I stupidly made air and hotel reservations for this week, but not car rental. No one has anything. Which should have been obvious. I thought about the difficulty of staying in Las Cruces, and got a hotel in El Paso, but it didn't occur to me (as it should have) that everyone would be flying into El Paso and renting cars there.

Is anyone going there this week, and staying in El Paso, from whom I could bum a ride for five days? Including tomorrow afternoon, when I get in?

Rand

Call the local Ford Dealership in town and ask them if you can rent a car there. If that does not work try some of the other dealerships. I have been able to do that with success before.

Otherwise find an RV dealership there and rent an RV and dump the hotel room. You can set up at the site and host a party with the money that you save on gas going back and forth from EP to LC!

Dennis

Probably kind of late to be calling car dealerships now. I guess I can try tomorrow, if things are bleak enough, when I get there.

I can't dump the hotel room--it's already paid for (though I didn't pay that much, so that's worth consideration--the only problem is that I'd have no broadband).

Rand: You can catch a ride with me if you want to hang around until around 9:40 pm when my flight gets in. We'll have two-three cars for two-four people so you can join the SpaceShot crew if you want. You can borrow my car for the day Th if you are not doing White Sands for the service of a drop off. Which hotel are you staying at?

Rand

I am thinking seriously about bringing my solar powered satellite internet trailer out to the X-Cup. I could provide limited broadband service. Would that be worth $10 per day per person?

Dennis

> I stupidly made air and hotel reservations for this week, but not car
> rental. No one has anything.

Keep trying. They're holding back some cars. The Avis web site said they had no cars available, until I entered my Wizard number (Platinum Preferred status). Then I saw cars in the Subcompact through Full Size categories.

Also, try Enterprise. They may not have anything at the airport, but their website shows 12 locations in El Paso. I clicked on a couple, and they're showing plenty of availability. As their ads say, "We'll pick you up."

I'm Emerald Aisle with National. They told me on the phone that they had nada. I'm hoping that they'll have cancellations, and something when I get in. But if I get one, I expect to pay through the nose for it.

Thanks, Sam, but I find the prospect of hanging out at the El Paso airport from 2 PM to 10 PM less than enthralling.

Yikes Sam! Is that your phone number you just posted on an internet comment thread? Wowzers =O

There's a whole strip of crappy auto dealerships on the road that heads east toward Dell City and Carlsbad, you can probably pick up a Reliant K for $250 somewhere.

More practically, have you called U-Haul or something and seen about renting a van or a light-duty pickup?

I could provide limited broadband service. Would that be worth $10 per day per person?

It'd be worth it to one person. They'd most likely use an access point to resell it for $5/day.

This may be being too obvious, but you may want to try one of the consolidators like hotwire.com. Every once in a while I'll find something available that way that isn't available via the straightforward routes.

I bet you can rent a Harley in El Paso. Might even be able to rent a motorcycle. Hope something works out.