February 25, 2023 — Evening Report

Stripes Gas Station Parking Lot

(I hope it's ok to park here overnight!)

February 25, 2023

645 PM

A good day overall. I felt lonely this morning but overcame that as I got into my drive. I spent the whole day on US 90 -- Valentine, Marfa, Alpine, Marathon and now Sanderson. I believe Alpine was the only town of more than 1,000 people (it has 6,000)..

US 50 through Nevada may have the title of the Loneliest Highway but US 90 from Van Horn to here gives it a run for its money. Once again I found myself stopping frequently to take photos.-- 183 miles took me from 9 am to 530 pm.

I'm going to get further behind on my posts -- tonight I'll include somethings I remember from today.

1. Landscape photography -- USE MY POLARIZING FILTER.

2. The highway was flat!

3. Between the towns I passed through there was almost nothing -- I'm used to seeing houses dotting the rural countryside but not today.

4. The photos will show the landscape was desert with some interesting mountainous formations after I passed Marfa.

5. I had been on US 90 from Marfa to Van Horn when I was at Big Bend in late 2019. I did not remember that drive; got some good photos that I don't think I took last time. I'm attributing that to my increased ability to be present and to be observant.

6. Alpine was a neat town. Spent an hour at the Border911 community event. More on that later but I will say that I am really glad I went.

7. Topics that keep popping into my mind -- blue highways, never been across that bridge. Anchors up, jump right in, no one could stand to be with me on my wanderabout, how I still miss her, how nice it is not to watch UVa basketball and grind my teeth, how important water is to keep everything running smoothly, How I have about 50 more hours of driving to do before I get to Charlottesville, how I will write my posts when I have time and not feel bad about updating my blog everyday. How much I enjoy visiting small towns and wondering what happened (in many cases) that the town is in decline. How the people here live with the border issue every day and night. How I can agree with someone on many issues but the Deep State, the Kabal, George Soros --those topics detail me from what otherwise is a good conversation.

8. I'm bummed I don't get to revisit Earth, Texas on this leg.

9. How I will lock the doors tonight for sure. I'm close enough to the border that I don't want any trouble.

10. Interesting how I10 and US 90 parallel train tracks (for the most part).