More Arizona chatter

While we were en route to Tucson, we had to spend a night on the road in each direction.  Coming and going.  And to get ourselves a motel or hotel, we had to choose a city to stay in and then call ahead to find a place to sleep.  Since we didn't know the route, had never been there before, etc., etc., we had to get some help.

On our way to Tucson, I was doing a lot of the driving on the first day so I put Liz in charge of finding our abode for the night.  But neither of us really knew what cities lie ahead of us.  We imagined that El Paso was a good place to stop... but we had been warned against staying there.  And we really didn't want to be heroic and say that we could tough anything out... we really did want to be safe.  But where would we head?  How far was El Paso?  Should we stay this side of El Paso or that side of El Paso?

Liz called Hotels.com expecting the reservationist there to know their properties.  That IS what they do there, right?  One would think.

Liz got a gentleman on the phone who recommended we stay IN El Paso... even though Liz explained that we didn't want to do that.  She tried to diplomatically tell this person that we had been advised to the contrary.  That it perhaps wasn't safe for two gals travelling alone.  The person on the other end of the phone seemed perplexed.  Yes, he did.  If we didn't want El Paso, just where did we want, he wanted to know...

Liz asked him to tell us that.  She figured he had a map.  He had to...  and after a few minutes of shuffling around, the Hotels.com man suggested we might want to stay in Van Horn, Texas.

Uh, we were currently IN Van Horn, Texas.  And we wanted to go further.  The hotel man then suggested we cross into New Mexico and look for a hotel there.  Although he could NOT tell us a city that would be good to stay in.

Then I heard Liz ask the hotel man exactly where he would stay if he were us.  Where would he fell safe?  Suddenly Liz grew quiet.  It turns out that the reason he was clueless is because he was ... get this ... IN THE PHILLIPINES.

I then heard Liz say, "Never mind.  We'll get ourselves a map."  But before she hung up, I heard the hotel man suggest that Liz find a gas station... you know, to get a map.

I tell you, that man just made our night.  A gas station.  Who would've thought?  I just don't know if we could've figured that out without his help.
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