1/5/08

You know what sucks about driving for eleven hours? It takes eleven hours. Today I kept looking for a fast forward button, but I couldn't find one.

After running back and forth along the Columbia last week, I went online and found a download of Oregon Trail, so I've been playing that quite a bit lately. In the spirit of adventure, there was no way I was staying on the interstate today. I angled up through Arizona and New Mexico, starting out along US-60. I got to go across Salt River Canyon, which is a drive I recommend everyone make... once. It was freaking intense. There were a series of hairpin switchbacks taking us down the wall on one side of the canyon. Then, after the bridge across the river at the bottom, another series of hairpin switchbacks scaled the wall on the other side. As I climbed the east side, I got a good look at the road I had just traveled down the west side. Holy shit! That's one of those roads you look at and think, "There's no way people could drive a truck there." Well, your loyal blogger did today and it was fun. It would have been more fun with a light load, but I'll take my diversions where I can get them.

After I made my way out of the mountains and into New Mexico, I was again reminded that we haven't gotten rid of New Mexico yet. Worthless piece of crap state. No wireless signal for my cell phone. No wireless signal for my internet card. No radio signals. I caught about ten minutes of the fourth quarter of the Redskins game, but I didn't like what I heard. I really hate football. Then I got about a half hour of NPR, so now I want to move to Iran where I can apparently enjoy more freedom than I have in the U.S. Who knew?

I knew that I needed to cover some serious ground today, so I was targeting somewhere past Tucumcari. I also knew that I wouldn't have any luck getting a wireless signal anywhere outside the major cities. I've been in the midst of a few e-mail exchanges that I would have liked to catch up with friends, so I tried to stop at the Flying J in Tucumcari. That was almost at the eleven hour mark, so stopping a few minutes short wasn't going to kill me. I don't know if there's an actual definition for the word 'clusterfuck,' but the illustration would probably involve that Flying J. What a mess. So I headed back out onto US-54 and went a little further north. No wireless signal. C'est la vie. I'll get caught up tomorrow. Sorry Mandy.