Pecos and beyond!
Why was I so keen on getting to Pecos that day? It's because I had a coupon for a low-cost night's stay at a Best Western of my choice for only 10,000 reward points (the usual range is 16K-24K), that was going to expire soon, and it wasn't valid on Friday or Saturday nights. If I wanted to keep to my schedule and use the coupon in Pecos, I had to get there on Thursday.
Why Pecos? Because the most expensive Best Westerns I know of in this part of the world are in Pecos, and I wanted to get the biggest value for my reward points. There are two Best Westerns in Pecos, right next door to each other. Previously I'd only stayed in the less-fancy one, but this time I wanted to spend my reward points to see the fancier one.
When I walked in the front door, I was very surprised to see that it was still decorated for Christmas, and that the lobby was as dramatic as it was. Here's a photo I took from near the front door.
In addition to the central building, there were a couple of one-story buildings behind it, and my room was in one of those. To get there, I had to walk outside, and I noticed that in anticipation of the sub-freezing temperatures that night, they had wrapped their outdoor palm trees in insulation:
My room was really nice and felt quite luxurious with its very high ceiling, and the next morning I enjoyed a feast of chorizo and eggs, refried beans, and fresh strawberry-banana fruit salad. All this was free (or 10K points, depending on how you look at it).
The next leg of my trip was to Las Cruces, and I was ready to hit the road. I saw predictions of winter storms in the part of West Texas I would go through, but when I looked at weather reports for the towns I knew along the way, I saw temperatures near 40 degrees and no precipitation on the weather map, except some rain in the El Paso area. In spite of the warnings, it looked like a piece of cake, so I figured that the warnings were for the mountains visible from the freeway, not for the freeway itself. I would stop twice along the way to check the weather again and I could stop short of Las Cruces if I needed to. I headed out with confidence.
My first scheduled stop was about an hour away. It was 34 degrees and it was supposed to get up to above 40 along the way, so I expected to watch the thermostat in my car go up as I drove. Instead it started to drop. As it approached and then passed the freezing point, a light mist was in the air. I have learned in the past that light mists don't show up on radar, but that had not occurred to me as I looked at the weather maps that morning. As the temperature continued to drop, the mist became a freezing fog. It got down as far as 28 degrees and all of those "bridges freeze before roadway" signs took on new meaning for me. I began to wonder if I should turn around and go back to Pecos. I passed one picnic area where several vehicles were parked, presumably to wait out the weather. I wondered whether I should take the next exit and do the same. But I kept seeing plenty of cars coming the other direction with no trouble and there were still plenty of cars headed my way. I reduced my speed to what felt safe as the ice accumulated on my windshield and the hoarfrost started to form on the vegetation alongside the freeway and I passed in and out of denser and less dense fog. Never did the road seem at all slick, but I kept a firm grip on the steering wheel at all times, paid special attention when going over a bridge (which are mercifully infrequent and short in that part of Texas), and vowed to stop and check the weather again in Van Horn.
For a half hour or so I questioned my decisions and felt very tense, and then I came out of the fog and the temperature began to slowly rise. By the time I was in Van Horn, the sun was shining, it was above freezing again, and the weather was what I expected for the rest of the trip to Las Cruces.
Why Pecos? Because the most expensive Best Westerns I know of in this part of the world are in Pecos, and I wanted to get the biggest value for my reward points. There are two Best Westerns in Pecos, right next door to each other. Previously I'd only stayed in the less-fancy one, but this time I wanted to spend my reward points to see the fancier one.
When I walked in the front door, I was very surprised to see that it was still decorated for Christmas, and that the lobby was as dramatic as it was. Here's a photo I took from near the front door.
In addition to the central building, there were a couple of one-story buildings behind it, and my room was in one of those. To get there, I had to walk outside, and I noticed that in anticipation of the sub-freezing temperatures that night, they had wrapped their outdoor palm trees in insulation:
My room was really nice and felt quite luxurious with its very high ceiling, and the next morning I enjoyed a feast of chorizo and eggs, refried beans, and fresh strawberry-banana fruit salad. All this was free (or 10K points, depending on how you look at it).
The next leg of my trip was to Las Cruces, and I was ready to hit the road. I saw predictions of winter storms in the part of West Texas I would go through, but when I looked at weather reports for the towns I knew along the way, I saw temperatures near 40 degrees and no precipitation on the weather map, except some rain in the El Paso area. In spite of the warnings, it looked like a piece of cake, so I figured that the warnings were for the mountains visible from the freeway, not for the freeway itself. I would stop twice along the way to check the weather again and I could stop short of Las Cruces if I needed to. I headed out with confidence.
My first scheduled stop was about an hour away. It was 34 degrees and it was supposed to get up to above 40 along the way, so I expected to watch the thermostat in my car go up as I drove. Instead it started to drop. As it approached and then passed the freezing point, a light mist was in the air. I have learned in the past that light mists don't show up on radar, but that had not occurred to me as I looked at the weather maps that morning. As the temperature continued to drop, the mist became a freezing fog. It got down as far as 28 degrees and all of those "bridges freeze before roadway" signs took on new meaning for me. I began to wonder if I should turn around and go back to Pecos. I passed one picnic area where several vehicles were parked, presumably to wait out the weather. I wondered whether I should take the next exit and do the same. But I kept seeing plenty of cars coming the other direction with no trouble and there were still plenty of cars headed my way. I reduced my speed to what felt safe as the ice accumulated on my windshield and the hoarfrost started to form on the vegetation alongside the freeway and I passed in and out of denser and less dense fog. Never did the road seem at all slick, but I kept a firm grip on the steering wheel at all times, paid special attention when going over a bridge (which are mercifully infrequent and short in that part of Texas), and vowed to stop and check the weather again in Van Horn.
For a half hour or so I questioned my decisions and felt very tense, and then I came out of the fog and the temperature began to slowly rise. By the time I was in Van Horn, the sun was shining, it was above freezing again, and the weather was what I expected for the rest of the trip to Las Cruces.
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