I'll Paso

Serving to reiterate my feelings about most things west of Dallas is the city of Las Cruces, NM. Las Cruces is a "college town" (believe me, I use that term in the loosest sense possible) that is home to the fighting Aggies of New Mexico State University. Before I arrived here I was told by several people that the town has nothing in it. I didn't see how that was possible as there was a decent sized university there. But, my doubt has been put to rest as the city has spoken...and has not said much.

I flew into El Paso, a city that I am not fond of due to experiences that were blogged about back in May. From the airport we took our brand new Toyota Matrix and drove the 30 mile drive to Las Cruces. At night I couldn't tell how sucky the place was but in the morning it was really evident. There was a bar w/ a sign on the window that actually said "Beer drinkers wanted". Very clever.

When I checked into the hotel something very strange happened. When I went to go to my room I slid the key into the door and tried to open it. The door only opened about 2 inches b/c the little metal dealy that you can flip over so that the door can only open so far was in tact. I was amazed. The only way that can happen is if you do it from the inside...unless there was another door that you can go room to room from...which there wasn't. The hotel manager came by and tried to use some sort of contraption to get the deal undone but was unsuccessful so he gave me the room next to it. I didn't think about it until about 4 in the morning when I was awoken by a bunch of comotion from the room I was originally given. It sounded like somebody kept turning on the water and turning it off, then I heard some more noise, the door shut and a car took off. There probably was someone in there when I tried to get in, but when I looked through the window all the lights were off and the beds were made. Maybe they were hiding in the bathroom. So, at about 4 in the morning your mind doesn't work right and I started to think that some mass murderer was in the room next to me and he was going to be mad at me b/c I might have put the pieces together that he was trying to hide in a hotel room w/ dead bodies...and maybe he was trying to wash away the evidence by turning on the water again and again...and so then he would have to shoot me through the wall or knock on the door and shoot me just as I came to look through the peep hole. It turns out that probably wasn't the case.

3 more weeks in the hotel.