Day 6, Part 1: Thursday, April 27th, 2006
El Paso, Texas to Tucson, Arizona

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In El Paso, I meet up with Ana, her husband Adam, and their six-month old baby son, Diego. After grabbing some chow, we take a driving tour of El Paso at the end of the day. Among other things, I see the Sun Bowl, a gang of men riding around on horses on the Mexican side of the border, and a rosy, desert sunset. Having forgotten my camera, I get no pictures of any of these things.

The next morning, I visit Ana at her office on the UTEP campus and bring my camera with me. Ana works in the psych building, which is just to the left of the big tower in this picture.

Ana wanted to show me how her cool eye-tracking apparatus worked, but, unfortunately, the computer with the eye-tracking software on it didn't feel like co-operating that day. It just made a lot of funny grinding noises.

Ana spent the rest of the morning talking to tech support, trying to figure out what was wrong. I took advantage of the situation to get a blurry picture of her talking on the phone.

Before long, I'm back out on the open road, driving west through New Mexico on my way to Tucson. I have spontaneously decided to forego the freeway in favor of an infrequently traveled county road that runs along the Mexico border. I figure that this route will give me my best chance to get into the "Boot Heel" of New Mexico--my temporary, unplanned destination for the day.

The wind begins to blow fiercely as the desert morning heats up, making the sagebrush wave wildly on either side of the road. It buffets my car from side to side, forcing me to grab hold of the wheel with both hands to stay on course.

I'm out in the middle of nowhere--no towns, no ranches, no nothing--but, every once in awhile, I pass by mysterious cairns of stones on the roadside. I also occasionally see Border Patrol jeeps, either driving in the opposite direction or hiding in the bushes beside the highway. Their presence makes me wonder if the cairns are there to guide illegal immigrants on their journeys across the border--or if they're there to mark the places where those who tried to make it across have died. Whatever their purpose, their unexplained presence in such a silent and desolate place seems uncanny and weird.


The wind continues to blow madly, and dust devils begin to appear in the distance.

Anyone who can make it through this wilderness on their own is tough enough to be granted American citizenship, as far as I'm concerned.

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