Thin Red Rock Line

Sountrack
Remix of  Red Hot Chili Peppers - Road Trippin'

Every state is different in the Southwest. From Texas to California, as soon as you cross the border it is like entering a different way of looking at life. I did not expect this, because the Midwest is a series of crop farms, flatlands, sometimes a deciduous forest.

After leaving Dallas I really enjoyed the fields with large tufts of green grass, and cows grazing on them in clustered formations.  When we entered New Mexico there was a gradual buildup to the red rocked hills, slowly with hills and equally spaced apart bushes then giving way to the sparse tree here and again. The occasional towns we came across had a little more creative flair, mostly being artistic interpretations of Southwestern Chicano culture or something regarding the Native Americans way of life.

Once we really started enjoying the New Mexican landscape, the billboards abruptly and startlingly began. Amber and I were on the phone in our separate cars at the time, then we saw about five billboards in a row advertising the same rest stop area which was coming up soon.  The first one was about ice cream, the next was about Native American jewelry, then hand made blankets or ponchos, etc.

It's worth mentioning that Amber and I are both susceptible to marketing, but we have different preferences. I did not care about these New Mexican kitsch things at all, and once they got to the 20th or 30th (not exaggerating) billboard in a row, I was actually a little offended.  Amber on the other hand, said over the phone, "I think we need to stop at this place!"

I said, "No, I won't be tricked into buying crap just because they use excessive advertising."

We were both exhausted. Our defenses were low.

"It's starting to work on me!" she told me. "I need to buy gifts and postcards for people. Let's just pull over."

I knew they completely got her when she said, "That billboard says they have 'cool things,' I need to know what the cool things are."

About twenty minutes later, Brutus and I were laying in the one spot of grass we could find in the large parking lot. He sat under the one tree he could find, and I near him, staring at a clear blue sky past the branches while eating a $3.50 grilled cheese (because a lot of restaurants don't know what to charge me when I ask for items without meat).

At some point I called Amber again to see how things were going in the store, and she was very excited about the stuffed bear they had, and the stuffed buffalo, and the many sarapes they had. We agreed she could take as much time as she wanted and I stared again at the sky through my sunglasses, cars driving past my little grass island wondering where the strange bearded man and his rabbit came from.  I looked over at Brutus who was glued to the tree and eating some kind of prolific plant I never saw before.  I hoped he wasn't poisoning himself, but I didn't want to stop him from the little enjoyment he had. Instead, I felt the logical thing to do was eat some of the plant as well; better we both die together.  This is what made sense to me in the heat. I concluded it actually tasted pretty good and reached for some more. Eventually Amber came to collect us and we continued.

Arizona

All of this stuff is just my observation.  From a highway trip, no less. Every state has myriad places to enjoy and different culture. Who am I to judge any experience of an entire state from my brief time there? That being said, when we first entered Arizona I was completely let down. I made a fool of myself later in my immediate judgement, but when we crossed the border from New Mexico to Arizona it wend from red rocked cliffs to flat dead grass and pebbly roads.

Remember Spike, Snoopy's cousin from Peanuts? I know he lived in the California desert, but the cactus landscape looked exactly like the Arizona licence plates, so that's what I expected. This is paper thin logic, I know, but what can I say.

We got to Flagstaff and stayed the night there. At the time it felt like a small town with a mountain looming overhead, which was kind of interesting in a way. I mentioned on facebook that I was a little disappointing with Arizona, and a few friends including the far better traveled than I, Brandis, explained to me about Flagstaff being quite popular for the mountains and the forests.  She also told that there is much more to Arizona (like Sedona) to be seen and enjoyed.

I suspected I was going to learn not to judge so quickly, and I was. The next day's drive was amazing! The area around Flagstaff (on the Western side of it anyway) was very pretty with the mountains and the many evergreen forests. Originally we were going to go the Grand Canyon too, but we decided with a bunny patiently riding shotgun and our time schedule, we should come back when we could actually appreciate it.

The rest of Arizona had winding red stone mountains, very impressive and festive towns, and we saw many cactus covered hills. At one point the view became so amazing that Amber and I both pulled over at the same time, because we both had the idea to take pictures. That was fun.

As we crossed the desert before entering California I thought about how terrible it would be to break down there. It was so hot! There was a beauty to it, but I also felt like many people may have died of thirst crawling through this desert at some point. Occasionally there would be an abandoned building for no reason, or a hollowed out auto body shop just left there with no one caring enough to even bulldoze it to the ground.  Just the shells were left. It was kind of fascinating.

Then we crossed into California, which was actually quite surreal, but I'll post about that next time.  For now, the lesson of the day is don't think you know everything about a place at first glance, you'll just look stupid... except for Arizona, which I will forever refer to as a either the disappointing East Arizona or majestic West Arizona. The other lesson is that I never learn lessons.