Scenes from a TX-NM road trip

Folks that work with the husband had complained about flight delays and cancellations as they've vacationed throughout the summer. So when we woke up at 4 am to get to the airport for our crack of dawn departure a week ago, it wasn't a total shock to receive an email from the airline that our flights to Idaho were cancelled. Since that change made us miss our connection, the airline rebooked the whole trip and didn't have us arriving until the following day. 

We wrestled with losing some cash on the house rental in Coeur d'Alene, but we were leery of them changing the rebooked flight yet again. Then there was the possibility that we'd have trouble getting home to Texas. And so we took a credit on the flights and part of the house rental. Thankfully, I cancelled our car and boat rentals with no penalties. Then we were like huh, what are our alternatives since the husband was already off for a week. I had zero interest in sitting around staring at each other, or doing any house/yard maintenance. Since we've been contemplating the purchase of a retirement property in the mountains of New Mexico or Colorado to spend our summers in cooler climes, we decided to road trip it up there to check out options for a few days.

The drive through the Texas hill country was pretty. Then we hit the flat and not-so-attractive part of Texas that's mainly farms or ranches. I had never traveled this exact route before, and so I enjoyed the new scenery.

We recognized cotton plants, but weren't sure what the grains were. We were surprised to spy a vineyard. Then there were the usual things you expect in small towns, like grain storage and water towers.

As we crossed the Texas plains, we saw signs of the energy industry in the form of pump jacks and wind turbines. 

As we drove by a lone line of electricity poles along the highway, I noticed that every fifth pole or so had a shorter cross bar many feet below the main lines that birds were using to hold their nests. In the first pic I assume that's the mother bird perched atop the pole, watching over her nest. In the bottom pic, it seems some bird got a bit confused and built her nest on top of the power lines, which could literally be quite shocking.