Goodbye New Mexico, Hello Arizona

IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS - Sunday morning I looked up some churches in El Paso where I might catch a Mass. Of course, when I got there, I didn't know where to find any of the streets. I saw a sign that said Visitor Information and got off the highway, thinking they could direct me. Never found any visitor center and just got lost in the seedy part of downtown El Paso, down near the international bridge.

After I got myself out of there, I headed back the way I came to where I saw a bunch of hotels along the highway, thinking the staff there could direct me. Stopped at a Holiday Inn Express, but the kids behind the counter were rather clueless. However, the young guy looked up one church on Mapquest, and he was finally able to direct me to St. Pius, which was a few blocks away. So while I was waiting for the 11:00 service, I called Peter, and while discussing my plan with him, I discovered that I was in a bit of a time warp. When I crossed the time line, I set my watch back an hour, but somehow didn't push the stem in, so my watch had stopped! No wonder there were so many cars outside the church - Mass had already started, and I was way late. Well, give me an 'A' for Effort. I didn't want to wait around another hour and a half, so I hit the road.

MEEP, MEEP - After leaving El Paso, I saw a roadrunner scurrying across the highway! That made me smile. (Can those things fly? If I'd been going any faster, I might have hit him...)

DEMING DELAY - I stopped at an Exxon for gas, and the mechanic happened to be near the pumps and commented to me that my front tires were starting to crack. Well, I knew they were starting to wear, but didn't know they were getting to the dangerous point, so that scared the devil outta me. Of course, I didn't know whether he was right or just trying to drum up business, so I told him I'd like to get second opinion. Drove around looking for another service station, but everything in that one-horse town shuts down tight on Sundays, apparently. But I found a WalMart and asked their tire people to take a look. They concurred that the tires were starting to crack, so that's all I needed to hear. Went back to the Exxon (didn't want to wait at the WalMart - they were busy.).

So the mechanic put on the new tires (which may have been retreads for all I know), and I also asked him if he could fix the burnt-out headlite. He had to hop in his truck and go to another location to get the bulb, and he had to take out the battery to get at it, so all this took a while.
All this for only $212! Eh, whadda ya gonna do?

WILLCOX OR BUST - I crossed the southwestern corner of New Mexico in no time and decided to get to Willcox, AZ.