OK, on the surface that seems like a pretty dumb thing to say, but let me explain. This week we had a managers meeting in Odessa, Texas. About a four and a half hour drive from El Paso. Like we usually do, we take off with a half tank of gas, some snacks and the plan is to stop along the way to fill up our tank and tummies at the same time.
The Trip… We plugged the address into the GPS, turned on the book on tape (really a CD) and happily motored down the road. The GPS is set to take us the quickest route, which in this case is across the plains and rolling hills of Texas. Texas has a nice system of roads, most better than in California, the scenery is impressive and maybe even a little majestic. The mile markers roll by and we see the destination signs… 56 miles to some small town. We get there and it’s an abandoned motel, a gas station in the same condition and a bar. Now I'm curious why the bar can survive, but not the motel and gas station, but I shouldn’t get sidetracked.
You know our optimism – no problem, we still have a quarter tank and the next town is only 60 or so miles down the road - press on. Next town… same story! Now if I'm in California, at every bend in the road there's a gas station with a c-store [for you not so savvy travelers, a c-store is a convenience store like a 7-eleven or AM-PM]. Even in the middle of nowhere, in California there's a gas station.
Ding, the gas tank warning light goes off. Now here's where I realize that we’re in Texas. Nothing but open roads with abandoned motels and gas stations. We’re starting to get worried. I'm checking the cell phone – no service. MB is searching the GPS for the nearest gas station – no results. The miles roll on. Ding, ding, ding – the final warning. We turn off the CD as it’s making us even more nervous and reduce our speed to conserve gas.
To add to the pressure of the moment, we’re a little snug on time. Us? It’s our first meeting, new job, the boss doesn’t know us that well and we want to impress him. As usual we had to accomplish one more thing as we headed out the door and then get on the road, later than is prudent. There's a dinner and we need to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 6:30 pm.
Finally, we see a billboard – Pecos… gas, food, lodging. We’re ecstatic. I check the miles and calculate the gas… it’s dicey. Slow down a little more. Cars and even trucks passing.
Texans are a friendly lot. They wave as we pass and they pass us. I'm hoping that the friendliness translates to helpfulness, because when we run out of gas somewhere in the middle of Nowhere, Texas, we hope someone will help.
We see the town in the distance, I'm stressing… it’s uphill. Finally we pull into a gas station, breathe a sigh of relief and say a little thank you to our guardian angels. The 15 gallon tank took 14 ½ gallons of gas.
The meeting… Great meeting! The interesting part is that we were at a recently remodeled Holiday community. It’s a historic, 8-story hotel in the middle of downtown that has been converted into a retirement home, Lincoln Towers. The pool area with its surrounding ‘cabanas’ are enclosed and attached with access from the lobby. The community is impressive. There's a bar fixed up in an old west cowboy theme complete with a false stage that they use for special community gatherings. You can just picture some outlaw playing poker and can-can girls dancing to the honky-tonk piano playing in the background. We loved it.
There is a bit of history also with some intrigue. The couple that runs it, Don and Teresa are fun and tell a couple of stories about some ghosts. After spending that night there, I'm sorry to report no sightings or inexplicable happenings.
On the way home, we did a short side trip and went to see another Holiday community about a half hour away in Midland, Texas. We seem to enjoy stopping at other communities and snooping around for ideas and such.
By the way, we made sure we took the interstate home and started out with a full tank of gas!!!
