12/29/2019

This past week had been very tough. A break was much needed to reflect and regroup my mental health. The best medicine is travel: so off to Arizona!

Driving through the long I-10 west corridor, I drive literally through the mountains and think, “how do they pave such long roads out here?” In answer to my question, only a lonely, sole tumbleweed coasts by, looking just like the ones in old cartoons.

Around 1 pm, I start to see snow encrusted in the crannies of the cliffs and on the tips of the mountains near El Paso.

Around 4:30 I passed a sign saying I crossed the continental divide! Then saw a rock formation standing alone in a field that had “Fraggle Rock” written in white in the side. Clever. I also saw a “star” (at 4:30??) that faded in out out and MOVED around the sky. All by itself.

UFO…..? (We are in New Mexico)…

So I had planned to camp near Fort Bowie historic site but there was lots of signs saying if road was flooded not to continue. It was a very isolated road, getting dark, and the endless rows of bone-dry empty trees with hundreds of crows swirling around them made me decide to continue on the main highway on to Tucson instead.

I also got to see beautiful colors at sunset:

And how did I get through all these hours of driving? Podcasts that talk all about cartoons! Since my rental car, sorry, rental minivan- had no Bluetooth I connected my phone to my mini speaker to have better sound. Improvise!