The Wide Open Spaces

There is a lot, I mean, a lot of open space in Texas and New Mexico. Big spaces. Wide open spaces! Space where you can stretch your arms out to either side, twirl around, and never touch anything, even when lossing your balance and wobbling all over the place. You can stop your car in the middle of the road and nobody is around to notice. "Seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day."

It's easy out there. No traffic to negotiate, few rules to follow, and nothing to obstruct your view as far as your eyes can see. I did get ambushed by a few tumbleweeds, but they didn't stay long, maneuvering their way around the car and moving on. (Fascinating, because we don't have tumbleweeds in Florida.)

I stopped for lunch in Corona, NM. The town consisted of a row of a half dozen buildings or so along one side of the highway and a railroad track along the other. And beyond both of those was nothing but open space. A few houses, rusty tractors, and barbed wire fences, down the road made up the rest of the community. There were two cowboys, one young, one old, at one table and two ladies and a little boy at another. Everyone ate tacos and beans. Me too.

Nothing out here is like it is back home, where the traffic moves from stop light to stop sign and you often have to wait in line for a seat at a restaurant. Back home where the beach is the only place where you can see the horizon, life seems more hectic and hurried. And talk about xeroscape......sand, rocks, grass, and a few bushes make up the landscape for miles and miles.

It's really nice out there on the OPEN road. I like being by myself out there. I feel free and timeless. But I don't think I would want to live there. I'm sure I would get bored if I stayed for very long. I think, the right place is somewhere between the middle of nowhere and the city. Somewhere not too empty and not too quiet, not too busy or demanding and not too noisy, like home but less than and more than.

It was almost disappointing reaching Albuquerque where the traffic got heavy, stores plentiful, stop lights and stop signs, overpasses, shopping centers, and houses climbing the hill sides. But my niece and her excellent family live here and I find conversation and comfort. From their living room is a panoramic view of the city that stretches all the way to the mountains beyond. I could get used to that view.