This morning I saw my future and was humbled. I ate breakfast at the interestingly named Tonopah Joe's Family Restaurant & Lounge in Tonopah, Arizona. There was one server. She was very, very old. If I cannot get myself out of restaurants, I will be her in another 30 years. A shudder of fright just ran through me thinking about it all over again.
On a more positive note, I got to have grits with my eggs this morning. The server woman seemed amused by my joy. Undoubtedly she figured I was tickled to be eating something new, or something I considered to be quaint, not understanding my deep and abiding life-long love of grits ... mmm ... grits ...
I will say this ... should I fail in Florida, and not pull off this whole writing-thing, I think I will instead climb into my old Honda with my little dog and cruise around the country campaigning against vegetable oil butter substitute. Nasty, nasty stuff. I will get the dairy farmers to finance me.
I drove about 600 miles today. I would go back out to the car and check the mileage, but I smuggled my little dog into the hotel room and I don't dare draw any attention to myself, or risk that she'll bark while I'm gone. It's a $500 fine for rule-breakers. I would beg and cry my way out of it, of course, but still. That's a lot of energy to expend. Yeah, yeah. If there's a Hell, I'm going there. Gotcha. See most of you there!
The scenery was pretty today. Lots of desert mountains, cactii, cows and some emus. At one point the mountains gave way to the crazy Roadrunner cartoon rock formations - huge boulders balanced precariously on top of smaller ones. I wanted to stop and take pictures, but there wasn't room, and for some odd reason all of the rest stops are closed. Off season? I don't know, but hope to see more tomorrow. I was also keeping my eyes open for the uber-cheesy Southwestern roadside tourist stands. I love those places. They stand there with such defiant tackiness. Ya gotta respect that. Haven't seen any yet.
I whipped through Arizona, cruising around Phoenix first looking for a bank, then a Trader J's where I bought salads, water and pistachio cookies. I ate the cookies for lunch. I had come out of Trader J's to find a woman (whom I would like to label self-righteous, but will instead take the high road and call her "concerned") shoving ice cubes through my car window at my dog. It was about 70 outside. I was in the store for all of five minutes, the windows were cracked, the car was in the shade ... Kobes was fine. She was "drooling" the woman said. "Yeah," I answered, "she does that when I leave her alone." Brian knows all about this - Kobee used to leave big puddles of drool by the office door while I was on the floor. It's one of her less charming attributes.
New Mexico flew by in the dark as I blazed toward Texas and the hope of a cheap-ish hotel with free wi-fi. And so here I sit, comfy in the Ho-Jo, full belly, tv on, computer on my lap and a king-sized bed. Good thing, too, since Kobee is a bed-hog.
Tomorrow I'm getting up early. Texas is a big, big ... BIG ... state, and I'm not all that thrilled about the next two legs. I want to get to San Antonio and relax a bit. I will wave at the University of Texas at El Paso for you, Mr. D.
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