Dec. 30th: Arrived in Rio Rico, AZ
Our visit to the "nest" was short, but sweet. The "Birds" are excellent hosts, offering yummy food and comfy accommodations. This was the perfect place to ring in the new year.
Dec. 31st: In the afternoon, we toured Nogales, but only peeked across the border into Mexico. We were content to stay on the US side of the line. :-) 
Robin took us to one of her favorite stores, a few feet from the border crossing. Liesey found some great deals. Not bad for a gal who doesn't really like to shop!
After an incredible dinner of prime rib, we watched Napoleon Dynamite. (Uncle Rio Rico?) What a silly movie! No matter how many times that movie is watched, there is always something different that stands out. Miraculously, we stayed awake until midnight. After saying, "Happy New Year!" we collapsed in bed. Ahhhh!
The view from the nest is gorgeous!
Jan. 1st: We said our "thank yous and goodbyes" to UJ and RJ, loaded the car and got on the road to Midland, Texas, sometime after noon. This proved to be a very long drive, with lots of w-i-d-e open spaces. It was probably a good thing that the bulk of our driving was done in the dark, as I am sure there wasn't much to see.
We did enjoy seeing this welcoming sign:
Really?
I just had to take this photo. I believe we saw this exit somewhere near Abilene, Texas. What is a Noodle Dome anyway?
Before we went to our temporary digs, we had to go by "our" piece of dirt. Nothing has been done on our homesite -- yet! We stopped by the model home to say hi, and learned that work will begin soon. When progress is made, I'll be posting photos. ;-)
This is the entrance to our 'hood.
Home sweet home? Not yet, but we hope that it'll soon feel homey.
X marks the spot where our home will be built.
(Click on the photo to enlarge.)
When all of the homes in our development are built, there will be 7 houses on our cul-de-sac. Ours will be the 4th home built on "our" court. As we were looking at our property, we met one of our neighbors. After we chatted for a while, we discovered that he and I graduated from PU the same year. And we even know some of the same people from our college days. ;-) There is yet another neighbor who is also a Purdue grad, so we will be in good company. Go Boilers!
