Westward Ho The 'Wagen

I am back in New Mexico where the skies have drama unknown elsewhere. As if to say hello crossing the Texas-New Mexico border they opened up and a desert downpour flooded I-40. Then as if by magic at night they cleared and the stars came out.

The sky speaks.

Then there's the desert spring wind that comes up suddenly, blows sand and dust and dreams in your eyes before it goes.

All is magic in the Land of Enchantment. The many desert shrubs, trees, cactus and flowers are in bloom.

Clouds rise here as nowhere.

It has been an interesting journey. One night at a rest stop in North Carolina, the next at a motel in Tennessee—an independent owned and operated by a couple from India. A handsome man and a beautiful wife.

He saw my bus. "My father has an old car in India," he tells me. "How old?" I ask. "A 1936 Ford. He only drives it a few miles now and then, then cleans and polishes it. It is almost like new."

The third night I'm at a Walmart  in Arkansas, appropriately. The fourth at a KOA campground in Oklahoma. Only $21 (no tax)  and nice facilities.

Travel Centers of America, Santa Rosa, NM.

The fifth night is at an all-night Travel Center in Santa Rosa, NM. There the comings and goings of trucks and cars ceased around 11 o'clock but a neon glow creats a backdrop setting for dreams of color and light as I fall into sleep.

Coffee in the morning though was a depressing $1.61 for a small cup.

By dawn's morning light the diesels began cranking and the 18-wheel behemoths one by one began rolling on to resume criss-crossing America.

Trucks at truck stops come in all colors.

Oddly at stops like this I see all kinds of trucks but seldom Fedex, UPS or USPS trucks.

I-40 from Santa Rosa to Albuquerque is 114 miles of gentle ups and downs and opening vistas in all directions. The last 20 miles or so is a downhill slide into the basin that houses Albuquerque where I-25 bisects the state east and west just as I-40 does north and south.

The sun came out as I turned left and headed south.

By evening I was in Elephant Butte Lake State Park overlooking sapphire blue water reflecting clear New Mexico sky.

The marina at Elephant Butte Lake State Park in sapphire blue water.