Spy Blimp
Note: Photo captions are time and place of WiFi connectivity.

May 20th
Long day today. Started at the tick of 9, ended around 5:30pm with barely a stop, just for gas.

Spent all of two minutes speeding through Tombstone (best way to see it - what a hole!) Slowed down long enough to take a quick peek at the ‘I’m OK, You’re OK Corral’ - fenced in so you can spend $7.50 to look in. Don’t think so.

Almost ran out of gas - that would’ve been fun! Was always on the back roads and realized that every town I passed through was practically empty (because no one goes there!), and what gas stations I found were derelict.

Saw my fair share of wildlife today too - much more than I saw in Arizona. Some small, deer-like animals, a half-starved coyote, a rabbit the size of a Buick, and another rattle snake - this one crossing the road right in front of me. And yes, it’s still fuckin’ hot!

Back roads down here are definitely the way to go - they’re totally empty. I must have spent three and a half hours on Hwy. 90 (west to east) and saw nothing. Well, nothing except that UFO (see attached picture taken with CSIS lens). I thought it was the space shuttle at first - that’s what it looked like at a distance. But it wasn’t moving - just sitting there static. It wasn’t until I attached the CSIS lens that it made sense - a blimp, tethered I would guess.

But get this… about thirty seconds after I stopped and took the picture, I passed a Border Patrol 4×4 (they’re everywhere!) on the far right shoulder of the road - in the dirt as a matter of fact, dragging two tractor tires behind it with a large chain. The dust it was kicking up was ridiculous.

Then it hit me… I was only about two miles from the Mexican border. I’m guessing the blimp was a communications blimp with some sophisticated eavesdropping tech on board, and the Border Patrol dude was testing it to see if it would pick up ‘travelling illegals’ across the desert.

Prices are all over the map. Motel 6 and Super 8 are turning out to be the most expensive motels around, sometimes MUCH more. However, dinner last night at this family-run Mexican place in Nogales was — are you sitting down — $10.00. That included three amazing Enchiladas, rice and beans with a superb mole on top, plus two, count ‘em two, Dos Equis. $10.00!!! Breakfast was $8.00 at some pissy little restaurant. You really got to look around. Gas too. Sometimes $2.45 a gallon, next fill up $3.30.

Great scam going on down here with the hotels - encountered it in Arizona and here in New Mexico. Although both Arizona and NM are in the Mountain time zone, some places (entire counties in a couple of cases) don’t recognize Daylight Savings Time. Yeah I know - fucked, right? Totally. Imagine trying to find out the real time.

So, motels get in the habit of setting the clocks in the rooms (alarm clocks, clocks on the TVs, clocks on the microwaves, etc.) AHEAD an hour. The theory being that you’ll leave an hour early in the morning (without knowing it) and the room will get ‘turned over’ quicker. I noticed the clock issue right away, but didn’t hear the explanation until today when I was paying for gas and got talking to a woman in line with me who used to work in the motel industry.

So, two can play that game. Tomorrow when I leave I’m setting the clocks BACK two hours. Gotta have some fun.

By the way, this woman I talked with had a bumper sticker on her car. It read:

“Don’t worry… the King of England didn’t like the Minutemen concept either!”

Turns out she does her border duty three times a week with hubby. Sweet!

So, tomorrow is my first attempt at sneaking onto private property to photograph a former Atlas Missile site - near Truth or Consequences, N.M. Then, provided I don’t get arrested, I’ll be heading for White Sands and then Roswell. Hope to be in Roswell for two or three days (it’ll be nice to set for a spell) beginning Monday.

Before I forget, ghost towns really aren’t an issue here, at least they don’t seem to be.  There are so many abandoned towns along these back roads, who needs ghost towns.

I zoomed through one today that has one of those rent-a-sign thingies with flashing lightbulbs. It was sitting out back of a high school.  It said, “Congratulations Grad 06 - May 19″.  Well, that was yesterday.

Today when I went through the town it was empty - no one.  The post office was closed.  The gas station was not only closed but shuttered.  And there was yellow tape (police tape…?) across the front door to the high school.  Creepy man!

Reporting tonight from near the Mexican border in Deming, New Mexico