Thanksgiving Trip - Day 1

The kids had school today - which was good, since Nicky wasn't ready to go yet. Actually, after our whirlwind travel over the last 72 hours, neither was I... It took some doing, but we actually had the car packed and made it over to the girls' school just as they were about to start a big school assembly - so we were able to beat the usual pick-up rush. Drove over to Carswell so I could pick up some medication - weird visiting the base as a retiree... On the road by 1615L - great to avoid the usual traffic jams on Wednesday! Made good time, even through construction zones, and stopped for gas in Sweetwater. Since we were eating food from the fridge (would have gone bad, otherwise), we didn't need to stop for dinner. It was a good thing, too - driving across the desert in the dark sure is different than the normal trip to Hobbs! Windmill farm looked cool at sunset... I made a few wrong turns (Snyder and La Mesa) but soon got back on track (US-180). Mollie and Nicky started talking about seeing a lot of shooting stars, so I stopped the car and turned off the lights - what a view! Reminded me of the Davis Mountain sky (see JUL 2009)... With the time change, we still drove into Hobbs around 2030L. Got started early with some nice visits (Bonnie, Kevin, Kathy). Kathy helped us get checked into our hotel (Fairfield) around 2200L. Got everyone to bed early to prep for late nights to come!