Random traveling thoughts

If you have ever driven across the country,  you know that parts of it are fine, parts are great and parts are just plain boring.  It helps if you have either good music or good books on CD or both.  One can sing along to the music and in moments of incredible boredom, talk back to the narrator of the book.  In fact,  you can create your own character that argues with the characters in the book.  Case in point:  I listened to a Michael Connelly book and early in the book they were talking to someone who was in no way a suspect, but I knew right away he was the one who killed the girl.  I tried, politely at first, to explain to Detective Bosch why he should give this guy a serious look.  As the novel went on, I began to rant at the detective, pointing out that for someone who has been a police detective for more than 30 years he was a total joke, an embarrassment to the force.  He did not listen to me and I have to say that I was 100% correct:  my suspect did commit the crime.  At least it gave me something to pay attention to.  Interaction is always important on long road trips and Cooper is just not willing to participate in my verbal diatribes these days.

Justice:  at one point a black sports car zoomed around me and many others, skipping along at least 90 miles per hour when the speed limit was 75.  A menace to the highway.  Imagine my delight when 10 minutes later I passed him as he sat on the shoulder of the road with a friendly CHP, getting a fat ticket!  There is some justice in the world after all.

Gas:  gas gets cheaper the farther east you go.  I bought gas today for $3.23 a gallon.  Not bad.

Highway: again, if you have ever driven long distances you know the freedom of the road, the cool thrill of cresting a hill and seeing the road just waiting for you, a dead straight line until it hits the mountains in the far distance.  I know some people hate road trips, and I get that.  They can be boring. But even in the boring parts (think north west Texas, or Highway10 from Blythe to Tuscon) there is a sense of "getting away with something."  Like you are skipping school, or running away from the law.  (And maybe you are!)  I think it is in part because we are all so regimented in our lives, we have jobs that tie us down, family commitments, bills to pay.  And because of those things we don't take the time necessary for a road trip.  Road trips by their nature have a beginning and an end, but they can be totally random in their individual map.  You can just drive to the desert and hang out and drive back.  One of the things that the invention of the car spawned is the ability to simply move along.  I think people don't move along enough, they don't pack up some crappy snacks and simply drive.

Highway 10:  the stretch of 10 from San Antonio to New Orleans is quite lovely.  Rolling hills, wide open sky, nice sagebrush, no billboards, few gas stations, just like you would want Texas to be.  It is a good road and a good drive.  However, the stretch from El Paso to here (and I have no idea where I am right now) is just flat and often ugly.  But still it is fine. 

Hotels:  Cooper and I drove out of Tuscon this morning at 6:30.  We started looking for a place to stay around 3:00 Pacific time, which is 5:00 Central time.  We finally found a place at ten minutes to 7:00 (5:00 California time.)  That translates to almost 12 hours in the car, close to 10 of them spent driving and over 700  miles today. I hopped in and out of the car about 8 times, looking for a room.  One young and kind front desk guy at one place called another motel and yes!  They had a room!  I was over there in 5 minutes. It seems that there is some kind of oil boom happening here and for the last 2 weeks all the hotels and motels are full almost every night with oil rig workers.  They leave at 5:30 in the morning, get back 12 hours later.  I am lucky to have a very nice room on the third floor, not in a sleazy Motel 6, with a great view of flat Texas.  And to clarify, I stopped in Odessa, Midland and am actually in Big Springs right now.

Midland, TX:  as you come into town (what there is of it) there is a large sign telling you that this is the home of George W. Bush and Laura Bush. If I had lived in a place this flat and ugly, I would have done anything to get out of town.  Well, maybe not have the Supreme Court appoint me President, but anything else.

Pizza:  my  musings were just interrupted by a knock on the door with my pizza, which I was told would arrive around 9:00.  It is not even 8:30 and here it is!  Delicious.  Must go eat some more.  If I had my camera from the car I would send you a photo. Maybe tomorrow.  So much more to talk about.

Below is a photo of Midland, TX decades before GWB lived there, during the Dust Bowl days, with the huge cloud of dust pouring over.  FYI, if you are interested in history and especially history of the Dust Bowl, check out Tim Egan's book, "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the American Dust Bowl."  It is a great read.

Over and out for now.

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