Blowing Dirt Festival - Still In Full Bloom!

Across New Mexico and into west Texas today. Nice to know that the Annual Blowing Dirt Festival is still in full bloom. On the bright side, the diesel prices are higher along this stretch... because they can (not a lot of options).

A while back I started a "ya know what I hate" thread (even though my dear ol' Mother taught me not to hate) on the HitchHiker owners forum. This month's edition is: pay at the pump fuel stations where you CAN'T pay at the pump. You have to go inside, give them your credit card, a $100 bill, your Mother's maiden name, the pin numbers to your ATM and debit cards, all the passwords to every financial site you've ever visited... and then stand in line AGAIN to get your card back after you pump the fuel. Yeah, I REALLY hate that! :angry: I was second in line at the Flying J in El Paso today, excited about the prospect of giving the indifferent little girl behind the counter all my personal information, when she announced, "This line is closed." No explanation, she didn't even pretend to feign a bit of fake concern... she pulled out her cash drawer and walked away. Yeah, I hate that, too. On the bright side, the three of us who were in line moved to the next cashier at the far end of the desk... who spent 5 minutes (doesn't sound like much time, until you read the next part) trying to figure out how to ring up an employee discount for $2.67 worth of food.

We drove through the clear blue skies, varying wind directions and strengths, and blowing dirt for hours... and we're still in west Texas. ???

But, other than that, everything is fine. Little Izzy sat next to me most of the day - that always makes the drive more pleasant.



Scads of RVs on the road today - people are on the move. Maybe it's the cold weather driving them to the southwest? Or maybe they've decided the economy isn't going to keep them home this winter?