The Windmill Posts

Another long day. 350 miles or so. Almost all of it was on state highways, and that’s totally the way to go. They have a ton of passing lanes, and those cute little towns and so on. Also worth noting that only idiots like me take state highways any great distance. So whomever may be slowing you down up there is quite likely going to be pulling off at some point. Especially local trucks. Texas isn’t so bad but I’ll be glad to have it in my rear view mirror. Back to reasonable sized states with lots of vehicular exchange with their neighboring states.

There were windmills in the morning with almost no wind. Their incredibly slow rotations are like some sort of ballet, especially when it’s a field full of them. Crisscrossing over each other like slender limbs. Solar farms have nothing on the dance of the windmills.

Some day windmills will be gone or different than we know them. They’ll be ground level and inconspicuous, or we will have figured out the friction vs energy gained ration is out of wack or something. Regardless, much like the fact that we don’t see the classic old windmill on farms as often as we did, some day someone will talk about how there were so many white windmills and how pretty they were. Except Palm Springs. Those endless fields of white spinners will be kept up as ornamentation for a wind based cult in that desert valley. Harmless folks, really, unless you mention cold fusion.

Hey remember how I said I wasn’t going to talk about malls as much? Guess what I’m going to talk about again? Yes! Malls! Good job!

Passing through the small (or medium, now) town my brother went to college in, I thought to look up that mall where I got those two CDs. I guess I should clarify that CDs were fairly new, and more importantly, expensive. So buying two of them was probably close to $40, which apparently is like $125 today.

The mall is still there, and doing surprisingly not horribly. Obviously they weren’t going to have a Camelot music any more, since they were bought and sold a bunch of times and are long gone now. But I needed the stretch and thought maybe I would come across something familiar.

I remembered it being near an angle, not a square corner. And it “flowed” left, if that makes sense. Well, after a false positive, it occurred to me that the Internet exists. Maybe some nerd has been tracking the changes in the mall and locations of different stores going back into the 1990’s. What? They did! Thanks for the map and the map store position numbers as reference, not only for the last position but the position it moved from.. And so, I give you “Not Camelot Music” in the associated picture. Or at least my best guess given the info provided.

Bit more allergies today, but getting better with Loratadine. Left hand sharp pains are a bit better until the end of the day. Can wrap and ice pack if needed. Taking Tylenol on the regular. Legs are okay though, making it through the long days just fine. And there you have the “old man aches and pains” report for today.

Lots of boring straight line road time to get right into my head and sit there and stew, but I kept it to as much of a minimum and possible. My future looms dark and ominous and it’s hard not to think of it. I can’t remember if I’ve talked about this yet, but you carry yourself wherever you may go. As I watch cars with little u-haul trailers, I think of all of the people going from one end of a state or the country to the next, moving for jobs or family or other life things. And I think about “Maybe I could live here,” but I don’t think I could leave home. Because it’s home. And no matter where I would go, something would be wrong, like too many giant pickup trucks or frequent flooding, or cockroaches. And I would bring myself. So I might as well remain where I am familiar.

New Orleans tomorrow!

Deets

• License Plates: None new
• States: TX
• Departed: 8:00 am CST, 67 degrees
• Original ETA 1:40 pm CST
• Arrival: 2:00 pm CST
• Warmest/Coldest: Death Valley 90°, Wallace ID 22°
• Weather: Gray, then bits of sun, then sunny and hot. 87 for an observable high. (Meaning that’s the highest I noticed on the dashboard)
• Music: Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska, Tears for Fears – Songs from the Big Chair, INXS – Kick, Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits and following Spotify mix

Observations

• I saw real live cotton fields. Logically I know they’re a current crop, but something in my head was surprised since they are from history
• The heart of Texas is very.. German
• Had an existential ketamine moment thinking about how the particles of ourselves left at a place we visit will eventually spread to neighboring communities and then everywhere. Woah.
• Drove through Pecan territory. Took me a second to figure it out. Orchards of orderly rows of trees that look like they were plucked out of someone’s front yard. But there are hundreds of them. and they’re all identical.
• The desert in mid Texas is similar to the desert in west Texas, but the height limit has been raised, so now there are tall scrub and medium trees.
• Crossed the Colorado river on e beautiful bridge and it was super tiny. River, not the bridge.
• Seeing so many more raptors, they love to sit on the power poles or sometimes the power lines. Like each field has two or three sharing the bounty..
• I love that Texas has so many passing lanes on state highways
• I’m feeling out of place because I’m the only non-Texan license plate on the road. I’m sure I’ll see more states as I get closer to the edge of the state.
• Favorite internal quote of the day: “Oh so this county doesn’t put recommended speeds on their turns. That’s fun.”

Pictures

Just the one you saw up above. Remember, this is The Great Crossing, not The Great Taking Pictures. Don’t worry, it’ll get better soon.