Day 7

Today's trip was from Roswell, NM to Midland, TX. The road east from Roswell crosses into the Permian Basin. It's easy to tell when this happens because the oil wells start appearing. The Permian basin is the floor of an ancient sea that used to take up most of the middle of the North American continent. The oil that they pump out of the midwest consists of the remains of the sea life that lived in that sea.

Most of the trip was made over flat land. I mean table flat land. It's weird for someone who spent their life in the Northwest. Think about it. Where in the Northwest can you look in all directions and see nothing but the flat line of the horizon. That describes the area for at least 50 miles around Midland.

Midland is one half of a pair of cities. The other is Odessa. The cities are about 9 miles apart. The business of both cities is oil. There are refineries as well as every kind of oil drilling support company (pipe, drilling, fabrication, tanks, pumps, etc.). I can't recommend Midland for its scenery, but there are some interesting things here. First, the oil fields themselves are impressive. They go on for miles, covering more area than many states. There are a couple of very interesting museums. One describes the history of the oil industry. It has many interesting exhibits including a collection of old oil drilling and pumping rigs. The second is a Commemorative (used to be Confederate) Airforce museum. This has a wonderful collection of old aircraft, many in flying condition. There's even a meteor crater outside of town. It was formed by a fragment of the bigger one that formed the meteor crater in Arizona. Apparently it is one of several that are strung out between here and the Arizona crater.

This is the first time in the three 10,000+ mile trips that we have taken that we've called up a campground and they've been full. The second campground (the one we are in) only had a few openings. Why would this be in the late fall in the middle of nowhere you ask. The answer is oil. Both campgrounds are filled up with the trailers of oil field workers. At $80/barrel the oil business is booming. There ain't no recession in Midland/Odessa.

So why are we here? Because there's a gun club here of course. When we were here last year we couldn't shoot the course because they were setting up for a tournament. They are having a tournament this year also. However, we will be there on a Friday instead of a Saturday so we can shoot the course before they reset it. This is the last practice we will get before Nationals.

Best of all, I'm turning off the alarm clock. Tomorrow is a sleep in, leisurely breakfast, day.