Roadtrips – 1982

 

Road trips-Snowed in

 

So there I was, snowed in in a town in New Mexico, just me and my buddy Jack Daniels, watching a "Twilight Zone" marathon. It was New Year’s Eve, 1982.

I was on leave from the Navy at Great Lakes, Illinois where I was attending Engineering school to become a Gas Turbines Systems engineer. On two weeks leave for the holidays, I decided to drive back to southern California-home-for the holidays. I left Great Lakes with my friend and his wife, aiming for Colorado Springs to drop them off on the way home. I was supposed to pick them up on my way back to Great Lakes too.

A snowstorm had blanketed my road all the way from central Arizona. I had driven I-10 to Phoenix and started north on I-17, with the idea of catching I-40 and going into Colorado on I-25 from northern New Mexico. The plan was to go on to Colorado Springs to get Chris and his wife and to go on to Great Lakes. I-17 had turned into a skating rink by the time I got to Cordes Junction, well south of Flagstaff, so I turned back to Phoenix, spent the night there, and called Chris and told him of my route change. The roads were clear in southern Arizona and I figured that I would drive I-10 into New Mexico and hit I-25 at Las Cruces then go north to Colorado Springs, get Chris and his wife, and drive on to Chicago, where Great Lakes Navel Training Center was located. No big deal.

After I passed through Tucson on I-10, I was in new country for me. I’d never seen any of that area before, and was thrilled to be driving through famous places. The Apache had been a story here once upon a time, and Tombstone was not far away. Chiarcahua Apache Reservation was close by too. I had left Phoenix early the morning before and I drove non-stop all the way to Las Cruces, New Mexico.

When I got to Las Cruces that night, the roads were still clear, so I turned north on I-25, figuring I’d be in Colorado Springs by morning and that Chris could drive on from there. I was 20 and had a lot of energy for driving but didn‘t. want to push my luck by driving so far by myself.

The snow started falling about 30 miles north of Las Cruces. I was driving my trusty Mazda RX-2 with only all-season tires on it. I didn’t have any tire chains, but at first I didn’t worry too much-I just slowed down and drove more carefully. The roadway was barely covered.

At first, that is.

I kept driving and the road disappeared beneath my wheels and in front of me too. It got to the point where all I saw was a virgin field of white in front of my headlights with only reflectors on posts to mark the road. The radio told me that this was an almost unprecedented event in southern New Mexico and talked about road closures all around me. And all I had were the all-season tires. I got worried a little and kept driving.

 

I was driving along in third gear, only going about 30 mph when I came upon a big rig jack-knifed on the other side of the highway. I pulled into a convenient rest area and turned around to go back and see what I could do for the trucker. His lights were on, the truck was across the road, and I wondered what I could do-I hadn’t seen anyone for hours going either way, and knew that if it was me in that position I’d be hoping someone came along and helped me too.

I got back to where the truck was and parked my car with the lights on and walked down to the truck. The driver was in his rig, talking on the CB. He got off it and rolled down his window.

"Need any help?" I said. "I can give you a lift back to Las Cruces"!

He said he was okay, and that someone was coming for him. He thanked me for the offer and I walked back to my car, which already was buried under the snow.

It was snowing harder than I’d ever seen before, the interstate was completely covered, and I started thinking that maybe this is a bad idea. I also thought that this was the first time I’d ever walked on an interstate highway and got in my car to start back to Las Cruces.

There was snow on the road all the way back to Las Cruces-road that I had just driven over was gone under the snow. I pulled into the outskirts of town near the junction of I_10 and I-25 and saw one of the big motel chain’s motels there and thought, "well I guess I’ll stop here and go on in the morning".

The motel clerk was enthusiastic in his telling me that this was so unusual for Las Cruces, but I said yeah yeah, gives me a room and parted with more money than I wanted to. I was on a slim budget, but I had a few more travelers’ checks to back me up. And sleeping in the car was not an option tonight, I thought. I went up to the room, dumped my stuff, and went down to the restaurant to get dinner. Everyone was yakking about what an unusual event this was for the area-apparently it almost never snowed there, and there were five or six inches on the ground already!

I myself was thinking oh fuck, what do I do about Chris and his wife, waiting for me in Colorado Springs? I noticed a liquor store next to the restaurant and stopped in there to pick up my buddy, Jack Daniels. Me and Jack went up to my room and I called Chris and told him that I probably wouldn’t be there to get him the next day. Chris told me that there were two feet of snow on the ground there already and that he figured I’d run off the road somewhere. He was glad to hear that I was all right, but

worried about getting back to Great Lakes too. I told him I’d try in the morning, that everyone said that the snow was unusual and would probably be gone by morning.

With that call taken care of, I drank the neck off the bottle and went out to get some ice.

I looked out the window and my car was gone, just another white lump in the parking lot. Oh no, I thought, this ain’t going to go away overnight. I went back to my room and settled in with Jack and the TV, resigned to waiting for the next day. Since I had spent so much time driving that day, a couple drinks was all it took to put me out. I turned off the TV and got into bed, thinking that I would just go on in the morning.

 

It snowed all night. I woke up on the last day of the year in a desert winter wonderland. My car was somewhere out there in the parking lot, one of the drifts over there, maybe. It was clear that travel today was not a question of when but if. I went to the restaurant and got some breakfast and listened to everyone enthusiastically telling each other what a rare event this was- snow in Las Cruces!

I went up to my room and turned on the TV. All channels told the same news. Interstates and highways closed all around and projected to be closed for at least another day.

I called the Army at White Sands, the nearest base, and asked them what the weather was gonna be like and what I should do. The guy who answered my call transferred me to the officer on duty. He laughed and said, "boy, stay where you are. Call your command and tell ’em I said so", and gave me has name and number.

I called my barracks in Great Lakes. The OOD was someone I knew so all he told me after getting my story and the Army’s to boot was that I should "use all haste" in getting back.

Stuck for at least a day- the last day of the year- in some god-forsaken town in the desert. I had my buddy Jack with me though, so after taking care of responsibilities and duties, me and Jack sat down to enjoy at 24-hour marathon of Twilight Zone episodes.

The day went by and the bottle’s level declined. Hours and hours and hours went by. I drifted to the restaurant to get some food and drifted back to the room and more Twilight Zone. The snow kept falling.

The fifth was less than half full. Yet another Twilight Zone was on the tube and I was in my own twilight zone. I heard a soft knocking, almost a scratching at the door. I listened, and the sound came again, at MY door.

I drifted to the door and opened it to find a young black woman. I said something witty like "Huh?".

She said "are you looking for some company? It’s cold outside, doncha want someone to snuggle with?" And smiled at me suggestively.

Well now, I was 20, a sailor on leave, stuck in an unfamiliar town, and drunk. Why not? I thought.

I asked how much her company would cost. "Thirty bucks" she said, so I pulled out my wallet and counted the bills inside. Damn, seven bucks short.

"Would ya take a Travelers Check" I asked and she laughed. "No way baby, it gots to be cash." I said I had to go get more change and asked if she’d come back. "Sure, sugar, you go get some change and I’ll be back around in a bit."

I was an excited boy. Here was a chance to get some on leave! How cliche! I had to do it. I so wanted to be a normal guy, and here I was, going to do something I had never done before.

I got to the liquor store and bought a pack of Marlboros with what turned out to be one of the two $20 Travelers Checks I had left. A little voice told me this was a bad idea, but that voice was easily drowned by a shot of JD in my room. I stood at the window and downed the shot, looking at the parking lot down below. My car was lost among the humps of snow in the lot, but the snow had stopped falling.

I turned on the Weather Channel and learned that the snow had moved north. I-10 was to reopen in the morning but I-25 was closed indefinitely. Going north to Colorado Springs was out of the question. I called Chris and told him that he was on his own, that there was no way I’d make it to get him and his wife and drive on to Great Lakes. There was the usual heartache and such, but there was nothing I could do so we said we’d meet in Great Lakes and said "good luck" and good-bye.

I was out of my depth- had never done this before, so me and Jack had a conference. A while passed and I was starting to wonder if it was gonna happen, but the scratching on the door came again and I opened the door to find my company. She came in, refused a drink, and asked if I had the money. Sure, I slurred, and she dove on the bed.

She pulled off her clothes and with no time to look at this body I had never seen before, tossed me a condom and said "put it on and lets go."

I was more than half-drunk and not very hard, but got harder as she reached over and rubbed my dick. We did some stuff and she opened her legs and invited me in. I had never seen a black girl’s pussy before and was somewhat surprised to see that it was pink like the others I’d seen.

From the sounds she made as we did it I was the best she’d ever had! My first hooker and I was doing well! – But the sounds she made had a scripted quality to them and because I was more than half sloshed I wasn’t completely hard either. And it was so

rt of impersonal, which was disconcerting.

It was over soon enough and the girl was on her feet pulling in her pants and blouse. So, there was gonna be no cuddling, hmm? I handed over the money and she left.

The Twilight Zone was still on, with just the rest of the episode to go until 1983.

1983 began with me hung-over and sort of ashamed. The road was open so I left Las Cruces and drove east on I-10 to El Paso, snow in the desert all the way.

I drove for 39 hours, sleeping a few in the car here and there and got to the outskirts of Chicago with less than an 1/8 tank of gas and $1.38 to my name. Great Lakes was miles away, so I spent the last hour of the drive imagining what I would do when I ran out of gas…. I really regretted paying for sex now, but was glad I had done it. A check mark on the list of personal accomplishments.

I pulled into the base, only 28 hours late from leave. I had driven across two thirds of the country and seen stuff I never had before, had gotten laid/got my first hooker on New year’s Eve, and had made it all the way back to base with just three quarters of a gallon of gas left as I found when I gassed it up the next day.

A pretty good road trip.