Friday, June 5, 2015

Journaling: Phoenix to El Paso**

October 28 we departed the Phoenix area and drove south through Tucson.  Although we got off the interstate downtown, we did not linger long but proceeded onward via I-10 to Willcox.  Great scenery, or eye candy, along this drive.  Stopped in a rest area near the top of a pass where the rock formations resembled piles of giant potatoes and where there were posted  warning signs, " Poisonous snakes and insects inhabit the area!" *



By this time, Cookie had gotten so used to the goathead problem that he would merely stop, lift the offended paw and stare piteously at one of us until we picked him up and pulled out the thorn.  No longer did he jerk or nip at the caregiver!  Quick learner.

We arrived in Willcox in time to locate a good campsite and get hooked up well before dark.  The monthly rate here is $210 and there is an indoor pool.  Willcox is about 75 miles from Tucson and a bit less to Sierra Vista if one heads southwest.  Wednesday morning JoAnn decided to take a ride on her scooter.  I thought she'd be gone about twenty minutes, but when the time extended past an hour, I got quite concerned.  However, I had heard no sirens nor seen any emergency vehicles rushing anywhere.  In another half hour, the camp host delivered a message to me that JoAnn had run out of gas and was at such and such an address.  Then he misdirected me to the location.  So all in all we were in Willcox until eleven o'clock that day.

Driving across the desert we saw several signs advertising "Kranberry's" in Lordsburg.  So we pulled in there and had lunch.  Food was good, but half their serving staff must have been out along the highway posting more signs.  Now did I say the service was slow?

We drove on across New Mexico, yucca flats on all sides, mile after interminable mile.  And the air was filled with tons of dust such that we could breathe it and smell it inside the air-conditioned vehicle.  We flew right on through Las Cruces and said "No way" to their signs touting it as a retirement community.  Nevertheless, a hundred thousand souls have said "yes" to living there.

As we neared El Paso the aroma of miles of feeder lots nearly overwhelmed us.  I know.  To some, it is the smell of money, but if so, it gives a certain cachet (pun intended) to the expression "filthy lucre."  Somehow one is quite convinced that the housing alongside and in front of the cattle is occupied by "the help" and that Big Hat lives miles away and probably upwind.  Or maybe in Naples, Florida or Aspen.  (I have been told that in most cases this is probably not a correct observation and that Big Hat is having a really bad time of it right now.  Probably had to sell the place in Naples.)

There is yet more, much more, to this day, but that must be folded into the next day's account.

*I think it curious that the sign is illustrated not with an insect, but with an arachnid.  And I am betting the makers of the sign were thinking "scorpion" when they made it.  But go ahead.  Officially reinforce the mistaken notion that a scorpion is an insect.

6 comments:

Vee said...

Do I detect just a bit of sarcasm in this account? Obviously some trips are more fondly remembered than are others.

After the pass by the feeder lots you probably agreed that cattle contribute to climate change and you became a vegetarian - or maybe a vegan.

vanilla said...

Vee, perhaps there would have been nothing to record regarding that area were it not for the aroma. But no. I am not giving up my beef. Interpret that as you will.

Grace said...

I enjoyed reading this...

vanilla said...

Grace, good. We may finish this trip sometime this month.

Sharkbytes said...

And this is your worst example of public misinformation? We are returning to becoming a nation of Civil War era spellers. ie... guess at something. We are probably lucky the sign wasn't warning of poisonous walking fruits.

vanilla said...

Sharkey, worst example? No, no. Just the example du jour.