Last Leg - El Paso to LA

Here is the last drawing in my sketchbook -

looking West on Interstate 10, 45 miles east of El Paso.

Flipping through the pages, I find notations about sketches and paintings I meant to do for the new friends met along the way, but of course I was 22 and once home, life got in the way of good intentions.
I had spent the night at Sul Ross State in Alpine, Texas. A quiet restful evening, everyone was immersed in studying for finals and finishing up term papers. I remember camping out in the TV room to keep out of their way. I was on my way to pick up little sister Nancy (15 years old then) who arranged to ride along on the tail end of the trip. She arrived right on time, air travel being a snap in those days. We parked and walked around for a bit - I think we may have crossed the border to Juarez, but maybe not. I was now in ‘big sister mode’ and watching out for more than just me. Suddenly I had RESPONSIBILITIES once more and because of that, the trip was basically over. We stayed at a little motel in Denton, Texas and awoke the next morning to a dusting of snow – Nancy had never seen snow in the desert, so that was a treat for her. Travelling on through Las Cruces we made a bee line for Tombstone, which I knew she’d like as much as I had. As luck would have it we encountered authentic looking cowboys strolling the streets and realized that they were filming that day – double plus! From there we headed up towards Phoenix where we planned to eat steak dinners at the famous Pinnacle Pete’s restaurant that my Mom had recommended. It was a huge place decorated with neckties hanging from the rafters – refusing to have his supper club be a 'fancy eatin’ place', the owner insisted on cutting off the tie of anyone hoity-toity enough to dress up for dinner at his establishment. My Mom had taken my young cousin there dressed in his Sunday best, wide eyed he held back his tears and struggled to keep his cool as they snipped off his only tie. We stuffed ourselves and returned to our dingy motel – our budgetary trade-off for good eatin’ - but it did have COLOR TV – the only requirement Nancy insisted on.
The final leg back to LA was uneventful, the desert whizzed past us as we listened to a new comedy act Cheech and Chong doing their Santa Claus routine on the car radio. Home and Christmas glowed in the distance. About the only other thing my sister recalls from that trip was the Budman stickers I had put on my car in Louisiana – I didn’t much like the beer, but loved the stickers.