Alumni Road Trip in El Paso

I started the day in Sonora, TX with a quick breakfast, a three-mile run and and a few exercises that I can do in a hotel room. I finished some work on the computer, packed up and started the long haul out to El Paso...and it was LONG.

Having never driven out this way, I assumed that the terrain would be flat and pretty boring. There were a fair amount of mountains and other geographical features that were nice to peek at while driving. The 80 mph speed limit helped keep things moving along, but it didn't really allow for sightseeing. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of traffic, which I'm sure is pretty normal.

I made it to El Paso in about 5.5 hours. I was happy to know that I got an extra hour of downtime because of the time change to unwind and stretch out a bit. Of course, I'm not happy that I am losing the hour on my way out of town as my next stretch of driving is just as long.

I hopped in my car and headed out to BJ's Restaurant and Brewery. I had a slight delay in my arrival because I accidentally plugged in the wrong address into my GPS and didn't realize it until I ended up in a residnetial neighborhood. Whoops!

We had about 15 guys made up of 4 alumni with the remaining number combrised of the collegiate members at the Nu Lambda Chapter at UTEP. They were a great bunch of guys; very welcoming and excited to have some come out here. Even though they are one of two dozen chapters in Texas, they don't get the same amount of attention that everyone else does. As I have said many times before, they are in the middle of nowhere. The closest chapter is seven hours away.

We had a great time and did some joking around in the parking lot after dinner. It is still amazingly cool out here with an overnight low of 34 degrees. It was cool looking to the south of El Paso and being bale to overlook the city of Juárez in Mexico. If you didn't know any better, you would think it was a southern extension of El Paso.

I won't have a chance to check out the border gate or do any gernal sightseeing. My short time here was enjoyable and I know the guys were appreciative of my trip out here.

NEXT STOP: LUBBOCK