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Meanwhile

Can someone explain to me what relative humidity is? “Relative Humidity”. We all say it, but relative to what? Relative to how much moisture the air can hold at that altitude and temperature? That would be logical to me. How is it that we wake up in the morning in Arizona, it is raining, and the relative humidity is 49%? I got on line. It was raining on the Texas coast too, but the relative humidity there was 99%. Is the rain that much wetter in Texas? Were the raindrops that much farther apart in Arizona? The air was filled with water in both places. I don’t understand relative humidity.
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Fort stockton

A windy west Texas day. A little difficult driving in the crosswind, and difficult because Interstate 10 is a trucker’s freeway all across the southwest, until Interstate 20 splits off east of Van Horn. More trucks than cars before the split, lots of leapfrogging, hardly a truck to be seen after. We have a favorite KOA in Fort Stockton. It’s always nice to stop here. They do things different in Texas. They’ve got big long roads out there. The speed limit out west? 80 mph. We didn’t drive that fast. What we did do though, is continue driving (about 60) in strong crosswinds. In every other motorhome we’ve had, we’ve pulled over when driving in the wind felt dangerous. I’m sure that could still happen with this one, but I think we’ve already driven through conditions that would have stopped us before. Meanwhile, we’re watching the weather reports about the Denver area, buried in a blizzard. It’s currently snowing at the rate of 2 inches per hour, with 40 mph winds. It’s supposed to continue through the night and all day tomorrow. All the interstates are closed. The airport is closed. Colorado is basically closed. The Christmas blizzard of 2006. Tomorrow… Lost Maples State Park outside San Antonio. That’s the place we finally got the green kingfisher a couple years ago.
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Last week

Renting the motorhome was odd. We went to their shop, looked around the different motorhomes, picked one and asked, “What would it cost us to rent this for a week?”. Simple question, maybe even an obvious one, but he seemed unprepared to answer. The response… “It depends.” “Do you have a weekly rate?” “No. We rent by the day.” “Okay, then, what is the daily rate?” “It depends.” “Depends on what?” “Date and availability.’ “The date is now. Are you telling us you may not have any available on Monday?” “No. We have plenty available. I just can’t tell you what it costs to rent one until I go back to the computer.” It turns out this entire exchange was legitimate. It might have cost $400 for a week, it might have cost $1,400. There is no standard rate. Cruise America prices their motorhome rentals like airlines price their seats. It depends on where and when you call, how long you want to rent, what day you call… maybe even what hour you call. There was no way he could tell the rate without putting our trip into the computer. We finally got the rate. It was about the same as renting a hotel room with a kitchen for the week. That seemed reasonable, so we jumped on it quick, before it changed. What a smart way to run a business. Variable pricing as a function of demand. It changes every day. It is a well designed process. Check-out and check-in was a breeze. There wasn’t much going on while we were there, but they said they’ll check-out thirty rigs a day out of that location when they’re busy. Wow.