Day 4 | end of the trek West.

So after a good night's sleep (finally), I'm ready to head off to trailer world. I got an unexpected gift from the boss today when she took the day off for her birthday, freeing my day up and pushing my workday into the evening. whew.

To continue last night's blog... actually, to do last night's blog :)

First, the truck - I finally totally settled in, I'm driving it very comfortably now, as long as the road doesn't have an attitude grabbing it about. I'm happy to have that confidence in driving something so big, and having the tires act like they should helps too. I can still get them to be squiggy, I just have to make it happen now rather than making it keep from happening. :)

Red Highway - I forgot what red Highway looked like. For those of you that don't know, I'm not referring to that crash tape they make you watch in driver's ed, I'm talking about those parts of the southwest that use native rock to pave the highway. it always seems to compliment the surrounding area so much, and I just like the way it looks. If I remember correctly the color is derived from the rain rusting the iron in the soil, giving it that reddish appearance. you can see it in the plateaus of NM and AZ, possibly NV. Its just a neat highway to drive.

Empty Billboards - a few hours in this morning there were these little towns in NM that do all kinds of tourist-trappy Indian stuff, and before each of them is usually a ton of billboards proclaiming all their specials and why you should stop in - and I mean a ton. i think I counted 25 before this one place (there were three that I remember). Anyway, I wish I had my camera ready because a sign of the times could not have been more clear. At the last stretch, they were empty. Just the hulking 16' by 40' empty spaces, 25' apart from each other with nothing on them. Waiting, perhaps, for when the establishment either reopened or when they could finally afford it again. it wa bleak - if I go back that way I'll definitely stop to photograph it. it really spoke volumes about the times many people are living in...

Scrabble - I came up with an idea for a new game. Travel Scrabble, and we may play it at our next family get together. Standard scrabble rules and board, except - you can only use locations. Two letter, valid North American States are OK. Valid three letter country codes are ok, but any words longer must be somewhere that can be put in the phrase 'Last summer I went (to) (the)'. It'll be interesting to see how it plays :)

Classic Rock - I came to an interesting realization today. The reason our uncles and aunts listened to 'classic rock' when we were younger is because that's the musice they heard when they were in HS, and learning about music. I came to this realization as 97X (not the LA variety, but ALBQ or such) tagged itself as THE classic rock station, and then played Sunday, Bloody Sunday by U2. Man, I'm getting old, aren't I.

PINK is the official music of this trip. Right now, all I know is that she is getting PAID! I've heard her latest song at least 3 times a day, with it at its peak Friday night (13 times in 8 ours). Flipping radio stations is interestin, and hearing what's popular is fun. I like the song (which is probably good for my sanity) and the only reason I probably haven't heard it more is because Woodstock's anniversary was Saturday (and I listened to it on public Radio for awhile. aside - its always interesting to hear swear words on an FCC licensed station, even if it is public radio...). I also think that if you mentioned PINK in Oklahoma and the north of Texas it doesn't have the meaning of the songstress. I don't think i heard one pop station on that tretch of the trip, or the pink count might be 3 times what it is. :)

Finally - and maybe sadly for Jill - I'm finding out that I may need to live in the mountains. Driving through Flagstaff told me alot about my state of mind. I calmed down and felt I could truly take a deep breath for the first time in awhile. The town is a little screwy for sure, but I felt a little at home there. And the views - mountains and pine trees and small roads and little wood buildings... I wonder why it is that city people always take vacations into the mountains (or beach) and mountain/beach people always take vacations into other mountains/beach? Somthing to be said for that...