Today I drove from Terlingua, TX to Carlsbad, NM.  The whole trip was through desert.  Carlsbad is still in high desert.
The first part of the trip was through almost featureless landscape, even looking out when cresting a rise or overpass there was nothing to see but brush for miles and miles.  Then I began to get into industrial desert.  There would be places with a couple of tanks and a tall pipe and a torch at the top of the pipe.  Sometimes there were five or six in sight, well separated.  Then I began to see signs about pipeline construction.  Then the truck traffic got very heavy.  Huge tankers and oversized loads.  The town of Pecos TX seems to be at the center of the activity.  Stopped for gas at a convenience store with restaurant and the place was full of construction workers.  Then the traffic got very heavy, with business sites every mile or two.  There was trash all along the sides of the road.  The road was in bad shape from all the heavy traffic.  Not a nice trip at all.

Fifteen miles from Carlsbad I began to see snow!  And, it was fifty degrees.  Here in Carlsbad you see dirty piles where they plowed.  I guess they got a good amount.

Not at all sure where I'm going from here.