The adventures continue...

Heading through West Texas, the daring 5 set off after a delicious dinner in El Paso.
Pedal to the metal, teeth glarin', tunes blarin' and all of us preparin'...for the journey ahead.

When three lanes became 2...
2 became 1...
funneled into a single and organized line.
Closer and closer to a brightly lit complex.
Men in uniform, dogs, guns, and us.

Man in uniform-
"where you coming from?"
Noah-
"umm... Scottsdale."
man-
"just the two of you?"
Noah-
"umm... no, 5 of us"
man-
"where you headin?"
Noah-
"umm... San Antonio"
Man-
"ok, you've been flagged by the dog, could you just pull over to the right up here"
Noah
"umm... sure"


We pulled over, we're told to turn off the car, take the keys out of the ignition and exit the vehicle.
We did as we were ordered.
"We are going to search the car... keep your hands out of your pockets and follow me this way"
We were all lined up. I, (Smith) feared a firing squad, but instead I starting asking really pertinent and topical questions... like.. for instance...

"Is it normally this cold at night in New Mexico?"
or...
"Do you ever get Cyotes comin' up and startin trouble with the dogs?"
or...
"Are you just a check point or do you have a truck weigh station too?" (got em with that one... they felt inadequate... we all sensed it)

The tension grew as the search continued...

...and continued...
We began to fear that something had perhaps been planted on us that we had no idea was illegal. Like a foreign fruit, or a perhaps a rare orchid that is actually used for recreational drug use.

At this point... who knew.

Then the leader of the men of men looked at us and said...

"If you could follow us this way..."

Of course we complied.

We were led into a warm building and patted down (except for Heather, who was very politely asked to empty her pockets...)
James, Noah, Joey and myself felt a lot closer to the uniformed men after that.
A lot closer.

Then we were just asked to sit on a bench and wait while they went through our van looking for aforementioned orchids.

After what seemed like an hour, we were released. Perhaps with a small security checkpoint fan base.

Don't worry about it...

until next time,
~JHJ