I consider myself more of a spontaneous person than a planner in most areas of my life. But for some reason, I love to plan my travels. I can spend hours on end researching restaurants and places to visit in an intended city and come up with the most detailed itinerary you can imagine. And most times, that works so well and helps me see as much as possible in one trip. But there are some travel experiences that just don't lend themselves to that kind of planning. My trip(s) to West Texas last summer was one of them.
The story behind this trip out west is that I never intended to take it, and I certainly didn't intend to take it twice in one year. In February, I helped my mom drive to El Paso because we had a family emergency that required travel to our hometown for a day. I went along to help with the driving (12 hours is no joke of a distance, and yet, we've taken this road trip many times). Once everything was settled, my mom and I spent part of the day in Juarez, Mexico while we were there, and then rested overnight in El Paso before heading back to Houston.
But, life had other plans. While on the road, my car suddenly decided to stop working. We were able to pull into a rest stop just in time, thankfully, however, we ended up spending several days in a frustrating back and forth with the auto shop, and then the dealership, until it was determined that a part had failed and we had to wait months for the dealer to receive it. So, back to Houston we went. In June we returned to West Texas and found a way to make the most out of our obligatory road trip, which I will share in a later post. But while I was in El Paso/Juarez, I did manage to take some photos and wanted to share the beauty of West Texas and Mexico with you. And the lesson that just because life decides to throw inconveniences your way, doesn't mean you can't make the most of them.
The rest stops in West Texas must have been designed as photo-ops, because they were all beautiful.
Driving into Mexico. Make sure to have your passport if you'd like to visit (I managed to get by with only my driver's license, but that may not always work).
If you look closely, you can see the street performer literally playing with fire.
We ate at a delicious meal at a restaurant in Juarez called Sanborns. It's a department store with a restaurant, which was convenient because we were able to get a couple souvenirs there too. Funny thing is, the food was very cheap (about $6 for a whole plate), but the stuff is a little pricey.
This is where my car got stranded... at a rest stop on the way to New Mexico. Probably not the worst place for it to happen, since I wasn't too far from El Paso, and I at least got to take some great photos while waiting for the tow truck.
How to make the most of being stranded in West Texas: visit a shopping mall with a perfect view of the Franklin, Mountains while you wait for car repairs.
We went to Sunland Park mall, which is so nostalgic for me because I remember these horse statues from when I was a kid (I grew up in El Paso). The mall wasn't quite as extraordinary as my kid brain remembered it. But I did manage to get a few very cheap tops while there, so I'm glad we visited.
This was definitely the strangest, most unplanned trip I'd ever taken anywhere. I wouldn't say I'm glad my car broke down on the other end of the state, but I am grateful that we found a way to get the most of it. When we went back to get my car in June, I got to see even more incredible places, which I will share in a later post. :)