April 6

We got up and went to the motel again to check the e-mail in case John had sent more word of Mom. He hadn’t. I checked the Fort Wayne Obituaries as usual but found no names I recognized. We came home and I dumped, filled the water tank, and disconnected everything. We drove on to El Paso where we went to the second worst Flying J I have found. The worst is in Lake Station, IN. We spent nearly half an hour getting gas for $2.499. The kicker is that the pump stopped at $75 (a requirement of the credit card company). I had to have the pump reset and returned to the price of $2.519. The price had increased while I was inside! We went on through El Paso to New Mexico. We stopped at a rest area for lunch of more Valley food--Subway sandwiches. We also called Wayne and made plans to meet them and the Rices for brunch at I-Hop in Tucson tomorrow. We found one last fuel stop for $2.499 at mile marker 5 and filled up again. I was sure (still am) that was as low a price as we will see all summer. The surprise was that the gas in Tucson is only $2.559, much lower than I had thought. We went to the first Wal-Mart we have encountered that refused to let us park. It was a city ordinance that caused us to leave. While driving along, I saw a Lutheran Church and whipped into their parking lot. I called one of the emergency numbers posted and was given permission to stay the night. We ate split pea soup we had brought and went for a walk. We found a place to buy some cheapy tank tops for me. I have two covered with holes that I will now use for rags. Off to bed.