Road Trip-Jan 19th 2009

It had been a few hours since I left my son at his new home in Texas. He was settling in, and was getting ready for his 21st birthday. He had four days off, and light duties for the next few weeks. Following 15 months in a combat zone, it's the least we can offer him.

I had to be at work in a little over 32 hours, and had 850 miles to drive. I was looking at a 14 hour drive marathon.

I started out at 3:30 AM, checking out of my tiny motel room by dropping off my key and pulling in to the street. There weren't any other people out, except a few who were undoubtedly going home to bed. I felt pretty good, despite the early hours. The roads were clear, and it looked like smooth sailing back to Colorado from Central Texas.

Since I had such a long way to go in such a short time, I decided not stop for photographs like I usually do. After I had been on the road for five hours, I had to change my mind. I was driving through the wind generator fields north of Sweetwater south of Snyder, and I found an old farmhouse, looking like it had been picked up by the same tornado that picked up Dorothy's house and sailed it off to the Land of Oz, but instead deposited this home on the edge of a Texas cotton field. The sun was not above the horizon yet, but the glow of daylight was beginning to squeeze out the darkness.



I continued on, stopping only for gas, and around lunchtime, to take a 30 minute power nap. Along the Texas Panhandle, the winds became pretty aggressive, and I was surprised to see a motorcyclist riding as though there were no problems, giving me ideas for my next motorcycle road trip.




I crossed over into Colorado around 2 PM, stopping to take pictures of the Little Fishers Peak Mesa just south of Trinidad. I made it home by 4 PM, exhausted, but having plenty of time to rest up before starting the work week on Tuesday.

The Kerouac lifestyle really looks more and more attractive to me.