Existential Dust

We arrived in CA today, staying in Twentynine Palms for the night at a rustic (or maybe "artsy") inn. The drive to get out here was pretty nice. I do think I'll enjoy California, at least if it keeps being all mountainy and peaceful. I'm sure that will wear off after a bit, but right now, after coming from the Land of Flat, I'm liking having stuff to look at off in the distance, or in some cases, off in the very-close-by.

A few random musings from the trip so far. Driving through New Mexico yesterday whenever we would hit a flat patch out in the desert area we would see a sign that said "Blowing Dust May Exist". We all found this amusing, envisioning dust having a crisis of existence.

My worst experience on the trip so far occurred at a gas station as we were wending our way out of Louisiana. It was an Exxon station and there wasn't much else around. My general rule (at least from here on out) is to not stop someplace unless there are at least 2 major fast food chains around. It seems that when we haven't followed this rule we end up at a gas station where they seem to pride themselves on stocking only Bud, Miller, and Coors products rather than the cleanliness of their restrooms.

So anyways, we found ourselves at this Exxon station to fill up and unload. Walking into the Men's room (the type where there can be only one person at a time and you damn well better lock the door behind you) one immediately sees a sign on the urinal informing patrons it is out of order. However, based on further inspection (and a rank odor) we see this hasn't really stopped anyone from trying. Moving to door number 2 we see that no one has deemed it necessary to flush the one working commode in some time.

As you can imagine, the smell in the restroom might be labeled "Unsatisfactory" by this point. They do attempt to counterract the smell with one of those Airwick deodorizers that sprays a burst from an internal aerosol can every few minutes. This would be great if not for the fact that some sick bastard decided to affix this thing to the wall roughly 10 inches above the hand-dryer so as I'm drying my hands I all of a sudden get a blast of Ocean Breeze to the face. All I can say is thankfully I wear glasses or I'm sure this would have been a much more painful experience. The major downside to this predicament is that I spent the rest of the drive to Houston with this horrible stench burning my nostrils. That is why this qualifies as the worst experience on the trip so far.

I hope you've enjoyed this laugh at my expense.