We left Tucson Arizona and headed east to El Paso Saturday, thinking it would be a nice little border town that we could relax in and enjoy. Unfortunately, we experienced the opposite of all that.
Henry gets us up around 6-6:30 everyday, no matter what, so we arrived in El Paso around 11am Saturday. At first glance, it seemed pretty nice. Big northwestern mountains with a city below. Laura called on an RV spot that was apparently a site only for military, so we started looking at all the options available. This is where it all started.
I found one that was southeast of town. To get there, we drove through the craziest freeway system I've ever driven through, let alone, pulling a 22 foot trailer. We got to the RV site and it was full. All around us was barbed wire fences, trash all over the place and sketchy ass people everywhere. Unbeknownst to me, the other side of the fence was Juarez Mexico. We kept searching. The next one was a little more south of the second one we checked out, right on the Mexican border. It too was full. To get there, we had to get back on the freeway and navigate multiple exits with very busy traffic. We keep searching.
The last one we found was also full. We gave up and found a cheap motel in the southern area of town we were in. Bad idea.
I roll into the Motel 6 and it is sketchy. I instantly felt like we could get in trouble here from the surroundings and the people coming and going. We decided to just give it a chance and drop the trailer off and go get some food, because by this time it was about 1:30-2pm. I drove it to the extra parking in the back and backed it into a spot by a dumpster wall, thinking it would be hidden from the hood rats all around us. It's 90 degrees to btw. I am sweating profusely.
When I got it unhooked I went inside to hang out with Laura and Henry for a minute to figure out what we were going to do, then a very conspicuous man came walking toward our trailer and truck. He was on his phone, clearly checking out our vehicle. He took photos of it and looked like he was waiting for me to come out to rob us or something worse. It freaked me out!
He walked back into the hotel and later returned with two other guys, equally sketchy people. I thought we were in big trouble. I started gearing up to be able to protect us if something went down. To unload the trailer, you have to put the stabilizer jacks down and that takes a special tool with a nut driver on one end and a swivel on the other. That would've been my weapon if the manager didn't come out.
The lady comes out and the three disperse. She comes up to me and says, "your trailer isn't in view of our cameras, you should move it." I was like, nope, I'm out.
I jumped out in a frenzy and re-hooked the trailer, watching my back the whole time. I called the Hilton downtown and got a nice place to stay for the night, right next to the University of Texas and the children's hospital.
The whole experience got me thinking that with the rhetoric the past 4 years, angering the Mexican people with the wall proposal and hate speech, no wonder these people wanted to rob or hurt us. This all continued.
We rested for a bit at the hotel and decided to venture out to El Paso Brewing Co. for some beer and dinner. When we walked in, the guy behind the bar was clearly not interested in helping us. However, he was very helpful to anyone of his ethnicity. He played around with them and joked, laughing etc.
He was immediately rude to Laura. When Laura walks in and says, holy crap you have all the beers I like on tap and all the food I like too! That's a huge compliment. He replies, "what, do you want a flight or something" with a super pissy tone. I started getting pissed off. Here we are trying to give this dick some business in a clearly struggling downtown sector and he's going to talk to my wife like that? I kept it chill and ordered what I wanted.
We ordered tacos from the waitress and this prick was our cook. I was watching him like a hawk. The waitress walks the order back and hands it to him and he rolls his eyes and shakes his head in anger. I was mortified that this dude was going to feed us. Both Laura and I were worried that being we were now the minority race, that we were in fact being impacted by racism.
Trusting he would just do his job, I ate his food and found it to be pretty good. Mainly from his hot sauce. We both loved his hot sauce so much that we wanted to buy some to use on our food that we cook. The waitress say's, "let me talk to my manager about that." We both were confused by this, so I watched her walk back and talk to the guy that was being an asshole. He was the manager. She comes back up and said, "the manager has left and I am not sure how to ring that up." That moment confirmed they were working against us. We both got a little pissed and just packed up and walked out. I still left a tip.
On the way home, we stopped at a gas station to fill up for the next day. We were both highly upset by the entire day we'd experienced. I go in to snag something to drink and the whole store is Mexican folks. I walk in, there's two people to my right, a lady mopping the floor and a guy behind the desk. I couldn't get by anyone, so I said, "excuse me". Nobody moved. I said it again, "excuse me", with a louder voice and started just walking toward the guys in my way. They budged about an inch. I had to brush up against the candy bars and minimally touch the dude with my back. I said, "sorry". He just glared at me. I got my drinks and walked away from these dudes toward the girl mopping. I walk up and she swiftly drops her mop handle in my path and said, "this section is closed". I was like, "what the actual fu%k?". She says, "go around" with a snotty tone. I look at the guy behind the desk and he began laughing.
My temper started to flare up a bit and it was getting difficult to control my actions with all this prejudice and taunting I was getting from these guys and this entire town. I walked around by the two dudes again, didn't say excuse me and just brushed past them. I walk up to the front desk and the guy was chuckling still. I almost unleashed on his ass but decided I better not because this is their town, they run it and I am a honky from the outside. I hated the feelings I had and can only imagine growing up or living as a minority in similar situations everyday. It has to be very challenging not to be upset all the time being treated like this.
I got back in the car and told Laura about it. She was pissed. The level of racism and blatant attempts to taunt us to a point of feeling unwelcome, was something I had never experienced before.
I do not have a racist bone in my body. I never have. I see everyone as equals and we should treat each other with respect and kindness. The Golden Rule, if you will.
I'm not sure why they were so hateful toward us. Is it Trump's fault? Biden? Your Mom? ICE raids on the border? Too much Sun? Spicy morning turds all the time? Maybe because we are White? Are all boarder towns like this?? Who knows. It sucked. They suck. I try to empathize with everyone and I have to say, I lost a little empathy Saturday.
As an American, I am saddened to think I am unsafe in certain areas of the country, but this is true in every city/state if you happen upon it. It is what it is and I am happy to have gotten out of there unharmed and to still have my trailer stabilizer jack tool in pristine form and used for the right purposes. I'll never return and I will not be recommending El Paso to anyone.
Moving on.
We left early Sunday morning to head to Carlsbad New Mexico. To get there, you have to drive through the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It was awesome! El Capitan sits proudly as the highest peak of that range and is in view the majority of the drive. It was a steep road to climb and the Colorado struggled a bit, as we are near our max towing capacity. We made it to the top and descended into Carlsbad. Carlsbad is a town that reminds me of Nampa and Caldwell. It stretches out for miles with big box stores and small diners and gas stations. It feels safe here and a bit more normal. No attitudes and more family friendly.
We got to our KOA and settled in for a few days and planned our adventure to the Carlsbad Cavern National Park. Today, we will be heading to check out the caves and check out Carlsbad a little before heading back to the trailer and packing up for our trip tomorrow. It's a bit gusty in the wind department today. Nationally we are directly in the jet stream of our weather system. It'll die down tonight and tomorrow it should be very nice for our 2.5 hour drive. We're hoping for a better experience today than what was experienced previously in El Sketcho.
I'll post some pictures tomorrow from the Caverns when we land in Midland Texas for a night.
Have a wonderful day and stay safe out there!
Nate
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