Yesterday was a lovely, relaxing day hanging out with my cousin in his new home. He left for work a little after noon (it helps to be the owner of the business) and I caught up on some of the inevitable chores associated with travel. Dinner was even nicer than the night before and he introduced me to the new lady in his life. Great company, wonderful food.
We managed to get our goodbyes said about 9:30 this morning and I had the joy of the open highway without traffic. His home is far enough NW of San Antonio that I didn’t have any city traffic on I-10. For an hour or so I was going through the hill country, low rolling hills which had to be blasted to make a more-or-less level roadway for the highway. Slowly the hills leveled and the horizons stretched out.
I love the lush green of the valley I have called home for more than a decade but somehow the broad horizons of the west speak to me. I open up as they do and my spirit soars. Before long the big sky was filled with clouds…puffy white clouds and dark, ominous clouds…jagged streaks of lightning got nearer on one side while sheets of rain washed across what probably isn’t technically desert but is maybe one zone above it.
I ran into just enough rain to make me glad I had washed my windshield and had taken the magmount antenna off my trunk. This antenna for my mobile radio allows rain to run down the coax into my trunk which is filled with clothes and other necessities.
Lunch was about 2:00 but close enough to the time zone line I counted it as 1:00. The time-and-temperature sign informed me as I left my lunch stop in Fort Stockton that the temperature was 40 degrees Celsius or 104 Fahrenheit. I zipped back up onto the highway, reset my cruise control for 80, and punched in the oldies station on my satellite radio. How appropriate…Hot Rod Lincoln! (For those of you cringing at my speed…that’s the speed limit!)
My watch had convinced me I would hit El Paso at rush hour but in reality I went sailing through there a little before 5. Other than a longish stretch of road construction, I got through town without a problem and got to the Welcome Center in New Mexico a short time later.
I’d had a great day for travel. The cloud cover cooled the temperature considerably, the clouds and lightning, the ever-shifting sheets of rain gave me plenty to watch, and I felt great. Stopping is the great reality check. I called the blogger I’m planning to meet tomorrow and told her Las Cruces was as far as I was going today. She lives about an hour north of here but even that brief stop convinced me I was really too tired to go much further. So tonight I’m in a fairly cheap hotel with not very good TV but a comfortable bed and I am quite ready to crawl in.
Esther,
I am so happy to share your trip ,vicariously, with you. Your descriptions bring back good, old memories and the excitement of doing something “out of the box”.
Hi Rick,
Glad you found the blog. I certainly thought of you as I came down that hill. I’m sure there was lots you could have shown me or told me about the city. I also thought of you when I got to LA. That’s a place I’d like to explore more with someone who knows where all the neat little towns are.
Welcome to the blog.
In case my comment to Rick was confusing, my reference to LA means Louisiana, not Los Angeles. I have no intention of going through Los Angeles on this trip!