Oh my what a day today was. We left Abilene, TX at about 8am and immediately became aware of the wind. The wind was coming from our side at 35 MPH and gusting to 55 MPH. I got those numbers via the weather radio. The wind would push us very quickly to the side, and I was worried we would flip over with a large gust, so we had to slow down. As we adjusted to the wind, the tumbleweeds started blowing across the interstate, and we dodged the tumbleweeds like we were playing Pacman. Oh this went on for about 25 miles then the ugly part started. The wind made a dust storm that lasted for over 150 miles. Visibility was about 500 feet for a 100 miles and 100 feet or less for over 50 miles. The limited visibility meant that we might hit something or be hit by something. I have been in sandstorms before but not one of this magnitude. What a day. We stopped for gas at a truck stop and The Love Boat and The Crapper were covered in dust. Tomorrow I plan on checking the engine's air filter and replacing it. Oh man what a storm.
I should have started this entry with where we are. We are in Las Cruces which is about 800 miles or so from Palm Springs. We are staying here tomorrow and leaving for Palm Springs on Monday. We are now on Interstate 10. We left home on Interstate 40, then we left Little Rock on Interstate 30, then transferred somewhere to Interstate 20, and finally wound up on Interstate 10. If my calculations are correct, we should be on Interstate 0 on Monday and Interstate -10 on Tuesday. Oh before I forget, gasoline was $2.97 in several places in Texas which is considerably cheaper than when we left Raleigh. Alright, enough with this nonsense, let's get down to the funny stuff.
We took a little trip to Walmart for water and food. I am sorry to say that no pig heads were in the freezer there like the last visit to Las Cruces. Los Perritos (The Puppies) are heartbroken. If you remember from our last visit 2 years ago, Walmart had an entire freezer section of pig heads. I understand Mexicans use the pig heads to cook some kind of food like tamales during the holidays. I am venturing a guess it was for New Years which would explain Walmart being pig headless. Los Perritos wanted to run around the campground with the pig heads as Halloween masks and trick or treat with them. I guess it will have to wait until we come through again in January. Poor Puppies.
We went out to dinner at a place in the historic part of Las Cruces tonight. The name of the place is regardless, but what happened while we were waiting to be seated was amazing. The wait time was about 15 minutes, and we waited with several other people. One woman was seated with her 18 month old daughter, her mother, and a few other family members. The kid was squealing laughing like kids can do. At some point the kid dropped her pacifier on the floor of the restaurant. The grandmother picked up the "binky" and licked it clean and put it into the kid's mouth. Nasty. I'm not sure what was worse the nastiness from the floor or the grandmother's spit all over it. Any woman that would lick something "clean" that was dropped on the floor of a restaurant would stick dern near anything into her mouth. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Nasty. I'll bet that woman had a BO for president bumpersticker on her car. We are not in Texas anymore. Nasty woman.
When we stopped for gas today, we decided to eat at the Denny's restaurant at the truck stop. We were in a sandstorm and couldn't exactly see anyplace else to stop. We went into the restaurant and were seated. The waitress walked up to us about 15 minutes later and said, "Shhssahhh shhesss shssses ssshhddd". Deb and I looked at each other and tried to tell if the other understood what she said. Deb told her she wanted a glass of water, and I thought it was a good idea and said me too. The waitress said, "Sshhhehh shhhsshhhs shhhshshhs" and left and went somewhere. Evidently the waitress understood what we said and returned a day or two later with a couple water glasses. She said, "Shhhsshs shshshhh shhsheheh" and Deb and I looked at each other again. By now I thought she was Apache or somesuch and was communicating to us in Apache talk or something. Deb thought she had destroyed her brain eating Indian fry bread or something. Deb took the lead and told her she wanted something breakfast like and the waitress said, "Shhhhsh shhhshshs shhhssh" each time Deb stopped talking for a second or two. I then extrapolated that I should order my food when the waitress looked at me and said, "Shhshshhh shshshhh shshshshs" at me. I told her I wanted an apple pecan salad that was on the menu. The waitress said, "Shshhshh shsshhhs balsamic shshhsshsh"? Notice the question mark at the end or what she said? I figured she was asking if I wanted the balsamic vinegar salad dressing that was on the menu. So I said yes. The waitress went back to what I believe was the kitchen but it could have been the democrat convention headquarters for all I know. A day or two later the waitress comes back with our food and she put the salad in front of me along with a cereal bowl full of balsamic vinegar salad dressing. I am not kidding, you could float a portion of Cherrios in that bowl of salad dressing. I looked up at Deb, then the waitress, then back at the cereal bowl of salad dressing. The waitress said, "Shhshs shhsshhh shshhsh" and departed for the democrat convention headquarters again. I guess truck drivers get all cranky if they can't float Cheerios in their salad dressing or something. But guess this, the dressing was really sweet like sugar had been added to it. Great Ceasar's ghost. I would have asked the waitress what I was supposed to do with a fishbowl of sweet dressing, but I figured I wouldn't understand her anyway. So, I counted my blessings and decided it wasn't all bad because it didn't have any sand in it which that fact alone was amazing with all that sand blowing around in the parking lot and half of Texas.
See Yall tomorrow.
Al
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