Spring Break, Part I

So I'm home. I'm not dead in a ditch somewhere, and there were no disasters along the way.

I did get pulled over for running a red when I left campus. Talking to a cop at 0530 is not fun, but I managed, and I wasn't written up, for reasons I won't go into here. Leave it at the fact that I'm lucky.

The road to Alamogordo is long and boring, but there are at least quite a few rabbits out there, and a massive hawk on a power line. I will never like Border Patrol agents. I don't care what their job is, I can't imagine how the heap of laundry in the back of my car is even remotely threatening. It's a week old, yeah, but that doesn't make it a chemical weapon or anything.

Alamogordo. Is. Boring. Ech. I was on edge until I got past it. Stopped for pictures, and then I was off.

Two lane highway after Tularosa. One of the most adorable little towns ever, and then off in a flare of rising sun. I saw a roadrunner!

I have invented a game. Smile and wave at every semi truck that you pass. Often, they will wave back and look absolutely delighted that you waved at them. It's great.

Stop often. Take pictures. Run out of film after about four hours.

Pull off on a forest road to nap, take the last couple of pictures, then toss back a 5-Hour Energy and open a piece of bubblegum. Back on the road!

I don't understand why we take the interstate to get places. When you take it, here are a few things you don't see:

-A hawk or bird of prey perched on a power pole and silhouetted against the pre-dawn glow on the horizon.
-Rays of light streaming through the valleys of the mountains to the east.
-Seeing a glimpse of the land on the other side of the train tracks through the drainage culvert under them
-Cresting a hill and seeing rolling hills with dry grass so fine and gold that it looks like fur all the way to the horizon
- Tiny towns that are little more than three houses and a sign saying welcome.
-Roads winding through old pinon and juniper
-Seeing the smile on the face of a trucker when you smile and wave as he goes by
-Black cattle scattered across a field of yellow winter grass
-Flushing birds from the short grass at the side of the road and seeing them skim across the road or go up and then wheel away from you
-Watching clouds gather to the west, far away from where you are
- Just pulling over at the side of the road and wandering off for a minute
-Old, old graveyards hidden in the trees

Now you tell me....is it worth an extra hour?