March 10,2007

Las Cruces, NM

Counting Down for Blast-Off

Gas 2.49.9 (rip-off....pulled in for the 2.39.9 only to find it was 86 octane—tractor gas)

Enjoyed an anniversary dinner last night at the Double Eagle, which I would liken to the Firehouse in Old Sacramento. This, too was a historic structure—the largest house in Las Cruces until the 1990s. Fabulous aged beef (deliberately). Janice proclaimed her filet mignon the best restaurant beef ever. It was a bit on the pricey side, but we rationalized that it was OK to celebrate our 34 years together. The one person not celebrating was our waitress, a 60-ish fraulien-type whose day job may well have been at a local penal institution. She managed to serve us in a stiff-necked manner (except when she disappeared for about 25 minutes) resisting even the hint of a smile or a congratulatory word to us. She was obviously in the midst of a very bad day.

A quiet evening tonight before a 257-mile border-crossing drive tomorrow. Orientation meeting this afternoon. A very well-run, well-led and organized start. We have met about 60% of our fellow travelers and it is a pretty congenial group from all over the country, plus one Canadian couple. A mixture of motorhomes and 5th wheels.

Today was spent doing last minute shopping, including a major Walmart stop. (Sorry, Karl.) Las Cruces is a booming town in the shadow of the Organ Mountains.

Learned tonight that we may not be able to get DirectTV in Mexico with the satellite dish. Spent a long time discussing this with the “helpdesk” at DirectTV, which was unable to provide a confident answer. They did assure that I would not be billed if there was a problem. This probably is a good thing, as we will have little time for TV, and other than 24 and Prison Break, who cares?
Sorry, no pics today, but get ready for some Academy Award winners in the next week. Guaranteed to thrill and titillate.

Our current location here (Datastorm 4243)

Don't forget to change your clocks....