Exactly what I thought would happen did. For those of you who know me well, you know I wake up at four o'clock every morning. My body is so conditioned, it's nearly impossible for me to sleep past that time. Now what do you suppose happens when I wake up in California? Yep, you got it. One o'clock in the morning. Wide awake. I forced myself to go back to sleep and managed two-fifteen, but that was it.Really, it wasn't so bad because it allowed me the time to write yesterday's post. Quite a bit transpired, and it took time to get it all straight. Today, I won't need nearly as much time. Why? One word...desert.
I was on the road at a little after four local time, and it was obviously dark. I spent a couple of hours driving east before there was even a hint of sun, so I was ignorant to my surroundings. When the sun finally came up, I realized that I had been pretty much dumped out in the desert with absolutely nothing around except a few other cars.
All I could see to each side of me was sand, scrub and mountains. I drove for a while with visions of Sam Kinison (if you remember his bit back in the eighties) screaming at the top of his lungs about the people who are starving because they live in the middle of the desert. I guess I have a warped sense of humor.
At some point in high school, I think as a freshman, you take earth science. Today could have been a topic for that class, because I learned today that there are many kinds of desert. There's the sand and scrub like I described already. There are sections with thousands of giant saguaro cacti. There is a kind with giant round rocks piled up in bunches like they fell from the sky. There is the canyon-y (I just made that up) cuts in the rock that show all the layers throughout the history of the earth. There are also very cool passes that you wind through every once in a while. Who knew?I also learned that that the desert is very cold at night. While I was out here driving through a twenty seven degree desert in Southern California, the air conditioning was on at my house in Upstate South Carolina. Go figure.
Driving through the desert is actually enjoyable. The scenery changes enough to make things interesting, and you just need to set the cruise control and tie a string to the steering wheel. It's pretty easy. I did manage to find one kitschy place to take a picture of my car. By the way, I looked up the definition of kitschy: "something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality". Anyway, there were like five hundred billboards for this thing called "The Thing?" along the road for about a hundred miles. When I finally got to Exit 322 (see, it worked. The exit number is engrained in my brain for life). I could see the building right at the end of the exit ramp, so I jumped off the highway and took a picture.
Not much else was exciting other than a few grass fires along the highway. I did cross the continental divide, but it was pretty anti-climactic. A small green sign flew by before I could take a picture of it. I really didn't expect it there because it was on a huge flat plain. I've stood on the continental divide in the Rockies, and it's quite an obvious feature. Here, not so much.
I made it to El Paso Texas, which was my goal for the day. Seven hundred fifty miles total. There is quite a bit of snow here, so I sure am glad I decided not to take the northern route. Tomorrow, my goal is Shreveport, LA. Basically, I plan to cross Texas in a day. Eight hundred and twenty three miles. One third of the trip will be spent in a single state. Yep, everything is bigger in Texas.
I'll keep my eye out for more kitsch.
