Last stop

I slept late this morning, 7:40 am due to staying up too late watching Lost Episodes.  I was unsuccessful tracking down the short that keeps killing the power locks and seat the night before which meant another day of me doing all the driving.

For the first time in in ages we actually found a local Dunkin Donuts.  There were none to be found at our stops in Idaho, South Dakota, Montana  or Colorado.  It was a nice start.

Today was our last planned sight seeing stop of the trip, a visit to White Sands National Park.  We were there during our 2007 trip west so we knew what to expect.  The main reason we wanted to go was so Sadie could experience the huge, awesome dunes.

We stopped at the first walking area and let the girls off leash.  They immediately headed off, thrilled to be exploring yet another new thing.  They ran around and played.  However unfortunately we cut the walk short.  It was brutally hot, triple digits I’m pretty sure.  All that heat bounces off the pure white sand and back at you, amplifying the effect.  We could tell they were getting very overheated very quickly.

We ushered them back to the air conditioned van and had them both drink up.  We decided walking hem around in the oppressive heat would be downright dangerous so we decided to drive back to the big dunes towards the back of the park and just let them climb up there with us quick.

Both dogs did much better at getting up the dune than I did.  They beat me easily.  They both looked like they were having so much fun.  Watching them rocket down the dune was even funnier.  They went full speed down the dunes.  On the one trip down Nicki was moving faster than her legs would carry her and she dumped it at the bottom.

Ali did a nice job taking some great pictures including what is probably my last L-sit of the trip on one of the park picnic benches.  Before we left I had the bright idea to have Ali take a picture of me jumping off the dune.  She got me just as I took off and when I was farther down the hill.  Luckily she missed the barrel roll that happened in between.  My sneakers and socks were filled with sand.

After the park we had a relatively short 2 hour drive to El Paso, our stopping point for the night.  El Paso it right on the Mexican border.  The town is big but again just appears to the casual passer thru as yet another over populated urban mess.

For some reason I find myself being surprised that almost every single hotel we have stayed at winds up being packed.  It seems that there are so many hotels by the interstates that there is no way they could all be so full, yet at least in our case, the La Quintas are always full by night time.

This evening I took another whack at fixing the flaky locks and seat circuit.  I ripped the door panel off and moved the harness around.  I basically shifted the section that comes through the door around.  I had no way of visually spotting exactly what was causing the short. 

Well as of now it is all working.  My adjustment survived the door slam test, a test my previous repairs failed.  As soon as I closed the door with any force it would pop the circuit.  So I am hoping this latest attempt proves to be effective.  It would be nice to have Ali be able to share the driving duties for the long haul home.

When planning the trip, Ali broke the trip into smaller chunks to make the days not so long.  Now that the sights have been seen I am going to be really motivated to cover huge miles to get us home sooner rather than later.  The key to making the days not seem so long is to get started early.  I am hoping to be on the road by 8am and off by around 6pm so we have some time at night to decompress.  We’ll see how it all works out.  We all know how much I love the drive across Texas.