El Paso, You’re Alright

Day 3
Destination: El Paso
Mileage: ~110 miles
Time: ~1.5 hours
Temperature: 70/95F (Low/High)

So after two nights of camping, we drove right into our first AirBnB experience.
It’s not because we were tired of camping, and as I type this, I actually miss it (a lot). We didn’t know where we could camp in El Paso…and we really wanted to try AirBnB. It seemed pretty timely as they just relaunched their brand and website. Here are a few notes:

Notes about El Paso:

• It’s stress city. It’s not, but the roads are KIND of stressful. There is a bunch of construction/expansion, GoogleMaps wasn’t updated and it just took us in circles.
• Montana Ave. is the equivalent of FM 1960/Hwy 6. Multiple lanes, a median, and cars racing in both directions. Hannah and I were really stressed out getting into El Paso. Mostly Hannah, bless her.
• Most important note: Go to a Chihuahua Minor League Baseball game. It was the most fun baseball game I had ever been to. Maybe it was because their mascot is named “Chico,” or I was just delirious. But it was a lot of fun, and I don’t even like baseball.
• We went through border patrol. Because well, we were real close to the border.

Notes about AirBnb:

• I loved it! My first AirBnb experience couldn’t have been better. Our hosts were so, so accommodating, knowledgeable, and friendly. I loved them the minute we met them.
• It’s easy. I booked from my car the day before we were going to arrive in El Paso, and it was reasonably priced.
• I felt at home. Maybe it was because any home-esque environment made me feel like home at that point, but I think it was most definitely because of our hosts. I can’t rave about them enough. THEY HAD COFFEE SET OUT IN THE MORNING. Bless you guys, Jonathan and Martin.

If you would like to opt-out, you may do so now because I’m going to commentate on this day as it was the most stressful day of our trip. Getting lost without a notion of the right direction- it puts a lot of pressure, and tests your relationship with whoever you’re with. Are you going to keep it together? Lose it? Go off on each other? This is when you find out.

I remember that I was frustrated. I wanted to resolve this sense of “lost” immediately and alleviate the stress that Hannah was already feeling. GoogleMaps was a piece of crap, and I wished that geography class taught us more about reading maps. What did I draw from this? Find a paper map, because GoogleMaps is not always reliable. Also, bless that this moment wasn’t fatal to our friendship. I knew it was coming, SOMETHING always happens during a road trip that could make it or break it. We made it.

Soooooo within all of that, we had a bit of car trouble. This was resolved (sort of) with the help of our AirBnb hosts and a lovely mechanic with the name Orvil. Despite the stress and realization of how far from home we really were- the people we came across this day were the cream-of-the-crop, great people.

Lucky maybe, but mostly #blessed.