Wow today was a doozy!
Both Shaun and I had spent the entirety of last week preparing for this trip every free moment of the day. It was the first time I had seen Shaun visibly stressed out in quite some time. Normally I’m the one that has the small freak outs, but the equilibrium was thrown off and the smallest things started getting to him. Other than Shaun’s unexpected overtime cutting into our road trip to El Paso schedule (see, scheduling is bad!), it went off without a hitch (although I almost went crazy with the OCD/intricate packing Shaun was doing, making us even more behind).
Our first leg was conquering a well known trip I have made 10+ times – the awesome 8 hour drive from Austin to El Paso. While I-10 can be a grueling straight road of hell that starts to make your eyes bleed, I find myself enamoured with the desert scenery. Nothing can fully compete with a stark blue sky and white puffy clouds contrasting with the “barren”, yet beautiful, desert landscape.
I have included some of my favorite pictures from our drive today. I hope you can enjoy them as much as I can!
Highlights:
I’m originally from El Paso, so every time we go through the Southwest, not only do we make a special trip to clean up the grave sites of our family and loved ones, but we make a pilgrimage to the well known shrine, Chico’s Tacos. Every El Pasoan finds themselves dreaming of this delicious, late night, drunk food. I was gluttonous. It was phenomenal. Not only did I finish mine, but polished up Shaun’s in a burning, lip smacking feat.
Obstacles:
1.) We have been sick to the stomach the entire first day of the trip. Please note that this conundrum did not keep me from my precious tacos.
2.) I learned that while Fort Stockton is generally the first stopping point for gas, I failed to calculate the fact that we have a completely loaded car and the MPH was 80 and not 70 like my previous trip (gas guzzling goodness). We I ended up dropping to 65 MPH to have more gas economy and the gas light turned on EMPTY the moment we pulled into the closest gas station.
3.) One of the things we were really looking forward to was our first experience in the Couchsurfing scene. We were going to stay with a couple and their two kids in their house in Las Cruces, NM and by the time we arrived in El Paso (the city prior to Las Cruces) we were dog tired.
We had told our gracious hosts that we would arrive promptly at 8pm (and after factoring the hour time change, we made it on time). At 6:45, while rubbing our full, Chico’s Tacos filled bellies, we received a text message from the host stating that they were heading to a movie at 7:30pm. If we were going to be in town by then, we were invited to see a movie with them, however, if not they would call us when they got out.
Well, I could tell where this was going. Who on earth goes out 30 minutes prior to someone arriving at their house? Shaun and I miraculously found something to do on a Sunday night in a city of less than 100,000 people. At 9:30 they stated they were out of the movie and asked if we were still going to stay with them… I said we were waiting for them to get out and if they didn’t mind, we would still like to sleep at the house.
This is when the texts stopped.
I tried texting them over and over and gave these people the benefit of the doubt and stuck around in a neighborhood park until 10:30. This is when I got really pissy and drove ourselves to the nearest hotel. Shaun was too exhausted to keep his eyes open and all we wanted was a place to take off our shoes and rest our eyes.
Luckily there was a Super 8 a few blocks from their house and it was by far the best hotel experience I have had in ages. Thank you Super 8 for being our host when our hosts did not!
On a positive note, I will not be using this experience to hinder our next Couchsurfing escapade. I refuse to let a few bad apples ruin a helpful and friendly community.
Onward to Gila National forest in the morning!
Yayy! Burning Man… looking forward to read all about it. 🙂
Those Chico’s tacos are not “chico” at all… they are huge!!! Yummm… (I just drooled a bit over the photos.)
It’s a shame those hosts ditched you… I’ve couchsurfed many times and have never had that experience. Don’t let them stop you from really experiencing the courchsurfing scene… they are the exception of this amazing community.
@Norbert: I ate so many Chico’s Tacos I got a bit sick but since I don’t get to eat them that often I was okay with it. As for the hosts, well, I’m still trying to gather what I should leave as feedback.
LOL… of course… there’s nothing wrong with a nice “I’ll eat it all” every once in a while. 🙂
Yeah, as for the feedback… don’t be harsh, but be honest.
@Norbert: I’ve decided that I’m making Shaun write it. He’s much more diplomatic than I am. I make him call all the utilities people when things go wrong.
Love the Texas highway pics! Somehow I’ve never made it to El Paso, but one of these days, I need to drive out there. That really stinks about the flaky Couchsurfing people! I’m glad you were able to find a place to stay. I imagine there have to be a lot of people out there who are initially psyched about hosting people, but when it actually comes down to it, they realize they don’t actually want to do it (whether due to privacy, nervous about strangers, etc.). This happened to me, actually…I signed up for it a few years ago because it sounded like a great idea, but when I first got my email from a group of girls wanting to come in from Dallas and stay with me for a night or two, I was like, wait–I don’t actually want to share my small apartment with total strangers! Didn’t expect that I’d have that reaction (though I told them no and I promptly removed that I have a couch from my profile). Not excusing them–that’s so lame that they told you yes but then went MIA. I just know what that feeling was like to realize it wasn’t for me.
Anyway, glad you got your yummy tacos–can’t wait to see how the rest of your trip goes!
@Emily: The family had 2 kids and it was the night before the first day of school. I was shocked when they said they were available and that they had room for us as long as we were gone by 7:30. They have had previous people stay with them (like 1 or 2) – I’m much less pissed about it a few days later. 🙂
Oh man, those shots of the environment out there make me miss the southwest US, and the food.. ahh! I grew up in New Mexico. Looks like it’s gonna be an awesome trip!
Say hello to the playa for me and have a great time! Watch out for the dust storms 🙂
Being from Houston I have driven all over Texas (Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, McAllen) but never to El Paso. I have heard from alot of people that it is really a dreadful drive I can imagine how plan it is. I liked the pics yall posted. It suck that yalls first couchsurfing was a bust but like Norbert said dont let it keep you from future stays. Oh and them TACOS looked GOOD!!!
Can’t wait to read more about this burning man trip!!!
Hi Erica,
I came across this while leaving a reference on your CS page.
It sounds like there was a communication failure somewhere along the line because I never got any of your text messages. To us, it appeared that you guys had gone AWOL, and we were the ones who weren’t very happy about it. We had everything set up for your arrival, and we were looking forward to some good company. I’m truly sorry that you guys were forced to find other accommodations at the last minute. Hopefully you guys aren’t too put off on the whole CouchSurfing experience. It’s really a great thing.
As far as the movie thing goes, I can totally see where you’re coming from. But maybe you can see it from our side, too. I work 24-hour shifts and Trina works all kinds of crazy hours. We don’t get very many nights off together, but that was one of them. And since the kids’ grandma took them to see Cats and Dogs at around the same time, the conditions were perfect for a quick date night. You know, we gotta take advantage of those nights when we can. Nevertheless, I can see now that it was a bit crass on our part, and I won’t make that mistake again.
Perhaps you’ll allow us to make up for it? If you’re ever traveling back through, look us up. We’d be glad to host you guys any time.
Couchsurfingly yours,
Kevin
P.S. That sunset picture (7th one down) is incredible!
Lovely cloud photos! Man, what a bad first-time couchsurfing experience! Hopefully your next ones will do nothing like that!
Those tacos look oh so good but oh so devastating. Going to El Paso is such a looooong boring ride. Great pics
@Evan: I grew up in El Paso so I’m with you. There is a severe lack of anything with green chiles out in the middle of Texas. 🙂
@Wes: I’ll give a loud, “HOWDY” for the both of us. 😀 I’ve seen pics of the dust storms, I’m very curious what it is like to actually experience it. I can’t imagine I’ll be a big fan.
@Jaime: The drive isn’t too bad (I’m sure there are worse). The worst part is just how straight the damn road it. I could have been reading a book and it wouldn’t have mattered. 😛
@Kevin: I followed up with you on the Couchsurfing site! I’m not sure if we’re going to head back that way but we’ll definitely take you up on a beer or something. 😉
@Dina: I am a sucker for clouds. I could do nothing but take pics of them all day and be completely happy.
@Nick: Devastating is a good word. Those little plastic cups were filled with a fresh jalapeno sauce that you pour on top of them. We used 4 cups and we were feeling it later. *snicker*
Oh man! Your pictures of west Texas make me homesick! As much as I love Costa Rica, I’m missing TX a lot this week. Enjoy the trip!
@Luisa: It is so hard to find people who think the desert is beautiful lol! I was so tired and needed to take a nap but refused so I could look outside the window.
I can’t believe your “hosts”! It is good you are still having a good attitude about couchsurfing though. I love your road photos. America’s West and Southwest have some of the most impressive skies.
@Suzy: The skies are phenomenal!