THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH, 2009. A little after 8 am.
[PASEO DEL NORTE]
I’ve got to stop a Loews before we get on the interstate. I need to get picture hooks that are all the same. It makes hanging easier.
[INTERSTATE 25 SOUTH]
I suppose Edna and Sto left before we did. Just in case, keep an eye out for their white van. Just in case.
[INTERSTATE 25
LAS LUNAS 24 MILES
BELEN 34 MILES
SOCCORRO 77 MILES
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES 149 MILES
LAS CRUCES 223 MILES]
The high today in Las Cruces is supposed to be in the low ’70’s.
[ISLETA PUEBLO]
I wonder if they got the etched glass up at the Iseleta Rail Runner Station. I don’t know if we can see it from the interstate. Yeah, there it is. I need to photograph the installation. Sandia Pueblo is being really stubborn about their station.
[EXIT 203
LAS LUNAS]
The air isn’t clear at all. I wonder why.
There’s a Burlington Northern/Santa Fe freight train. Four engines pulling; two pushing. I’ll guess 100 cars.
[EXIT 191
BELEN]
Not much traffic. I’m going to need a Coke, if I’m going to drive. Try this exit.
[EXIT 190]
Naw, this isn’t right. I’m confusing it with Las Lunas. Where are the Anacin. That’ll do.
[INTERSTATE 25 SOUTH]
[SERVILLETA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE]
[EXIT 156
LEMITAR]
What? You want a tangerine. Yeah, I see the cooler.
[EXIT 152
ESCONDIDO]
When we get to Socorro, That’ll be an hour. Let’s change there.
[EXIT 147
SOCORRO]
I need to use the head.
[INTERSTATE 25 SOUTH
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES 72 MILES
LAS CRUCES 147 MILES
EL PASO 191 MILES]
We’re going to be there in plenty of time. Edna told Joy 1 pm.
[BOSQUE DEL APACHE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE]
Even with the haze you can see at least 75 miles. We have to get over to the Very Large Array telescope before it gets hot.
[EXIT 100]
That’s an hour. Let’s change on the other side of this dip.
[GUSTY WINDS MAY EXIST]
(A big, orange windsock flops around next to the sign. The syntax of this caution about winds has always seemed very “literary” to me compared to the usual imperative tone of most highway signs.)
[TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES 25 MILES
ELEPHANT BUTTE 25 MILES]
[NEW MEXICO SPACE PORT]
[SPEED LIMIT 75 MPH]
Wait! Wait! That was a white van.
[EXIT 83
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES]
Pull over. We’ve got to check. (Braaaaaabraaaaaabraaaaaab over the shoulder to a stop, the white van a quarter mile back.) Be careful backing up. I can’t make out who it is. Where’s my camera? Maybe the telephoto lens will be good enough so I can see who it is. Nah. I still can’t see. I’ll get out here and walk back.
(Shouting) Edna, is that you? (Edna’s friend, Lou, is with Sto and Edna. Their van just died, and they coasted to a stop.) Edna, I don’t know a thing about cars, but let’s take a look. (A big patch of the shoulder pavement beneath their van is black and shinny with gasoline. It seeps off the shoulder.) I’ll take a look. (Looking under the van.) It looks like the gas line has separated. Maybe I can hook it back together. The van’s so low, we’ll need to jack it up so I can crawl under to see. (Jack out. Van up on jack. I have to hunch my way under from the highway side. The gas wet pavement is on the other side. The van is about a foot and half off the Interstate. Whizz, woww, whine. In the meantime Cathy backs our car closer to Edna’s van. She’s out of the car shouting over the traffic noises into her cell phone. With little effort I snap the two end of the gas line together. I try to pull them apart to see if they’ll stay. The ends don’t want to separate.) I don’t know. Maybe some highway debris hit it just right, and it came loose. (We move Sto to our car. Cathy continues to shout into her cell phone.) Yeah, let’s try starting it. (Edna turns the key. The van starts. She turns it off. Cathy says the local volunteer fire department is on the way. Should we wait? Should we drive into Truth or Consequences. We wait for the fire truck. The volunteer fire truck arrives in less than ten minutes . They want to spray some foam on the gas patch before we start the van again. With no real emergency we all chat while a couple volunteers spray foam under the van. One of the two women on the fire crew is co-owner of the local newspaper. They tell us where a gas station is. Down the exit ramp.
[EXIT 83
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES]
(No help at the gas station, but we all make a pit stop anyway. On to Walmart. I buy a 98 cent coil of galvanized wire and wire the gas connection together so it won’t come apart. Back to the Interstate.)
[INTERSTATE 25 SOUTH
LAS CRUCES 75 MILES]
That didn’t take an hour. We won’t be late by more than a half and hour. (Cathy’s already phoned ahead to tell Joy we’ll be a little late. We fall in behind Edna’s van.
[EXIT 41
HATCH]
(The acequia madre on each side of the Rio Grande defends the empty chili fields and leafless pecan groves from the mesquite and prickly pear.)
[EXIT 19
RADIUM SPRINGS]
Almost there.
[EXIT 6
LAS CRUCES
INTERSTATE 10 6 MILES]
(Hanging the show is routine. A great dinner at a recommended bistro, then to a La Quinta Motel for the night.)
FRIDAY
(Edna, Sto and Lou stay in Las Cruces to look around and see what needs to be done about their van for the trip back. Cathy and I drive to El Paso, Texas, to buy shoes from a couple of factory outlets.)
[INTERSTATE 10 EAST
EL PASO 44 MILES]
[EXIT
TEXAS VISITOR INFORMATION CENTER]
(Ooo, Architecture and landscaping)
(El Paso street map to identify factory shoe and boot outlets)
[EXIT 6
TRANSMOUNTAIN RD]
[EXIT 11
MESA RD]
This is the exit. It should be on our left past that light. There it is. (SAS Factory Outlet Store. Purchases accomplished.)
(Onto the Holy Grail of Cowboy Boots)
[EXIT 32]
ZARAGOSA]
[LEFT LANE FOR U TURN]
(No street with the right name, just an enormous, newly built faux colonial Mexican architecture shopping mass. We wander driving through village-sized parking lots.)
Let’s drive a little farther down the access road. There it is. Off to the right.
LUCCHESE FACTORY OUTLET
(Inside it’s big enough for three basketball courts. In less than a half an hour Cathy has them. A little dickering over the sale price and they’re hers, the cowboy boots she’s wanted since age 7.)
(Back in the car looking for a place to eat. Roll down window.) Officer, is there a place to eat nearby? (He points. We eat.)
(We get gas, then head back to Las Cruces.)
[EXIT 140
AVENIDA DE MESILLA]
Left, Chuck Dunbar, right Edna Casman
Standing L to R, Cathy Dunbar, Chuck Dunbar, Edna Casman, seated Sto Bell
(We link up with Edna, Sto and Lou. Check out, then over to the museum. Do the opening reception thing for the nth time. Good eats. Three or four hundred people. No sales. Say goodbyes. Edna, Sto and Lou are going out dinner with Joy, the Museum Director. They stay another night. Back to our car and back to Albuquerque. The trip is a three and a half hour movie scene cliché: white stripes, solid and dashed, slanting to an invisible vanishing point in the darkness.) Where are the books on tape? What do you want to listen to?
