Day Three
Abilene, Texas

Keep it light!

This is the consensus of the legions of readers I have attracted these last three days. The message is clear.  “Dark is bad. The networks are scary. You need to entertain us.”

I’ll try. 

First there is a road sign north of El Paso that reads:

“Prison. Do not pick up hitchhikers.”

Really! We were hoping to ask a few felons to join us on our journey.

Yesterday it was “Fresh Jerky.” Today it was “Green Chile Jerky.” 

We are in Jerky Country. Yum!

The day began in Las Cruces with an hour of outdoor tennis on the abandoned campus of New Mexico State University. We met an adjunct professor there and in a socially-distance-appropriate conversation learned that he missed sports most. The Aggies men’s basketball team was undefeated (16-0) in its conference and was surely headed to March Madness. He drove to Vegas for the conference tournament only to find when he got there the season was over. “Sports are big here,” he said, “This was our shot, a mid major set to go deep. Now what, there is nothing on ESPN.”

I too wonder what ESPN is broadcasting. Curling reruns from Calgary? I’d watch!

The BBC reported tonight that Britain was considering mandating that everyone 70 or older self  quarantine. 

Hey that is me! Do not do this. I have to get home.

No risk of that here. President Trump, Senator Sanders and Senator Biden are 70 plus. I’ll quarantine myself when they do it. For the record, I will self quarantine when I get home.

Kudos to Texas! There are signs all along I-10 and I-20 telling travelers to embrace social distancing and wash their hands.

We waved at Mexico as we blew by El Paso. We were delayed at a Border Patrol check point 50 miles north of there but were waved on through. 

I managed to go 500 miles today from Marriott to Marriott without ever going inside a building. Social distancing from all others except my wife is easy in a Nissan Sentra!

Tomorrow we hope to get deep into Mississippi. We will reach a serious decision point mid day. Turn north to Boston and ultimately home or head to family in North Carolina! There are pressing reasons to go NC. 

More tomorrow!

Be safe!

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