STRAV and are unique to Tucson, and the picture here shows the first ever stravenue. Quirky!
One activity we were really looking forward to was the Titan Missile Museum. Who wouldn't want to visit a decommissioned nuclear silo, am I right? It's quite cheap, too, and it's all guided. The first things you see as you walk outside with the guide (and before descending 10 meters below the ground) is the massive platform underneath which the silo rests, and a ton of security equipment and alarms. We also got to see some reactors up close!
We were shown how the nuclear missile would have been launched had the Cold War reached the point of no return. Fortunately that didn't happen! The missile is in extremely good condition (thanks to the volunteers who run the place) and we learned a lot about the technicalities of a place like this: blast doors, oxygen supplies, launch codes, fail-safes, cans of emergency drinking water... which you can buy in the gift shop, if you're interested. NOT drinkable anymore.
Finally, when we got to Las Cruces, New Mexico, we checked out the gardens owned by the Chile Pepper Institute of New Mexico State University. 🌶️ There's a guided map at the entrance if you want to go around, and if you're there on weekdays you can check out the visitor centre, too. And since we were in New Mexico, we had to buy a bottle of Hatch Chile Wine! We bought the white (they have red, too) and were strong enough to keep it until we got back home to sip with our family. And to answer your question, it's not spicy, it's velvety and it's really good. 😋
So close to Texas now... Stay tuned, folks! 💜
TL;DR: The road is long between CA and TX, but here's a few spots to stretch your legs: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the Rattlesnake Bridge (Tucson, AZ), the Titan Missile Museum (Green Valley, AZ), and the Chile Pepper Institute (Las Cruces, New Mexico). Also, make sure you swing by Sprouts Farmers Market to grab yourself a bottle (or two) of Hatch Chile Wine. 🍷
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