As we journey West, we pass through Fort Stockton in Texas where I spent very many happy days during my working career. Tumbleweed blows across the roads, scraggy-looking sheep raise their heads above the sage brush and Roadrunners make a fleeting appearance.

The scenery in this part of the State is stunningly beautiful. Magnificent mesas line the horizon conjuring up images of old western films starring Clint Eastwood sitting on his horse surveying the landscape, a cigarillo protruding from the corner of his mouth!

The road from Fort Stockton to El Paso in Texas is a known drug-smuggling route;  from El Paso to Tombstone in Arizona it is used for both drug and people smuggling. There are regular border patrol unit stops where truck drivers have their vehicles inspected, and border patrol cars sit on the roadside ready to stop any vehicle which they think is suspicious.

After Fort Stockton, our route to Arizona closely follows the border with Mexico. Across the Rio Grande river from El Paso lies the city of Ciudad Juarez, notorious for violence between rival drug cartels. Today, the murder rate in “Juarez” as it is known locally, is way down from its peak of 8-10 per day. Now, it is fewer than 10 per week with armed robbery and aggravated assault popular gang activities!

Needless to say, we don’t stop but just keep driving, doors locked and Poppy-dog keeping guard, when she’s awake! We do pass through one border patrol stop but they wave us through!

Wind turbine blades loaded onto a train between Fort Stockton and El Paso. 

A border patrol stop just outside Tombstone, Arizona.