El Paso - typical travel nightmare

This is primarily a travel blog and what's a travel blog without an airplane horror story? I did not arrive to El Paso on a flying unicorn full of rainbows and butterflies. Unless of course you consider the triple threat of flying - screaming baby, medical emergency, and violent turbulence - to be typical with unicorns. I have no way of knowing really. But the flight to Houston hosted the kind of turbulence that causes people to introduce themselves to one another in one potential last act of humanity. As an introvert I didn't partake, but I did safely stow my glasses, tie back my hair, and locate the barf bag in case of emergency.

We landed safely in Houston where I had my first case of US-based culture shock. Everything seemed so much bigger in Texas: the people were taller and wider as were their hats and the airport itself seemed like a never-ending warren of unnecessarily long and empty hallways. And for some perverse reason I ordered a slice of pizza for dinner to just hammer it in that I was no longer in the Northeast.

I arrived in El Paso relatively late at night, stepped outside of the airport and breathed it all in - the scent of many border towns - dust, smoke, and french fries. My travel woes were to continue a little longer as I ordered a Lyft from the airport. I saw on the app that the car was near, I saw the actual car pass me, and then I saw on the app that the car had picked me up (hmmm) and driven further and further into the city. I tried cancelling the ride (which you can't do once you've been picked up in spirit - if not in actual fact) and I tried calling the driver but no luck. So I got in a regular cab and started to chat up the driver. It was fairly obvious that he did not speak much English so I whipped out my Spanish and we had a halting conversation until he mentioned that he was actually Moroccan. He did try gamely and I will not make such assumptions in future.

We had just arrived to the hotel when my original Lyft driver called me to say that she had arrived (to the hotel to bring me to the airport?). We had a surprisingly long conversation about how Lyft actually works and who should cancel the ride and according to the app she drove around the hotel for the next fifteen minutes before finally figuring it out. Texas is big. El Paso is big. And everyone has a car so the Lyft/Uber culture hasn't taken a real hold there so I had similar issues the whole week.

I had decided to stay at the Gardner Hotel which is the oldest continually operating hotel in El Paso. Opened in 1922, it is theoretically fireproof because it is largely made of steel. John Dillinger stayed there in in 1934. If you every decide to stay there please note:

• the elevator doesn't work, 
• the bathrooms are very very clean, 
• if you stay in one of the hostel rooms you share the bathroom with another hostel room and you will have to make friends with them so they don't lock you out
• has a full kitchen
• the heat does not work at all times
• there is a club next door that is bumping pretty much all night every night
• has a decidedly creepy historical vibe but doesn't seem to be outright haunted
• and I definitely thought the beds were made to put your head on the wrong end and even though I changed it every night, the cleaning staff would change it back in the morning but maybe that's just my problem. 

Next up: My first day volunteering