Tuesday, August 16, 1977
Ross hitched into El Paso, Texas, arriving via Interstate 10 in the early morning. I found him walking down Yarbrough Drive, North of Trawood Drive. At dawn Gaylon Page's collies barked loudly next door, reminding Ross of PeeDee and Numie, Ellen's griffin-like Rhodesian Ridgebacks from Greywood in Yellow Springs, Ohio. After chicory-flavoured coffee we sat down at the drawing board to plot another "flipped out" scenario involving the Great Old Ones. The day's musical selections began with "Bend It" by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich (1966). That evening on El Paso's KTSM Channel 9 the lead story on John Chancellor's NBC Nightly News was the death of Elvis Presley. I loaned Ross a clean, wrinkle-free white shirt and we drove to nearby Juarez, Mexico for dinner at the Casa Del Sol. Ross feasted on a huge, freshly grilled black Boquilla Bass. Coming back through customs Ross proudly proclaimed himself a citizen of the United States of America with no contraband to declare. A Ross day to remember!
