The Open Road

I don't know what it is about taking to the open road, but I always seem to sleep better in the Winniemobile. I woke up this morning to clear blue skies, in some Godforsaken place in New Mexico and couldn't be happier. Another long drive stretched before us, most of it thru parched land, red dirt and the robotic drinking birds of oil wells that seems to be the speciality of West Texas. When I was a kid, we had an old blue Rambler station wagon. When we'd go on long road trips Dad would strap a canvas water bag to the front radiator. You could just feel it down to your toes that you were going on an adventure and the summer seemed endless. It was that kind of day. As we drove this morning all Ned and I saw were miles and miles of foot high blackened sticks poking up from fields. We couldn't for the life of us figure out what crop this was. Ned finally surmised that it was harvested cotton fields, but nothing like the California Central Valley. (To my brother in law, Eric, are we on the right track?) We zigzagged the county roads of West Texas for most of the afternoon driving thru sleepy dusty towns that were few and far between. Occasionally we'd see a red swirling dust devil twisting its way across an open field. We had several state parks to chose from and finally decided on San Angelo State Park, not because it had anything great going for it, but because it would mean a shorter drive tomorrow to Austin. We are taking care of business tonight, which means handling incidentals on the road. I'm writing this as we sit in a laundry mat in a very interesting part of town, lots of body shops and drive thru beer barns surround us. Oh wait, I forgot we are in Texas where drive thru beer barns are considered essential; why put up with the heat when you can pop a cold one in the car? Enjoy today's bleak pics - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:San Angelo State Park, TX