I’ve never been a fan of long driving trips. Especially not solo. I know they say to enjoy the journey, but some drives are just not fun or interesting. Yesterday’s drive on highway 40 from Gallup, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas falls in that category. Aside from some interesting scenery through Albuquerque, it was mostly scrub brush and plateaus through New Mexico. There were some billboards that were irritating…” If you’re tired of crime, vote Republican” and ” If you’re tired of living paycheck to paycheck, vote Republican”. 

I noticed some changes when I crossed the Lone Star border. Gas prices went down, the highways were a notch better, it became warmer, and the scenery transitioned to endless brown prairie and those terribly expensive, noisy, spinning, and totally-not-a-nemesis, ‘ugly’ metal losers… windmills 😜.

I felt like the pilot of a missile speeding along, swerving to miss unidentifiable objects on the highway and so many semi trucks veering from their lane, perhaps from the wind. I enjoyed listening to the Dutch House, narrated by Tom Hanks, and occasionally would ponder profound issues, i.e. why haven’t they found an alternative to telephone poles and the peculiarity of time zones changing as you travel. My sleep deprived brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. I arrived in one piece and visited the Amarillo Botanical Garden, for free, since I’m a Veteran. Listening to the birds chirping and viewing the beautiful flowers helped me to decompress.

Have a great week!