South by Southwest

Western Texas is stunning. I-10 headed West. Do it.

Everyone warned us. "It's going to be so boring. There's nothing out there." But it's the nothingness that gets you. It's timeless. It honestly felt like time travel. It's cowboy country. And that's all there is to it. We saw every form of livestock from llamas to cattle to sheep to goats to rams. We saw abandoned buildings and old pick up trucks that lost all signs of life. But the thing that really got me were the oil rigging pumping jacks. They're like mechanical soliders out there, bobbing their heads to the ground in a slow, rhythmic motion. And they're everywhere. It's so weird but I could have watched them for hours because it's so erie. It's a metaphor for so many things - our country's quest for oil, obviously, but also of the industrial revolution - machine taking over for man, just slaving away unattended and after a while unnoticed as it just begins to blend into the scenery.

Leaving Austin, by the way, was beautiful in full daylight, no fog clouding the view. Before we hit rural western Texas we stopped in Fredericksburg - an old German-influenced town that has some relationship to the Pacific War. I should know my history, but I don't. In either case, it's an adorable little town. We couldn't stop talking about how cute it was - and I kid you not, a school bus full of little blonde children drove right by us. It's like magic-adorable-town USA. We also stumbled across an amazing coffee shop/bakery that is apparently famous nationwide, and been featured in all of the best cooking magazines, and also Oprah's. "Rather Sweet: Bakery and Cafe." It was so quaint, so hidden, with a little well outfront and everything. Seriously magical. Again. I felt like I had gone back in time. Or maybe that time had stopped, I can't tell which.

We moved through Western Texas at rapid speed. Not even trying to sound poetic - the speed limit was 80. So we averaged about 95. Even got into a sweet racing game with a sporty little red car beside me. We got out the video camera and documented most of it. She was an awesome sport though, once she caught on. It was fun. And it's always fun and games until you get pulled over, which I did, of course, in Pecos Texas. Never want to go back there. The speed limit is 60 when you enter the town, and I was abiding by it- but it suddenly drops to 30. When I noticed the shift it was too late. But I got off with a warning. It's funny - we almost hit a black crow when we started off this morning. Talk about bad omen. And I also had a very distinct feeling I'd get pulled over today. Psychic! But it turned out not to be a big deal. And life continues.

New Mexico left us all speechless, really. It's the same desert terrain - the grass a burnt golden hue littered with green brush and cacti. But as we headed into Whites City (yeah, that's a place) to check out the Carlsbad Caverns the sun just hit everything with that extra glow and I think we collectively dropped our jaws. Jeff summed it up pretty well, "what IS this place?" And then we hit the road that took us to the Caverns. A winding road up the crest of a partially eroded/partially blasted? hill. It was so good. SO good.

This video doesn't do it justice, but you should probably watch it.. and turn your volume low.


When we got to the top of the hill, we discovered that we arrived 5 minutes before the Caves closed for the night. No big deal, we'll be glad to go back in the morning. The view was worth it, even at the top:


We drove into Carlsbad at 6ish Mountain Time. (Did you know the whole state of Texas is technically Central Time?) We were pretty hungry, since we skipped lunch for the most part. So we drove around and found the classiest joint in town. We knew it was classy because the sign out front just said "RESTAURANT" and it had the most business. Also, it was between that, a ton of Chinese places, fast food chains, and a place called Funn's Family Diner. The choice wasn't that hard. We knew it was classy when a 50 year old greaser rolled up next to us on his motorcycle and buttless chaps. Oh - and don't worry - he made sure to run that comb through his slick hair before entering the restaurant. CLASSY!

But honestly, we're loving every minute of it. The weirder, the better.

This is America. And I'm not even saying that with distaste. Frankly, I think it's amazing that there is SO much variation. There is so much we don't know about our nation -about who we are as a collective whole, but also about who our neighbors are as real people. Variation is freedom though, right? I've never been more proud to be an American. To stand beside people with an entirely different culture from my own and say, "hey, we're in this together, right? We've got nothing in common but we're living under the same roof." I don't know, I just think that's pretty cool. And if you think you'd hate it here because you believe in stereotypes, I challenge you to explore it for yourself. Closed-mindedness works both ways.