MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL

  
After six days in Las Vegas, we were happy to receive an assignment Monday morning. We didn't have to go far, just up the road to UNLV. The information on the assignment stated we were to pick up mirrors. Now that was a first for us, and upon arriving at the University we found out these weren't your mother's mirrors.
  
We were surprised by how large these mirrors were. We also found out that they are solar mirrors. What caused us to stop and ponder was just how were we going to tarp these things? Thank goodness, Rick, the employee at UNLV stuck around with his forklift. He was a huge help in lifting Craig and the 80 pound tarp up twelve and a half feet to drape the mirrors. Let me just say this, it wasn't a pretty stie after we were done tarping, but it got the job done.
  
Off we headed toward Socorro, New Mexico. Leaving Las Vegas, all trucks are detoured around Hoover Dam onto SB Highway 95. Upon reaching the turnoff, we noticed that traffic was backed up and could see flashing emergency lights. We finally inched our way up to the officer and were informed that the highway was shut down due to a dust storm. He had no idea when it might open back up and told us of an alternate route. Only problem was that the alternate route would take us about 150 miles out of our way. We decided to turn around and park out at a small casino about 2 miles away. After about an hour, and no longer hearing truckers ranting and complaining about the road closure on the CB, we tried our luck again. Thankfully, we could see traffic going southbound and no roadblocks. You can tell a bit from the photo that the dust was still in the air.
  
After a night spent in Holbrook, Arizonia, just before the New Mexico border, we arrived at our destination, The New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology. We found out that the consignee was a student at the college who was doing a junior project with a federal grant.
  
I kind of dazed over as he explained his project to me using very technical terms, but nodded and said the appropriate "wows" when needed. Funny thing was he only needed one of these mirrors for his project, but UNLV told him they would give one to him, but he had to take all of them off their hands. With the mirrors unloaded and sitting next this his project, we left one very happy tech student to find a way to save the world.
  With the sun setting over the desert, we knew there was only one place we were headed, yes, back to Pharr, Texas. Wish us luck that the wait will not be too long before, (are you ready?), we head back to California once again to beautiful Bakersfield!