Wow.

We left Clear Lake, TX, yesterday (Saturday the 12th) at 1:15pm.  We stopped in San Antonio to have dinner with my favorite sister and Megan at Rudy's.  MMMMM.  Creamed corn.

Then we drove all the way to West El Paso. 788 miles.  We checked in to our hotel at 1:30 am.  In the morning.  We didn't do anything but DRIVE.

Oh, we did see one cool thing.  In some neighborhood just NW of where 1604 hits I10 on the east side of San Antonio, we saw this huge stag.  Like, 20 feet tall.  Seriously.  Kind of an "iron giant" kind of stag.

Very cool.

Then, we got up at 7:30am and drove to San Diego.  Only 713 miles this time.  We got to our hotel at 8pm.  MUCH better.

With several interesting stops along the way. There's these "The Thing" billboards ALL OVER Arizona.  I'll let Ann tell you about The Thing.  I just want to share some of the "art work" that has been collected over the years there.

Yeah, it's pretty creepy.  Then, this artist took all these tree limbs and made them into...stuff.

Yeah.  What is that?

And there are DOZENS more of these.  Maybe more than a hundred.  WELL worth the Dollar admission.

Playing catch-up

The adventure continues. We've been to Sedona, AZ, on a Caribbean cruise, and spent New Year's in St Petersburg, FL. I'm working on getting posts written. In the meantime, enjoy some signs that crack me up...

clockwise from top left: 1. Mt Hollywood Dr tunnel near Griffith Park in LA; 2. Reader's Oasis Books in Quartzite, AZ; 3. vending machine in a truck stop restroom; 4. beach in Morro Bay, CA; 5. General Patton Memorial Museum, Chiriaco Summit, CA; 6. LAX security.

1. There can be only one.
2. I can't personally attest to the nudist because it was cold the day we were there, and he saw fit to wear sweats. I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or relieved.
3. In retrospect, I wish I'd sprung for a package of PeeWee condoms - you know, for journalistic integrity.
4. Not counting reincarnations.
5. Were RATTLESNAKES Patton's secret weapon in battle?
6. Attention scavengers - don't even think about it!

Mac Davis was HALF right

So, we're in Lubbock, TX, for 2 days.  Well, 2 nights, one day.

I don't think I've spent any real time here since college.  Back in the mid 80's.  Yes, I'm old; get over it.

Anyway, as we were driving in last night, we were in the middle of the biggest dust storm I've seen in my entire life.  It was about 100 miles of solid dust.  You couldn't see anything.  Except for the tumbleweeds.

I swear, it looked like a migration.  Every tumbleweed in west Texas wanted to get to the other side of the road.  Just like the proverbial chicken.  Why, you may ask?  Because of the TORNADO FORCE winds, would be my guess.

It looked like a video game, a lot like Frogger.  We're doing 70 miles an hour (yes, maybe too fast), and the tumbleweeds were trying to cross without getting killed.  I had to stop myself from actually TRYING to hit them.  I think we nailed about 1,000,000 of them.  I swear, one of them was nearly as big as our car.  Well, my car, not Ann's Sonata.  My old one.  Not the Santa Fe.  The justy.

Yes, this is my old car.  I LOVED that car.  On demand 4 wheel drive (why would you want it ALL the time, right)?  Good gas mileage.  And I paid for it with a check.  And the check didn't even bounce.  I tried to find a picture of it that we took when I had it top of the septic mound in the snow, but couldn't find that picture.

I actually left the keys in it once, at Islip airport in NY.  For 4 days.  In the parking lot.  The keys were hanging in the ignition.  When I got back from my trip, it was still there.  In NEW YORK!  That's saying something.  Those New Yorkers are an honest group of people.

Anyway, I digress.  You would not believe the wind and dust.  I think the new Sonata needs a paint job.  And probably a new air filter.

Why anyone would live somewhere where is is a fairly normal occurrence is beyond me.  So, the first part of the song "Happiness is Lubbock TX in my rear view mirror", I still agree with.  Even after all these years, some things just don't change.