Its Friday and the last day of the week for work. One thing about this role is that my meetings start very early, this morning at 6.30 to catch the UK guys halfway through their day. But this means that all my meetings are crammed between then and around 10:00. Well today it was 10:45 so I didnt set off for the site until then and arrive until 11:30. By 14:00 I had to go for lunch as it seems the team do that on a Friday. Which meant it was just gone 15:00 when I got back. With the UK well gone home and the US guys starting to drift off, at about 16:45 we decided it was time to hit the road.
Once we arrived back at the hotel I said goodnight to my US colleague and I went to get changed before heading to my car and having a trip out.
I had been looking at some of the towns around Hobbs and found that Lovington and Denver City were about 30 miles away. I left the hotel and first found a massive shop called Hobby Lodge and decided to have a look in. It was quite interesting but nothing that took my fancy so it was back on the road and I set the sat nav for Lovington. Once outside of Hobbs it was pretty much business as usual with the view being scrub and not much else. The road was pretty empty and a pleasure to travel along.
One thing I've noticed in the few days i have been here is that the Americans do work long hours, the morning rush seems to start quite early and the roads get busy well after six.
Lovington was pretty similar to Hobbs with one main street, with just the normal array of diners, fast food shops and an odd specialty shop here and there. I was going to try and take a video but I kept going and thought I would see what was the other side of the town. However after about another ten minutes I was back out in the scrub. I then set the sat nav to Denver City and followed the instructions. This was about fifty miles from Lovington and the roads were clear and a pleasure to drive through the countryside. As I approached Denver City I left New Mexico and entered Texas for the second time in two days. This time I noticed something quite amazing, the land on the New Mexico side was scrub but within feet of the Texas side it was farm land. Crops were being grown on both sides of the road, Also cattle was roaming in fields that weren't arable. Denver City eventually arrived and the main street was just the same as Hobbs and Lovington, fast food outlets, a few diners and the odd specialty shop. Each high street looked the same, cars driving between the shops but not one person walking around the high street. The towns seem completely geared up for cars, with masses of car park spaces but very few pavements even between the closest of shops. As I hadn't taken any video I decided to take a clip from the end of the main street of Denver City.
Time was pressing on so I departed Denver City and started my journey back to Hobbs, as I travelled the Sun started to go down and I was treated to a really nice sun set which I tried to capture and hope I have got it on film showing it as nice as it was in real life. I drove to the edge of Hobbs and it was almost dark so pulled off the road and waited to see if the stars would come out and give a good show, the night was clear so I was hoping. But as the last of the light disappeared the clouds made their appearance and any good viewing was gone. In the distance whilst I was sat there I could see a mass of smoke and as I took a video of this I could see flames raising quite high into the sky.
So I headed back to the state of Enchantment (New Mexico's motto, honestly) and the City of Hobbs. It seems if they have more than a couple of thousand inhabitants then you are a city, goodness knows what the size of a village is on that basis. But as I got into Hobbs I could not see where the smoke was and I headed back to my restbyte.
I returned to the hotel by 21:30 and I have started to settle down for my first weekend in the country and my journey tomorrow. I have agreed to meet my US Colleague at 10:00 and we are to set off to Roswell for a day of Alien sightseeing. There are a few more little bits and pieces I would like to see but I will keep those to myself until I get back.
The videos that I took today are below if you are interested.
1. The first is a shaky view of the Denver high street
http://youtu.be/dnX60k7GVyU
2. The second is the view of the sunset over Texas
http://youtu.be/yJCXyduDmwk
3. A couple of locals from the layby I pulled into to wait for night to fall
http://youtu.be/zdAlK8SAQD0
4. The Big Smoke
http://youtu.be/u1Vwzag1SMg
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