Rockin' and rollin' on to Texas

Wednesday, September 21, 2005 (Day 5) — We're flirting with hurricanes once again. The big news on TV right now is the advance of Hurricane Rita, which in the past few days blasted through the Florida Keys and is heading due west toward Galveston and Houston at category 5 strength. After the debacle Hurricane Katrina created in New Orleans earlier this month, the emergency management folks are taking this storm pretty seriously. Mandatory evacuations are being issued to folks on the Texas Gulf Coast. While none of this affects us directly because we don't plan to be anywhere near the storm, it has created the unpleasant reality of lodging shortages in points west as Houstonians hightail it out of there. We discovered this when we tried to check in to a hotel in El Paso this afternoon. Not a room to be had. Folks apparently called ahead to reserve their temporary shelter, which is what we should have done before we began this vacation. That's the disadvantage to not having firm plans and playing everything day to day. We were sent next door by the Comfort Suites we attempted to book. That hotel had a couple of rooms, but they were smoking rooms and Roni didn't want to stay in them; we've just been away from smoke-filled rooms for so long now that we have severe allergic reactions when we're suddenly exposed to them. Fortunately, there was another hotel, a Comfort Inn, 2 miles west of where we had originally tried to reserve a room. This place, at Exit 11 on Interstate 10, not only had a room for us, but it was of the non-smoking variety. Hoorah! We happily unloaded our luggage from the car and went to room 108. Roni ran the key through the card lock and opened the door to discover that someone else's stuff was already in the room. Oops. Seems the clerk misread the guest book. We tried again, this time at room 109, and thankfully there was nothing in it but freshly made beds.

So here we are in El Paso, but only for one night. We got wise and called around (or rather Roni called around) this afternoon and booked places in Las Cruces and Alamogordo for the next two nights. No telling what this new hurricane is going to do, and it seems that there are enough travelers out and about that it would simply be a good idea to nail down where we intend to stay so there are no more unwelcome surprises.

Some pleasant surprises, however, are what make road trips like this one fun. We got started a bit late this morning thanks to the time change yesterday. In an unusual twist, I was the first one awake and glanced over at the clock radio on the nightstand to see that it was already 9 o'clock. I roused Roni from slumber and in a minute we were all scrambling to get showers and change clothes so we could make it downstairs in time for the final few minutes of the continental breakfast. I think we set a new record as we were out the door by 9:20. I also think we've got to stop doing these freebie hotel lobby breakfasts because they just keep getting worse the farther east we travel. Down to four types of cereal, biscuits and gravy, tiny pastries, and carafes of cranberry and orange juice. Very sad. But you get what you pay for.

It took us a bit longer than usual to get the car packed because we have accumulated a large garbage bag full of dirty laundry that doesn't fit comfortably with the suitcases and souvenirs. I had to take everything out of the trunk and start again, this time consolidating all the souvenirs into a single huge bag. We were fighting a strong breeze that came from who knows where. Ben was dutifully running bags of garbage to the bin on the other side of the parking lot and the stuff kept blowing away from him. At Tombstone yesterday we found this clever antenna decoration — a rubber cactus dressed up to look like a cowboy with sunglasses — that I took a few minutes to install once all the luggage was packed. Roni wants one for her car, but since I suspect this one will be stolen if I drive with it around the Bay Area once we're home, I'll probably just give it to her... provided it doesn't get stolen or lost on the highway before then. As it is, I had to forgo the cowboy hat because the wind at 70 mph on the freeway would rip it off the antenna.

We started off for our next destination before 10:30. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day, with the temperature pushing toward the low 90s. The breeze felt great, but it didn't follow us as we headed east on I-10. Because we had arrived in Lordsburg after dark last night, stepping out of our hotel room into the daylight gave us quite a shock. This place sure didn't look anything like Arizona with its miles of cactus-filled desert. Southwestern New Mexico is largely green, with things that resemble real trees. There are small yellow flowers lining the freeway, as well as a variety of golden poppy. You can still see cacti, but they are farther apart and there is less variety. The predominant type is the yucca, followed by prickly pear. We passed vast fields of desert scrub brush with occasional old-style windmills working away. Most of this is grazing land for cattle, but we didn't see many cows. What we did suddenly see a lot of were huge yellow billboards advertising a place called the Continental Divide Trading Post that offered every trinket you can think of — T-shirts, Indian jewelry, pottery, snacks... you name it. Most interestingly, they also offer fireworks year round. Roni decided we should check it out. It happened to be the only thing at the freeway exit we took, and we were about the only people stopping by. The place is a souvenir hunter's paradise. Roni found a few gift items for people back home, while I raided the postcard rack. I picked up 37 in one shot — not a record, but coming close. Outside the storefront is an old VW beetle with a skeleton at the wheel and a slogan on the side: "But it's a dry heat." We took several pictures of it. Gotta laugh, but it is exactly what I've been saying the past couple of days, the desert heat is much different than you're used to if you don't live here and you have to be careful about staying out in it for too long.

We continued on to Deming, which while it is a fairly sizeable city by New Mexico standards, did not impress me much. They do have a well-stocked Super Wal-Mart so maybe it's not all bad. We stopped at that store to look for ice and pick up some provisions for a picnic lunch. Ben also remembered that we needed to look for a bathing suit for me. They happened to be on clearance for three bucks each, so I bought those and another pair of shorts for the next few days of the trip. Roni bought some shorts for herself as well. We're going through clothes fast, thanks to the continued high heat.

We were running late again because of all our little side trips. Our scheduled activity du jour was a visit to a place called Rock Hound State Park (or "Rockhound," depending on which road sign you believe.) It is located about 10 miles south of Deming on a remote highway that few folks beside us thought to take on a Wednesday afternoon. The drive really takes you out into the sticks. Roni was thrilled to see a roadrunner sprinting along through one of the fields. I am jealous of her because I was hoping to see one of those. But then I've seen the bald eagle in the wild that she would like to see, so maybe it's only fair. We reached the park about 1 p.m., just in time for lunch. We paid our $5 day use fee and stopped in at the visitor center to chat with the ranger before heading out to the picnic area. We planned this stop with Ben in mind. The beauty of Rock Hound is that visitors are encouraged to hunt for rocks and are allowed to keep up to 15 pounds of whatever they find. Between us that would be 45 pounds of ballast to add to the back of my overburdened car. We ate our lunch of store bought sandwiches while swatting at flies and ducking wasps. Afterward, Ben eagerly set out to find treasures amid the cacti and brush dotting the hillside. It was like watching a kid at an Easter egg hunt. The ranger told us that it is possible to find such prizes as "thunder eggs," which are geode-like nodules that look pretty when cut and polished. There are specimens of quartz and jasper as well, all just waiting to be uncovered. The problem is, there are a lot of common rocks one must sift through to find any gems, and there is no guarantee you'll come up with anything unusual. We didn't. But no problem, because Ben had a blast just looking. He and I hiked up one of the walking trails as he filled his little beach sand pail. I don't think he gathered more than five pounds of rocks. My car is grateful.

The rock hounding done, we continued on through Las Cruces and toward El Paso. I had to pull off the freeway just east of Las Cruces when Ben alerted me to the fact that my little rubber cactus was working its way off my antenna. Foo. I don't think it would have come off because there is a ball at the end of my antenna that was blocking its ascent. But not wanting to take chances I slid the antenna down so that it wouldn't flop around so much in the wind. A short while later we were crossing the state line into Texas. It feels very strange to think that for the first 39 years of my life I had wondered if I'd ever get to visit Texas, and now I've been there twice in less than a year. This side isn't nearly as picturesque as the eastern end. We are staying on the outskirts of El Paso, so until tomorrow we really won't know what the city looks like. But I think I'm already biased against it. One of Roni's friends who visited here before we did described it as "ugly El Paso." I don't know if I'd call it ugly, but our hotel sure isn't anything to write home about. For a Comfort Inn this place seems to have a minimal number of amenities. I'm frustrated that I couldn't get a solid wireless Internet connection when it would have been nice to have given all the hotel hunting Roni needed to do. At least they have washing machines, which Roni was able to use tonight, and a swimming pool. That made Ben very happy. He and I went out and splashed around with his basketball for about an hour before dinner. He says that has been the best part of his vacation so far.

We went out to eat at the Cracker Barrel that is just around the corner from the hotel. The food was good as usual, but once again our eyes were all bigger than our stomachs. We'd hoped to have room for dessert, but no one was in the mood by the time we'd eaten the main course. That is the biggest problem with being on the road, and especially with the heat the way it has been the past few days; you really lose your appetite in a hurry.