123 miles today from El Paso, TX to Deming, NM. We spent the morning making several stops on base at Ft Bliss. Much of Ft Bliss is like a city. It covers 1.12 million acres and, if you can imagine this, it has over 20,000 archaeological sites within its borders. First we had to find a gate open for visitor screening which took two tries. Then we both filled out information forms and had a short background check before receiving a one day pass. We visited the Ironsides Museum that featured mostly armored vehicles  (lots of tanks) but also some history on the Fort that goes back to the 1830s (6 different locations in the area over the years). El Camino Real, the road from Mexico City to Santa Fe in Spanish times went through here.
Then we stopped to see the General Pershing house that is the base commander's home. Pershing lived in it from 1914 to 1917 when he was base commander during WWI. Alice ' s parents and three older siblings lived in the house during the summer and fall of 1944 when Major Jorgensen was senior radar officer on base.
The traffic was horrible. As we left El Paso, the opposite side of I-10 was backed up over 5 miles. We were so glad to leave.
The area is very dry and barren except the Rio Grande River Valley where pistachio tree farms are numerous. Lots of signs on the interstate warning of what to do if caught by a dust storm. Our room overlooks the train tracks to Tuscon as well as the desert so no complaints here.  Heading west again tomorrow. Lunch at Burger King; dinner at Casa Microwave.