I have some catching-up to do (I've been gardening and cooking for several days). I know about Amos relocating - and hope he will come through Fort Worth on his way across the country. I've done the drive to Tuscon many times recently with my son, and I lived in Arizona years earlier - those freeways that go from San Diego through southern Arizona (Gila Bend was a good place to get gas on my way to Organ Pipe Cactus Natl Mon) goes directly into Tucson.

From Tucson, head east on 10 (be sure to stop and enjoy the rest stop at Texas Canyon!) and I hear there is good Italian food in Willcox. (That recommendation is a few years old). Careful in New Mexico, they write speeding tickets (ask me how I know . . . ). Gas is expensive in Lordsburg, cheaper in Deming. You can get an excellent lunch or dinner at La Posta La Mesilla, just south of Las Cruces (a lovely and very old Mexican community that was in place when New Mexico was still part of Mexico). La Posta is adjacent to a parking lot for local customers. Give yourself a little time to walk around and enjoy the shops and the square.

If you have to stop for the night, do it before or in El Paso. Don't sleep in a rest area between El Paso and Sierra Blanca, and be sure you don't have anything that sniffer dogs will spot when you go through the Border Patrol highway stop at Sierra Blanca. That stop has figured in arrests of many musicians of greater fame than Mudcat's Amos. :) Willy comes to mind . . .

Van Horn is an interesting little town, there are old tunnels between buildings (from the Depression era) but I've never found a tour of them. Chuy's is a local place with kind of odd Mexican food; if you stay on I-10 instead of the business route there is a Wendy's at the Pilot Travel Center Truck Stop that usually has pretty good gas prices.

You have to take the I-20 side of the split as you head east, and give yourself a little time to drive north of the highway in Toyah. There is a very old High School and other interesting houses in the town. Monahans Sand Hills is another good stop - there are lots of sand dunes around the area, but the State Park has the best examples of the white sand dunes.

Lots of interesting little towns as you move east; look for the Allsup gas stations, or Alon, they seem to have good prices and a variety of foods, etc. Thurber is an area with a tall brick smokestack, a center of coal country in Texas. There's a DQ in Ranger, and then the next stop east should be in my driveway in Fort Worth.