G.A.S.P.

The big story on January 2 was the weather.  The morning started out cold – my guess is that it was in the mid-20s last night.  Then the sun came up and it started to get warmer, but only for an hour or so until heavy cloud cover arrived.  The clouds looked like snow clouds, but I am in Arizona so it couldn't be.  Hey, what’s that white stuff coming out of the sky!  They were crystals, not flakes, but it was snow.  I hit the road anyway and survived a day of partly sunny, partly cloudy, partly rainy and partly sleety.  The only time it got bad (rain and sleet), I was just a mile from the San Simon exit and managed to make it to a truck stop before I got too wet.  It was also windy all day, but it was a tail wind (thank you, wind god) and I averaged almost 15 mph for the day.

I was planning to stay in a campground, but found that Lordsburg is the land of the inexpensive motel.  There are several on the main street in town that advertise rooms for around $20.  These are all older motels that were there before the Interstate existed and before newer motels were built right at the Interstate exits.  Since the campground was going to cost around $15, and since it is supposed to be very windy and possibly below 20 degrees tonight, it wasn’t a tough decision to check out the motels. 

The first one I went to had a big sign outside that said the price of rooms was “$20 and Up”.  I went in, asked some questions about non-smoking rooms and telephones, then asked to see a room.  The clerk started to hand me a key, then I asked about the price.  She said $24 plus tax.  I asked why it wasn’t $20.  She said rooms were $20 and Up, as she started to put the key back on the rack.  I asked how I would qualify for a $20 rate.  She backed up from the counter.  I asked if there were really any $20 rooms.  She backed up further.  I told her that she shouldn’t advertise “$20 and Up” if she didn’t have any $20 rooms.  She left, and so did I.