Driving to New Mexico

Okay, so I am not going to win awards for my narrative structure…

I think that it would be a very incomplete account of our trip if I didn’t talk about the drive. 27 hours of it (each way). Since we got he news late Friday evening, we really didn’t have time to get ready that night. What we spent our time doing was researching prices on how to get there. Basically all that we found was ridiculously expensive. As a result, we decided to drive.

The next day we slept in a bit, since we got to bed about 2:00 am. and knew that we needed to be fresh to begin such a long journey. Well, between that and going to Bionca’s mother’s house, and to the store for food and stuff (which we took way too much of) we didn’t get on the road until 4:00 pm. I drove until 11:00 pm. or so, and then Bionca took over, while I slept. The last thing that I remember is going to sleep in north Florida, and I woke up in Louisiana, as we were pulling into a Holiday Inn Express. The room was $60, and it was very nice, and came with an elaborate breakfast, which really helped get our day off on the right foot, especially since the previous night we just ate what we carried with us.

The following day, I started off driving. We brought several audio-books, but we didn’t listen to them really. We mostly listened to XM satellite radio. One of the comedy stations was running the best 100 comedy bits of all time, and that is what we listened to almost all day, start to finish. The drive wasn’t so bad actually. With my shoes off, (yes, I know that it is illegal to drive bare-footed, but my ankles cramp if I drive in shoes for long) I didn’t mind the drive. That is, until Texas.

If you live in Texas and love it, let me give fair warning, I am about to start insulting your beloved state. If that is the case, please jump down a few paragraphs. Thank you. — Management.

Out of all the places that we went through Texas was the worst. I was expecting long stretches on our journey, but Texas is ridiculous! For the most of it we would drive for 100 miles and not see two buildings next to each other, no landscape features to speak of, and generally nothing of interest. Between these stretches there would be a tiny little town consisting of like 3 blocks, where the highway would go from 70 mph. to 35 mph. If you are forced to drive through Texas be sure that you stop for gas when you have no less than half a tank. Failure to do so is likely to leave you stranded in the vast tracks of nothing that is the Texas highway.

The only large city that we came to (and it seemed to appear out of nowhere) was Dallas. I would love to say that this was the shining point in out Texas experience, but no. The roads there were ridiculously confusing, and not well documented. We made several wrong turns due to poor signage.

Texas sucks.

When we were almost out of Texas, we started The Birth of Venus. I really couldn’t get into it, and fell asleep until the time that we were in Alburquerque. The next thing I know, we are surrounded my mountains (which I can only see as silhouettes), and Bionca says that we are almost there.

And we were.

The was back was more or less the same. We finished our first book, and started on The Wheel of Time I: The Eye of the World. I liked this one much better, but it was not my first time through it. It was for Bionca. She is still listening to it. Other than that, we saw different sights, since this time, it was day at the parts where it was night on the drive there, and vice versa. The mountains in New Mexico were beautiful. The hotel that we stayed at in Texas was terrible.

That and I hate Texas.