Weather in the Rockies was bad so a route west was chosen that went south along the border. This is a view over the wall at Cuidad Jaurez. It looks like a war zone in Mexico. Unfortunately, things are not much better on the USA side. Rural america is changed. Folks buy things at the big box stores like Walmart or order items through Amazon. The downtown merchants go out of business. Nothing is happening socially in the city core anymore so the younger people leave. The town where my mother spent part of her youth is Hamlin Texas. It was 30,000 population in the 1910's and 1920's. Now it has only a few thousand people. This is happening in small towns almost everywhere I went. It was also occurring where I went in Britain and Europe, too. Big cities are growing. Some areas "on the wrong side of the tracks" where we did not go in my youth are now safe and thriving neighborhoods.
Weather got real good after I drove into the Tucson Arizona basin. Sun, low humidity, and no wind. It was really nice there.