Audrey has been really interested in US geography lately, which made the drive fun for us when we would drive into different states. We got to be in 7 states on our trip: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. We don’t have a picture of Arizona because we only stood in the corner of Arizona at Four Corners.
Okay, so we were stupid at the New Mexico state line. The first time we went into New Mexico (on the way to Utah) we didn’t see the “Welcome to New Mexico” sign and that left a bitter taste in my mouth, because I was positive New Mexico did not put up a sign. Well, my opinion was encouraged because it seemed that New Mexico has no signs up anywhere. Sorry Suzanne, I just didn’t have the best taste of New Mexico at first. Anyway, back to the state line sign. We were cruising down the road and I barely caught a glimpse of the sign and we pulled over quickly. The sign wasn’t all that big, and it was peppered with bullet holes. The sign didn’t improve my opinion of New Mexico (just kidding – at this point I was happy with New Mexico because of Carlsbad Caverns – blog post to come…). After we snapped the photo and drove off we saw the “real” sign welcoming us into the state. That sign was much larger are more welcoming.
Noone is in the sign at the Texas state line because we had been waiting for Audrey to fall asleep for so long, and after she finally fell asleep there was no chance we were going to open a car door. Jeana pulled the Jeep off the road and snapped the picture through the windshield.
I was surprised at how much I felt at home once we were back in Texas (and we were still hours from home). We had such a fun trip, but it is always nice to be back home.
Most states only have big signs on freeways, not the state highways. Sometimes they’ll have a smaller sign when you come into a state on a highway, but that’s only if your lucky. Leaving New Mexico on I-25 into Colorado, you even get a New Mexico sign that says, “Hasta Luego!” (see you later!) Don’t see many states with see you later signs.
You’re just trying to redeem New Mexico with their “Hasta Luego!” sign. I also thought it might be the case with what you said about signs only being on the interstate freeways.
We wish we could have got together. Tell Audrey Grant is the “Master” at geography. He is often seen carrying an ATLAS