It’s kind of nice living out here in the boonies. I don’t have to really put up with noisy neighbors, although there is a family in a trailer down the road that sometimes annoys me, there isn’t steady traffic going by at all hours of the day, no smog and pollution, and no stupid city ordinances either. The downside is that in case of emergencies help can be anywhere from a couple of miles away (local volunteer fire station) to several miles away (nearest hospital and ambulance dispatch is over 20 miles away). It often times seems useless to call the police because by the time they arrive on the scene the dispute or altercation could have already been settled. For example, one time I was involved in a fender bender out here and it took State patrol over an hour to arrive. Lovely.

As you can probably imagine, having a cell phone out here is a necessity. The electricity is prone to going out due to bad weather and/or high winds, likewise we’ve had quite a bit of trouble with our telephone lines to boot. I can’t imagine what we would have done without a cellphone, seeing as how most phones now a days require electricity in some manner (the base). Not that long ago, during a really bad thunderstorm, lightening struck our transformer. Oddly enough, we’re the only ones hooked up to that transformer on this street. On top of that, electricity went out for the entire town shortly there after. I sincerely wished I had a portable cell phone booster at that moment. My mother’s phone wasn’t getting a signal at all and I was running through every room, stumbling in the dark no less, trying to find just the right angle so that I could call in and report the power outage. Sometimes I got a signal, but even though I could hear the person on the other line they couldn’t hear me. Since our transformer was struck there was no “just be patient, others will have already called it in” for us.

Sadly, that’s not the only time I’ve been in need of a portable cell phone booster either. Where our house is situated, it’s about 5 1/2 miles from the freeway, once you’re on the freeway it’s about another 15 miles to the nearest city, Las Cruces. The fastest way to get to LC is by the freeway or frontage road, both of which have a nice stretch with no exits after you pass Vado and Mesquite. I remember one time I helped a woman and her son who were in a bad accident on the frontage road, my cellphone had no problem connecting what so ever.

Another time, in the middle of the night (around 1 am I believe, maybe later) just a bit further down the frontage road my tire literally blew out and sent me spinning a bit. Because of the loose sand on the side of the road I had a hard time keeping the car level to jack it up, I forgot to put my flashlight back in the car, and two of the lugs on the tire were not budging. I tried calling a towing service but couldn’t get a signal. Eventually I got the tire off and changed and managed to get a call through to my mom to let her know what had happened so she wouldn’t start worrying. When you’re on the frontage road or freeway, there are a few houses close to the exits, but for the most part it’s just a long stretch of desert.

Oh certainly there are other roads to travel by, and there are small villages dotting the path to the cities. But in between those spots you still have nice stretches of nothingness to get through, as evidenced by the shot of highway 478 through my car’s windshield to your right.

Ironically, when I cross the border from Deming, NM to Palomas, Mexico I loose my signal immediately. But if I cross the border from El Paso into Juarez I can get service sporadically. Considering the plan I have is supposed to give me complete coverage where ever I go, even in Northern Mexico due to its proximity, you would think I wouldn’t have to worry about being out of range. And sadly it’s not just because of my carrier either, I’ve been with Altell, T-Mobile, and Verizon and the problem persists. Sad huh?

And people wonder why I have two bottles of bottled water, a sleeping bag, and a pair of tennis shoes in my trunk at all times alongside my tools. You never know when something is going to happen.