This will be the most ambitious trip we’ve attempted to make with Jutta. Back on our year 2000 cross-country journey that we embarked on following Jutta’s last visit, where we took her to Yellowstone, among other places, Caroline and I headed out for nearly a month as we drove to Maine and down to Louisiana before heading home. We wanted to share with her that spectacle of seeing the breadth of America while not duplicating the same path we took previously, so this one will focus on the southern United States.

Prior to our departure today, yesterday, the jet lag bogged my mother-in-law down with some long naps. In between, we packed and repacked her bag for what she’d need for the 12 days we were scheduled to be out. Hopefully well rested today; she and I locked our place at 3:00 and went to pick up her daughter.

Heavy traffic out of Phoenix doesn’t see us making great time. It’s after 5:00 p.m. by the time we reach Picacho Peak and 6:30 when we pull into Benson, Arizona, for our first pit stop. I have to admit I don’t know how these two women have such great bladder control. At 7:45, we are crossing into New Mexico and are now traveling with the plan that as we get to the point where we’re too tired to go on, we’ll grab a motel. On this first day, our goal was to get as far away from Phoenix as possible, and we did great pulling into the Fabens Inn in Fabens, Texas, just before midnight. We are 462 miles down the road.