Laura Gibson: Stranded Motel Story #1 (Texas)-- Local Cut

Laura Gibson: Stranded Motel Story #1 (Texas)

January 29th, 2007 [12:43PM] Posted by: Laura Gibson | 0 COMMENTS

[Editor's Note: Laura got this to us a week after she wrote it, but we forgive and still love her]

I am sitting, waiting for our clothes to dry at the Washateria, a laundry mat just North of Austin. Cory is busy playing the pinball machine.

My goodness, our experience in Texas has been very interesting so far. We heard that the weather had been bad earlier in the week, but as far as we could tell, the roads were fine and clear. We had allowed an extra day to make the 15 hour drive between Phoenix and Austin. Looking at the map, I picked the town Fort Stockton, as a good goal for staying the night. It would leave just a 4 hour drive to Austin, and
was large enough to have several motel options.

The drive was long, but pleasant. We stopped at a few random roadside attractions, listened to music and David Sedaris. After a long day of driving, we finally made it to Fort Stockton, around 11 pm.

Approaching the town, we saw a sign saying Highway 10 closed East until San Antonio. This was the first we had heard of the highway being closed. We figured it would most likely be reopened in the morning, so we weren’t too nervous…until we pulled into the town and saw hundreds of trucks lined up on every street. Every motel we checked out had “no vacancy” signs. Apparently all of the other vehicles traveling East through Texas were also unaware of the road closure. Since there were no other signs posted along the freeway, everyone else ended up on Fort Stockton… thousands of people.

After looking around we finally found what I am pretty sure was the last motel room in Fort Stockton. We were so relieved. Cory dropped me off and went to the store to get beer and food, while I went to the room. Unfortunately I never got to the room. The key wouldn’t work, and after trying it several times, I heard a gruff voice shouting “Get out of here! YOU’VE GOT THE WRONG ROOM BUDDY.” Startled, I went back to the front desk where the attendant discovered that they had made a mistake, and had already checked out that room. I was about to ask if we could sleep in the lobby when they remembered they had an “emergency room” that we might be able to use.

Meanwhile, Cory arrived at the one store in Fort Stockton and found it completely out of food and alcohol except for one 32 oz can of Miller High Life, which he bought. On top of that, the car wouldn’t go into
gear and he barely made it back to the room.

Back at the motel, I settled into the emergency room. It looked like it hadn’t been used, or cleaned, in a long time. There weren’t any towels and no working television, but I didn’t mind. I was so relieved
to have a bed for the evening (we did find out later that a local church acted as a shelter for stranded folks…so I guess we would have been ok). The emergency room did have one big bonus: A huge Hot Tub in the bathroom. Cory returned from the store, and we sat in the hot tub and share the 32 ounces of Miller High Life.

I’m pretty sure we managed to snag the last available motel room, and the last beer in all of Fort Stockton, Texas.

The next day, the highway was clear, and we made it to The Mohawk in Austin for one of the best shows of the whole tour. I was nervous, because I was 3rd of 4 on a bill of loud rock bands, but miraculously,
the crowd was very quiet and sweet, and lots of people came up and sat in the floor.

Next we are heading up to Denton.

love, lg.

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