Dust storms....not

Since I reached the California desert before crossing into Arizona, there have been big electronic and stationary warning signs about dust storms. I’ve seen them before but because there’s so much wind and wind gusts, I’m paying closer attention. Travelers are told to pull over, turn off engine, and take foot off brake – to wait inside the vehicle until visibility has returned.

So when I drive through the rest of Arizona and enter New Mexico, as it’s getting dark, I feel the truck getting sluggish and wonder if the elevation is increasing – I think it is but I try to switch to diesel to test it, and my truck seems to go as fast in diesel as it is in veggie oil.

I want to make it to El Paso to visit chosen family but soon I’m just trying to make it to Las Cruces, as there’s a rest stop there that I love.

Not only is my truck sluggish, but I’m starting to see bits of dust flying around so I REALLY want to get to the rest stop. It’s cold and dark but I don’t realize exactly how cold it is until I stare more closely at the dust particles and suddenly I see that it’s not dust but fuckin snow – yes, snow in southern New Mexico, almost to Las Cruces.

I am barely able to get the truck to go 45 mpg, then 40, then 35. Switching to diesel makes it stall out completely, which I can’t afford to do on the highway.

I pass a Love’s truck stop, debating whether I should forget trying to make it another 7 miles to the rest area and spend the rest of the night at the truck stop. I decide I can’t cope with a bunch of 18 wheelers running their engines all night, and what’s another 7 miles but by the time I crawl into the rest area, I see unfuckinbelievely that the fuckin snow is sticking. I’m able to just barely swing off the road onto the shoulder behind another truck when my engine dies.

I’m unable to restart it so I can’t run diesel through the hoses and I know this bodes very bad for starting tomorrow. I can only hope it is not as cold as I think it is – veggie oil doesn’t like to run under 40 degrees and it has to be at least 32 in order for there to be snow.

I have to walk about 2 long blocks to get to the bathrooms and pass two lanes of trucks, many idling as they wait for the sun to come up.