Change in initial destination; Houston and then on to Albuquerque. Typical Midwest patchwork below--the trees stopped a ways back. Newark (where we ended up after a series of events I do not want to get into) was everything I expected it to be. A good place to leave behind (evil-looking smoggy, humid air through those terminal windows).
Crossing the Mississippi... Barges on the winding river 39,000' down, checkered farmland. There's something oddly beautiful about this part of the country from so far up. Land like architecture, like geometry, like Vivaldi's music.
Just flew over Austin, I think. Finally looks like the West down there.
At last in Tucumcari (New Mexico). Arrived here too late to really see anything. The drive out on I-40 from Albuquerque east was, except for the drive through the mountains, quite surprising. More hills & mesas & trees than I expected--prairie interspersed with pinon-juniper woodland (or so it seemed to my utterly-exhausted eyes). Now to bed.
Sitting in the car waiting for the museum to open. Enchanting country all the way here. We took 209 south, climbing up through the caprock that surrounded us on all sides and up onto the Llano where we are now.
Downtown Santa Fe: boutique hell. The schlock along I-40 (Rt. 66) is far preferable.
Did our Telluride/Southern Rockies thing today. Not everyone was exactly thrilled. I enjoyed it. The drive across western Colorado--passing by Paradox--was interesting, those high peaks and green meadows turning by subtle gradations into red rock desert. But for the most part it was excruciatingly slow, switch-backing up mesas and down into valleys and then back up again.
It's as though I've never been to canyon country--it still surprises me and makes me remember in a "This is the Place!" sort of way. Saw Arches National Park today; took the drive out to Devil's Garden. It was a far vaster world than I imagined (if I imagined it at all). Together with the Canyonlands area, Dead Horse Point, Moab Canyon itself, this town clearly takes the prize. What prize? Some prize.
Torrential downpours, lightning, thunder, flooded streets, high winds--at home we'd call this a tropical storm.
Criterion for place of residence: a search-and-rescue team. Speaks to the adventure quotient of the area.
Drove the South Rim of Canyon de Chelly tonight (saw Spider Rock). Watched the sun set.
Took a different route here today, down through Window Rock and Ganado. Never knew so much high country was on the Navajo Reservation. Interesting, but I'll take the sagebrush plains of the Little Colorado Valley any day. Saw more of Petrified Forest National Park this time, including the fabled Blue Mesa. Sublime--one of my favorite parks.
Moving by degrees into the real desert. Can feel it in the air.
Las Vegas is not the desert; Vegas is the denial of the desert. Like Palm Springs. And Phoenix. As for myself, I like Las Vegas but do not love it. I don't think it's really possible to love it. It is so different from the rest of the Southwest, even its larger cities. Maybe it's the sight of the smog that greets you as you drive into Vegas on the interstate; maybe it's the sudden profusion of trash along the road when you get within fifty or so miles of the Vegas metro area; maybe it's the maniacal way people drive on the freeways ringing the city--as though they're in Los Angeles or New York (and many of them at one time were). Even watching the local evening news tells you in some vague but unmistakable way that this is not a nice place. I don't know.
Done with Vegas for '99. Left the casino tonight with $205.00. First time I've left with more than about $20.00, I think. So it goes. In Vegas you never really win; you merely minimize the regret.
2,472 miles driven!
Awaiting our flight. Almost "home". I already feel like I'm back on my old schedule. May pass.