Killeen, Texas
1:54 AM
I made a couple mistakes on my first day of driving. First, I didn’t know it was gonna be so hot through the desert and that my air conditioning can bring down the temperature only so much. So it was a mistake wearing jeans and a black T-Shirt. Another thing I didn’t plan well: I wore flip flops, and didn’t bother changing into shoes. After some 800 miles on the road the first day, the second day was somewhat tougher. But I wore cargo shorts and a white T-shirt this time, with shoes. It worked a lot better for this stretch, 600 miles.
On the night after my 2 Jun journal entry, I had entered a 1 star motel called La Mesa Inn. It was located fairly close to the highway in El Paso with a good price to boot: $26.95 + tax. So of course I’m overjoyed, but what’s this? Air Conditioning’s not working? Well, they warned me before I booked the room but I didn’t think far enough to figure out that El Paso, Texas weather at night right now is much much hotter than Los Angeles, California weather. That and the shower head didn’t work very well: most of the water just went through the bottom faucet. At least the water was warm, so I wet myself to fall asleep, but it would all evaporate too quickly. So I wet the motel towel and laid it on my chest to cool me down, and put on a shirt several hours later when it did get colder as the night went on.
I don’t like Texas very much. People for the most part are friendlier, but I think they also tend to be somewhat bigger. The Intrastate Roads suck. They have frequent stop lights, go through several ghost towns, and people don’t know how to pass you by. But I think the latter might have to do with the overall tempo of Texas: things do feel a lot more laid back here. I would definitely appreciate more Intrastate highways to get to and from places. Their current system is lacking, but I assume Latin America isn’t much better.
The weather’s just horribly hot right now. But apparently, my luck with the weather continues: last week, Texas had some horrible rainfall. Tonight, we had sunny skies during the day and isolated thunderstorms right now at night. It’s humid and hot as hell here. I guess Matt is really used to it by now, but I’m not. I was constantly asking for him to turn up the air conditioning. In Vancouver, I avoided heavy rain and snowfall and left a day before heavy snow hit. In Montreal, I avoided snowstorms before and after the trip. I pretty much stayed for the only 3-4 days of daylight Montreal saw in a while. In Germany, it never snowed during Christmas season, and poured freezing rain after I left.
Matt’s friends here, Mijoo and her husband, John, have treated me real well. I’m really thankful for their hospitality and I hope I get to return the favor sometime. Matt’s cooked pretty much every meal I’ve eaten since I got here. After spending a lot of dough on gas and food for the last couple days on the road, that meant a lot to me.
I had the weirdest call on the drive here. Some lady from Hong Kong kept calling me, asking me if I’m US Customs. Apparently, US Customs rejected a package she sent or something and left my cell phone number to call. I was about to get really upset with her because she kept talking about how she wants her package while I kept telling her that it’s the wrong number. Well, I then figured this is how the Spanish speaking people would view me in a few days, so I should be nice to her. That was possibly the shortest phone call in which I learned so much from.
Few things I noticed: the bugs in the greener parts of New Mexico and Texas tend to leave green marks on my windshield. Otherwise, it just looks like mucus.
I also noticed this predicament: gas prices are cheaper (and probably cleaner due to turnover) in larger cities while motel prices are cheaper in between. So I need to make more stops than usual to save money. Also, there are large stretches of highways in Texas where there are absolutely nothing. I mean nothing. I think at one point I drove about 100 miles before I saw any signs of life, be it a sign leading to a gas station, a rest stop, or a restaurant. I gotta be careful and make sure I have enough gas to go 100 miles or so.
I finalized my packing equipment today: a tent, a rechargeable lantern, a car tool kit, and 12.5 gallons of drinking water, on top of my 5 gallons of emergency drinking water. I still wish they had the 1980 Mercedes manual on stock, and I could use a tripod for my camera, but oh well.
I think tomorrow (or later today now), I will cross into Mexico. I haven’t figured out if I need the extra day at McAllen, Texas before crossing over later on Tuesday. But more than likely, I will go straight through and settle in at Monterrey, Mexico.
I can’t fall asleep right now. I’ve tried for 5 hours. I’m somewhat anxious and nervous. There’s so many things that need to be considered, but the route’s been planned out now. You could prepare forever for this and still not know what to expect. This isn’t Tijuana, Germany, or even Djibouti or Kenya. This is the real Latin America, and I will not be understood for the most part.