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hugmeAfter leaving Houston Saturday evening I drove out to Roswell NM, only made one stop (other than gas and pee breaks) at a rest stop on 285 (no not the one in Atlanta) to take a 2 hours power nap....
The first part of Texas is all about oil. I had no idea... every 20 miles or sothere is another HUGE refinery... we aren't talking a little hole in the ground, these are 100 acres of machinery.
It was of course dark when I left Houston (being early evening) and I drove out I-10 all night.... the terrain turned from bayou into what looked in the dark like brunswick... however as daylight appeared right around San Antonio I could see that what I was looking at were small shrubs with a thick grass underneath them. as I traveled further out the grass started to get thinner and thinner. The sand underneath it was pale white, almost as if it had been bleached. The hills got larger and larger the landscape was beautiful, rolling hills of such shapes and colors. I took lots of pictures, even stopped on the highway to take some.
I stopped at a small town called Sonora to get gas and pee... the town is large enough to be on the map but not large enough to have more than 3 real bathrooms... the rest of the trailers have outhouses... I talked to several of the locals here... it is amazing how different their culture is... what is important and what is not. For example, they have the money to have bathrooms in their houses but they don't see a point in it... clothing and style is very important to them... religion has play in everything they do and say.... "the bible says"
I changed my CD at this point... listening to Les Mis... I do and don't need to be listening to this.... I had to get through it 3 times before I could do so without crying... sigh... this show still gets to me so much... there are LOTS of reasons for that however... sigh...
At the rest stop before bakersfield I looked up on the hill and noticed some wind mills... maybe 15 or so... as I drove I noticed more and more of them... I drove a little further and there were endless fields of windmills... thousands of them dotting the country side... it seems that this entire part of the state is run off of wind power... very interesting... the props for the mills are a lot different than I thought they would be.
I kept the Car traveling at between 90 and 100 miles an hour the entire way... it seemed to like it there... it gets just a little shakey at 120mph and really starts to shake hard at 128mph or so... (middle of the desert at 3 in the morning... what are you going to do?) in the small towns when the speed limit dropped to 35 I stayed right on that... I know better than to fall for a speed trap....
right after turning off of I-10 and getting onto 285 I saw my first road runner!! I have seen several more since... they are really funny looking!!
As I drive further and further into New Mexico the earth gets more and more desolate the grass is gone now and the brush is very thin.... only a bush ever 40-50 feet or so... some things to note: the term "river" does not nessasarly have anything to do with water... same goes with "lake" and "dam" there is a picture of a dam with no water behind it... very odd...
Roswell New Mexico!!! woo-woo!! I am here!! I went to the UFO Museum... it was about the cheesiest thing I have ever seen in my entire life!! really now!! I then went to a coffee shop that claimed they had internet access but they charged $8 an hour and you had to use their computers, no wireless.. they were running linux however... good job!! and they told me of a nice camp site... "bottomless lakes"
I have gotten tot he campsite and set up my tent.. I wish I could describe to you how beautiful this is... I am in the middle of the desert and there are three large springs that just popped up out of the ground on the side of a big hill... I amup pretty high and can see the entire town of roswell, beyond it I can see snow covered peaks rising up from the ground...the mountains are funny here, the land is completely flat up until the point where it hits the mountain then it goes almost straight up. the sky is the prettiest color of blue I have ever seen in my life...
I made rice and beans for dinner... mmm, they turned out nicely... I took some pictures of the campsite too... I don't think they could even come close to capturing what I see....
the strange purple cactus is everywhere, havent' seen a cacatar yet, must survive 1000 needle attack!! (sorry geek reference)
The battery on my camera ran out before I could get the sunset... you my reader will have to wait for another... I am sorry... it was so pretty....
Ok, let me tell you about nighttime in the desert... first off.... it was almost 80 degrees just a few hours ago... it's now 40.. there is no moisture in the air to hold temapture so it changes fast...the wind when I first got to sleep was hell... I mean really hell... nearly picked me up inside my tent... stakes were in hard though...
I got out of the tent to look at the stars... wow, just wow...
ok, imagine a cloudy night... now imagine stars so bright that not only did they perice through the clouds but they made them glow... so the entire sky was filled with glowing streaks of light with scattered pinpricks throughout it.... sigh...
I drove back into Roswell and am now stealing Internet access from one of the local shops... I am pretty sure they don't have a clue how open they are to the world... very sad... yes, must encrypt everything...
My update program crashed and this entry was gone... well... except that it core dumped... 10 minutes of sorting through the core with a binary editor and I found it again... (big sigh of relief) THIS is why I love UNIX!!
The first part of Texas is all about oil. I had no idea... every 20 miles or sothere is another HUGE refinery... we aren't talking a little hole in the ground, these are 100 acres of machinery.
It was of course dark when I left Houston (being early evening) and I drove out I-10 all night.... the terrain turned from bayou into what looked in the dark like brunswick... however as daylight appeared right around San Antonio I could see that what I was looking at were small shrubs with a thick grass underneath them. as I traveled further out the grass started to get thinner and thinner. The sand underneath it was pale white, almost as if it had been bleached. The hills got larger and larger the landscape was beautiful, rolling hills of such shapes and colors. I took lots of pictures, even stopped on the highway to take some.
I stopped at a small town called Sonora to get gas and pee... the town is large enough to be on the map but not large enough to have more than 3 real bathrooms... the rest of the trailers have outhouses... I talked to several of the locals here... it is amazing how different their culture is... what is important and what is not. For example, they have the money to have bathrooms in their houses but they don't see a point in it... clothing and style is very important to them... religion has play in everything they do and say.... "the bible says"
I changed my CD at this point... listening to Les Mis... I do and don't need to be listening to this.... I had to get through it 3 times before I could do so without crying... sigh... this show still gets to me so much... there are LOTS of reasons for that however... sigh...
At the rest stop before bakersfield I looked up on the hill and noticed some wind mills... maybe 15 or so... as I drove I noticed more and more of them... I drove a little further and there were endless fields of windmills... thousands of them dotting the country side... it seems that this entire part of the state is run off of wind power... very interesting... the props for the mills are a lot different than I thought they would be.
I kept the Car traveling at between 90 and 100 miles an hour the entire way... it seemed to like it there... it gets just a little shakey at 120mph and really starts to shake hard at 128mph or so... (middle of the desert at 3 in the morning... what are you going to do?) in the small towns when the speed limit dropped to 35 I stayed right on that... I know better than to fall for a speed trap....
right after turning off of I-10 and getting onto 285 I saw my first road runner!! I have seen several more since... they are really funny looking!!
As I drive further and further into New Mexico the earth gets more and more desolate the grass is gone now and the brush is very thin.... only a bush ever 40-50 feet or so... some things to note: the term "river" does not nessasarly have anything to do with water... same goes with "lake" and "dam" there is a picture of a dam with no water behind it... very odd...
Roswell New Mexico!!! woo-woo!! I am here!! I went to the UFO Museum... it was about the cheesiest thing I have ever seen in my entire life!! really now!! I then went to a coffee shop that claimed they had internet access but they charged $8 an hour and you had to use their computers, no wireless.. they were running linux however... good job!! and they told me of a nice camp site... "bottomless lakes"
I have gotten tot he campsite and set up my tent.. I wish I could describe to you how beautiful this is... I am in the middle of the desert and there are three large springs that just popped up out of the ground on the side of a big hill... I amup pretty high and can see the entire town of roswell, beyond it I can see snow covered peaks rising up from the ground...the mountains are funny here, the land is completely flat up until the point where it hits the mountain then it goes almost straight up. the sky is the prettiest color of blue I have ever seen in my life...
I made rice and beans for dinner... mmm, they turned out nicely... I took some pictures of the campsite too... I don't think they could even come close to capturing what I see....
the strange purple cactus is everywhere, havent' seen a cacatar yet, must survive 1000 needle attack!! (sorry geek reference)
The battery on my camera ran out before I could get the sunset... you my reader will have to wait for another... I am sorry... it was so pretty....
Ok, let me tell you about nighttime in the desert... first off.... it was almost 80 degrees just a few hours ago... it's now 40.. there is no moisture in the air to hold temapture so it changes fast...the wind when I first got to sleep was hell... I mean really hell... nearly picked me up inside my tent... stakes were in hard though...
I got out of the tent to look at the stars... wow, just wow...
ok, imagine a cloudy night... now imagine stars so bright that not only did they perice through the clouds but they made them glow... so the entire sky was filled with glowing streaks of light with scattered pinpricks throughout it.... sigh...
I drove back into Roswell and am now stealing Internet access from one of the local shops... I am pretty sure they don't have a clue how open they are to the world... very sad... yes, must encrypt everything...
My update program crashed and this entry was gone... well... except that it core dumped... 10 minutes of sorting through the core with a binary editor and I found it again... (big sigh of relief) THIS is why I love UNIX!!
