Miscellany: 7/29/16 Happy 8th Blogiversary!

Well, since Wednesday I've been on a manic 2200-mile plus drive from SE South Carolina to SW Arizona. I brought two notebook PC's with me, both of which were unusable Wednesday night. As I write, I'm having to break in a new notebook.

I'll have plenty of time to catch up on politics over the weekend, including Twitter and Facebook feeds as I resume a regular publication schedule. But as I was eating a Subway sandwich for lunch yesterday, I caught Clinton saying it's the most important election in recent memory. Duh! She went on to say it's not because her name's on the ballot. Yeah, right. The fact is, whoever wins, we're going to see no meaningful entitlement reform and we're going to have interventionist policy. I do think Trump is going to try to radically expand the Presidency, and he's going to open Pandora's box on trade and immigration.

The trip itself wasn't political; I had to drive through El Paso for the first time since I left the UTEP faculty over 20 years ago. As I neared the campus on I-10, I could glance across the Rio Grande and see the same shacks scattered over the hill. The only attachment I have to El Paso was a coed I met while attending OLL in San Antonio. I really loved that girl, but she enrolled only one semester. I once promised her that I would visit, but you have to understand that there's very little west of San Antonio or Ft. Worth. I worried about gas stations or having a car break down in the middle of nowhere. There were some spots you could only catch an old country-western or Baptist preacher station. She never said a word about my no-show, but I had made up my mind I would fly to El Paso, and she thought I was getting too serious. In fact, I had attended the wedding of Navy instructor friends in Orlando, which was a first to me. I tried to touch base while on UTEP faculty. One of her cousins called my folks' house and talked to my brother-in-law while we were at Midnight Mass. She had moved on in her life, had 2 daughters, etc. This may sound like rambling but there's a lot of road between Ft.Worth and El Paso.

Lodging was interesting. The first 2 hotels I tried in Alabama were booked up. Then the room I booked in Eastland, TX the next night had a bathtub seemingly with blood stains.

I did have my A/C recharged, but it was a joke to the sun gods; the feeble cool puffs through the vents were no match. I had sweat streaming over my eyes; the backs of my hands were getting sunburned. It was like an oven. I think I saw 2 or 3 universal sweeps for migrants and/or drugs going east on I-8 and I-10. I got caught up in one sweep on I-10 west of Las Cruces. Not a big deal other than the heat. You just couldn't stay hydrated enough. I must have gone through a huge cup of Diet Dr. Pepper in 10 minutes.

Thursday sucked because it rained my whole trip through Mississippi, Louisiana and much of TX. You know, sometimes it pours down so hard you can barely make out road dividers. I have no idea what motivates people to zoom past me under those conditions or those idiots who try to fill my safety gap behind another car. Ft. Worth was a special case; the sun was out in evening rush hour traffic, and the effect was like trying to drive through dry ice.

I had the misfortune of driving through rush hour in Atlanta on Wednesday and Dallas/Ft.Worth on Thursday. I mean, it's bad enough I've faced the SW Freeway in Houston, Route 101 in Silicon Valley, Chicago and the Beltway.

Eating was for me an interesting experience because I almost never eat out. I happen to love diners; I would rather eat at a Denny's than a 5-star restaurant. God bless the Waffle House. Where else can you get a T-bone steak and eggs over easy for a reasonable amount? A little rail-thin blond waitress came in to help the skeleton crew; I felt like a giant looming over her, and I'm barely average height. I have a sister who's only 4'10" and would have stood inches over her.

Pulito's, on the eastbound access to I-20 in Eastland (first exit heading west, last heading east) up from an Exxon station, is superb Mexican fare. The complimentary chips were tasty and fresh; the salsa was perfect with just a hint of a bite. I had the Papa's dinner, a combination plate with generous helpings of Mexican rice and beans, a taco, enchilada, tamale, scoop of guacamole, and a pecan praline cookie.

Last night I tried the Country Pride Restaurant at a trucker stop in east Arizona. I hadn't had a good chicken-fried steak in years; they also have a nice complimentary salad bar with many entrees. I really am not that hungry on the road; about every other trip I've taken (other than as a road warrior) it seems I get ill. In fact, the steak arrived before I had finished my salad and soup (and never got around to finishing them). I used to love baked potatoes, but I opted for onion rings. Oh my God! Those were the best onion rings I've had since being a kid, maybe ever.

Oh, and of course, I drank lots of iced tea--at least 2-3 glasses at those last 2 restaurants.

A couple of notes about billboards. Texas seems to have a thing going on about parents leaving kids locked up in cars unattended; I must have seen a dozen signs encouraging citizens to do something about it. And I don't know what it is, but New Mexico seems to have a fetish for fresh jerky. I swear every other sign promoted jerky. I have enjoyed jerky on a lower-carb diet, but not that much.

I drove nearly coast to coast in 3 days (San Diego is less than 3 hours away). The car itself was almost given last rites about 2-3 weeks back. I start a new adventure Monday. Besides the mishaps with my laptops, my biggest issue was hydration. Towards the end I started taking more frequent fueling stops and buying drinks (also to take advantage of air conditioning in the convenience stores). I probably won't do this again soon, but in part I wanted slack in my schedule if, say, I had a car malfunction. I was at the mercy of my new job start and the mover schedule.

Just one brief comment about the mover service; this is one of those cases where policies beyond my control are a pain in the neck. I had three movers on Tuesday mostly repacking items I had in a storage unit. It drove me nuts; in past 2 moves, mover helpers loaded/unloaded boxes in just over an hour. But then they left it to me to figure out to do with the old boxes. It's like you go in for an oil change, and they hand you the used oil and tell you it's your problem to get rid of it and deal with the EPA regulations, etc. It's almost like dealing with the government.