spent the night in Las Cruces, NM at the brand new Drury Inn. pretty decent place as far as travel hotels are concerned. as usual, I was up at the crack of dawn. i woke, showered, went to the lobby where I ate breakfast and read the newspaper before returning to the room to wake everybody up. it was 7:30am and daylight was wasting.

Day 2 highlights:

• traveling tunes: more switchfoot, 80’s mix CD and the Eagles
• movies: school of rock, 27 dresses
• we played music trivia. and yours truly totally dominated.
• just before leaving New Mexico we stopped at an old ghost town in Steins, and ironically it was “closed”.
• we stopped at the In-n-Out burger in Tucson for lunch. simple concept and simple menu. the french fries are great.
• after leaving Tucson, we slowly watched the temperature increase from 98 to 111. make no mistake, it’s hot,  but very little humidity actually makes it bearable.
• after arriving in Phoenix, we drove around town to get our bearings. then headed to our vacation house.
• the rental house is more than we could have expected. great area, friendly neighbors, everything was just perfect.  Everybody unpacked, kids hit the pool, Wendy and I hit the grocery store for steaks. life is good.