TEXAS SPACES

WEDNESDAY

I found out at the hotel in Artesia this morning that there was more scenic route I could have taken from Albuquerque to Carlsbad yesterday, but it would have added another hour to my trip.  Even if I had known about it, I'm not sure I would have had time.  It's good to know it was there, even though I missed it.

The wide open spaces provide a different perspective.  Do we have to have great scenery all the time? Do we have to be entertained all the time?  Do we have to have exciting things happening all the time?  The drive across the desert yesterday is what I call fallow time: a time with no distractions that allows me to just enjoy the space.  It gives me time to think without being oohed and ahed by grandeur at every curve. Of course I like that, too, but a steady diet of awesome is not necessarily what's best for us either.

There are lots of fields of alfalfa here in New Mexico.  The alfalfa is usually baled and used for animal feed.  After is is cut, the new growth gives the fields a rich greenness.  I remember many fields of alfalfa in Walla Walla when I was growing up, so I see similarities here.  The main difference is that the flat spaces are much large here and the hills are farther away.

The sky is overcast as I leave Artesia this morning, allowing me to see the fiery plumes at the oil wells along the way.  I am sure there were plumes of fire yesterday, but they were more difficult to see in the bright sunlight.  I continue to see a few oil wells along the way; the booms look like the giant crow heads, bobbing up and down.

Texas oil rig

After two hours of driving, I cross the state line into Texas and enter central time zone.  It's a challenge to know what time zone I am in, since it changes often, and to know the time difference for my friends and family when I call.  My car and cell phone change automatically as the time zones change.  However, my watch and my travel alarm clock have to be changed manually.  That fact can get me in some difficulty if I'm not paying attention.

I found a car wash in Fort Stockton, Texas so my car is now presentable for Bill and Phil to see it tomorrow in Houston.  The car had already gathered a layer of dirt and dust in Arizona and New Mexico before I took my off-pavement adventure yesterday afternoon.  Shiny and clean is a very good thing.

Once I get on I-10 heading toward Kerrville, where I will stay tonight, the speed limit is 80. Up until now I've been running at 70 or 75, even on some of the two lane roads.  The roads are so straight and there is so little traffic, those speeds are posted and possible.  This morning a tanker truck in front of me pulled out to pass a car when another semi pulled from a side road into the left lane.  We all pulled onto the wide right shoulder to allow the trucks to pass each other and avoid a head-on collision.  Thank goodness for wide, flat shoulders!

Long mesas edge the horizon on both sides of the road.  They appear to be absolutely flat on the top.  While I would not call them mountain, they are interesting land formations.  Like so many of the landscapes I have seen, they are equally difficult to photograph.

When I left Artesia I was heading south to Fort Stockton, Texas.  Then I got on I-10 and am heading directly east.  It's quite windy out here, enough to blow the car around a bit.  So it is not surprising I am beginning to see wind turbines, many turbines, on top of the mesas as I head east.  Based on the wind I am experiencing, turbines seem like a really good idea.  The last turbines I saw were in eastern Washington, many days ago.  I'm glad we are taking advantage of clean energy sources.

As I continue to drive east, the landscape is getting more hilly and the road occasionally goes through some cuts.  The hills are creeping closer  to the highway and I am driving through a flat valley.  The valley is quite green, in contrast to the tan and rocky mesas. Like yesterday, I was prepared for desert driving today, and have once again been surprised by rolling hills, green shrubs and grasses.  This is all new territory for me so my preconceived ideas were incorrect.  In the past, when I've come to Texas, I've always arrived from Tennessee to Houston on the eastern edge of Texas, which means I've hardly seen any of Texas until today.  By tomorrow afternoon, I will have experienced the expanse of Texas.  Like Montana, you can't make it all the way across in one day. 

I am enjoying this great expanse of country.  I don't mind that it's not as picturesque as Yosemite or Lolo Pass or some of the other places I've been, because it has it's own beauty.  What I've experienced on this trip is the great variety of landscape and geography -- and it's all good.  One just has to look at it with eyes that say, "This too is part of our country and this, too, is beautiful."  There are people who live here and people who like this more desolate terrain.  They are here for a lot of different reasons but I'm learning that I don't ever dismiss the geography just because it might not be my particular preference for a place to live.  It's good to visit, it's good to see it, it's good appreciate it for how it was formed and how long it's been here and how long Native peoples have lived in places like this and made a life for themselves.  It shows me that people can make a life just about any place as long as they've got natural resources like water and trees and fuel and things like that.

As I continue east, the road goes across and through the hills I've been watching in the distance.  I am loving this drive, so much better than I expected.

Note to Adam:  6900 miles, 27.9 mpg.  At 80 mph with the cruise control on, the car goes up steep hills and long grades, maintaining 80 mph without missing a beat -- no coughs, sputters or hesitations.

I get into Kerrville about 5:00 with no plans for the evening, except to swim in the hotel pool.  In my room, I take a quick look at the guest services directory to see if they have laundry facilities, but in the process discover that James Avery Jewelry is headquartered here.  I have known about them for years and own a few of their unique pieces.  I jot down the address, put it in the GPS, and am there by 5:15; the info I had said they close at 5:30.  Turns out they are open until 6:00 so I have time to browse the retail showroom, try on a few earrings, and drool over the exquisite designs.  Multiple buildings are scattered around the campus, including a visitors center where I watch a video about James Avery himself and how he started the business.  Had I been there earlier I could have watched the craftsmen at work.  As I leave, seven deer are roaming the campus, watching me as much as I am watching them.

Entrance to retail salesroom

Time at James Avery gave me time to pause and reflect about creativity and how it comes to us and how it expresses itself.  I am reminded once again, that creativity resides in all of us.  We just need the courage to look for it, an ear to listen to it, and the desire to give it life.

A tree for Fred on the James Avery campus