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Well, those dunes are quite a unique bit of topography. We'd go back there again for sure. Our next destination is Santa Fe NM. We passed through Taos with out a peak at the town. The drive into the area was too depressing. Long long road in with lots of poverty and business buildings that looked like they were out of business or doing very poorly. We shot on by and off to down-town Santa Fe. Steph sort of got into the down town thing but I was a bit shocked by the dense tourism factor. I knew it was like that downtown but coming from the open spaces we've been camping in for the past weeks and slamming into that sceen... it was too much. I wanted to run and run fast and far. I don't want things on this trip, I want something different, and Santa Fe downtown though unique and put together nicely was too full of people too much like anyother tourist town. Give me the town alone and I might stay for a moment. I can't find any photos of the city at the moment, but everyone knows what Santa Fe looks like. Gone and off parts unknown.

From Santa Fe we drove many miles to our next stop. New Mexico seemed to drag a bit and the eastern side of Texas was a bit dull also. But we did find another fantastic spot called Caprock Canyons just outside of a Quitaque Texas. One of many small towns we saw on the back roads of this part of the country that was almost deserted. We took secondary roads for 90% of this trip so we saw alot of small towns. Looks like small town america is gone in this part of the country. In another 10 years these towns will look like ghost towns. Small, maybe a quarter mile of simple buildings madeup each town but easily 90% closed up and crumbling, making for some really cool photos but depressing to think everyone is gone and that Mayberry does not exist in Texas along this route. We discovered a drive-in theater sitting where a corn field once exisited between two of these dieing towns. Thought it must be what was left of an old drive-in, but no, Toy Story 3 was playing Friday Saturday and Sunday night, we were in. Time came to head out for our big night out but a bad storm cloud had been kind of floating towards us then away from us then we couldn't tell what it was doing. Looked a little ominous but we forged out to the drive-in with our very airy Jeep Wrangler. No door windows in the Jeep, no back window and no back side windows, it was going to be a wonderfully warm night for an ourdoors movie. Driving there the sky looked a bit ominous, but what were the odds it would come back our way again. But by the time we paid our nine bucks and parked in the dirt, the storm was the coming attraction. Right behind the drive-in projection wall was the show that looked like a scene from the wizard of ozz. The whipped up winds were blowing the light rain through the open air jeep now and we were getting slightly wet. Nothing to worry about...it was a very warm night. And then it began. No not Toy Story 3, the sky, it opened up. Lighting all around, and wild winds now, holly cow the winds. Then a snap right over over our heads and the theater was in total darkness. Lightning zapped something somewhere and we took that as a sign to hightail it back to camp. This storm cell was no longer heading away. We couldn't stay there and we didn't know if we could make it all the way to camp. We had to drive straight into the most intense lightning I can remember to get back. Getting soaked in a driving rain now, tough to even seen the road surface. The winds way up and blowing the rain and our jeep sidways. The sky black and only a flash of lightning to outline anything that looked like it could develope into a funnel cloud. I'm serious, I've watched enough of those tornado chaser shows to know this had potential. Pitch black, driving rain, and wind that wanted to send this little jeep off the road. I told Stephanne to keep her eyes towards an area in the sky that looked like it was dropping and I'd watch the road. We had to get to town and get under some shelter, we were not going to go back to camp in this, it was another three miles and the lightning flashes were at most 3 seconds apart now. We found an old gas station where the pumps had been removed but it had an over hang still intact. We snugged the jeep up against the building and under it. We were there for over an hour waiting for a break in the lightning, the rain we could deal with we were soaked already. Lightning slowed a bit once and we took off fast through town and a hard right towards the campground. A quarter mile in, a hugh flash right in our path, maybe 300 yards away. Abort abort abort and as fast as we could back to our gas station. Finally after another half hour of intense strom we made another dash for camp and succeed to get back to the RV. All the kids seemed fine and no damage...what an evening out.