Episode 16:  White Sands to Home

   We left White Sands about 1:00 and after a quick stop to retrieve our bag of goodies from the hotel, we headed on to El Paso.  We had intended through the whole trip to make an excursion into Mexico.  With our time constraints, it ended up being a two hour walk into Juarez, just across the border from El Paso.  It was amazing to see the difference in living standard in the two cities.  El Paso itself was pretty rundown, but Juarez was obviously much more impoverished.  Even in just two hours, Mexico was a very unique experience.  We'd love to have a lot more time to drive around the country.
     We had time to cruise through some tourist shops and to experience Mexican sales techniques.  We found out that a "Mexican minute" lasts about 15.  If we had been in the market for Viagra we could have taken a couple thousand tablets home with us for a decent price, as well as penicillin and numerous other drugs.  We could have also gotten a dental exam for $10.  We decided to pass on these opportunities, however, and spent the time examing the bargains in a liquor store.  Missy was completely titillated to find a giant bottle of Kahlua for $8 (complete with Aztec god-shaped bottle). 
    With all our major stops taken care of, we left El Paso for the long drive home.  After the backpack incident in the morning, more minor calamities occured throughout the day that made us feel that our good luck was running out and it was indeed time to get back to Ohio.  First, we got pulled over by the Texas State Highway Patrol because one of our headlights was out.  Then we pulled over at a rest stop to make dinner.  We had a giant can of ravioli (from Aldi, no less)  that was supposed to be one of our camping meals, so we decided to cook it up on our camping stove.  The stove wouldn't light and we exhausted all of our propane trying to figure it out.  Unfortunately, we had already opened the can, and being the frugal-minded and non-wasteful travelers that we are, we decided to eat it anyway.  This then provided the answer to the question "Is there any food worse than Jack in the Box tacos?". 

  We broke the long drive up with occasional stops.  A rest stop near Texarkana to clean out the cooler, a not-so-pleasant task.  Somewhere in Arkansas for dinner at Western Sizzlin' and to buy a headlight and a wiper blade (note: for some reason, they don't sell winter blades in Arkansas).  And then every fifteen minutes or so to view the lunar eclipse.

   One other stop was Hope, Arkansas.  It was right off the interstate, so we figured we had to do it!  We stopped at the visitor's center and then drove around town a little bit.  Hope gets the award for friendliest people on the trip.  Their little library also had some pretty good computers (donated by Bill Gates - this town has connections). 

Where Clinton lived after he was born, with his grandparents.

Where he lived after that, with his mother.

Hometown hero's picture proudly displayed above the men's bathroom at the Hope library.