Five days on the highway

It's been five days now on the highway. I'm in Bakersfield, CA as of this point but have been through Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona by now. I've been able to visit a friend in Vicksburg, take a run down Route 66 on a cool New Mexico morning, have lunch and visit the artisans in the historic square of Santa Fe, and yesterday spend a few hours walking up and down a few hundred feet of the Grand Canyon.

It's been a pleasant trip thus far and has offered some amazing scenery: particularly the setting sun playing off of a thunderstorm in Arizona as the pine-covered mountains of Flagstaff loomed blue in the distance. I don't think I've seen so many colors in one landscape: green blended into gold into red into the burn sienna of the ground and standing out against the pure blue of the sky. Pictures don't do Arizona justice.

Besides the occasional enlivening natural beauty or amusing pit stop, the trip has been mind-numbingly and inevitably boring at times. Five days cooped up with 11 people in one vehicle (we've picked up a few members of other teams who had van troubles) will leave one a bit cranky and tired after a while. Most nights I have immediately fallen asleep on my hotel bed without getting in the covers. To fight the boredom, I have been reading quite a bit-- The Sound and the Fury until I fell asleep for the 10th times in 10 pages and now the more engaging A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. The latter book follows the travels of Bryson on the Appalachian Trail and is delightfully snarky to my taste.

My second most favorite activity has been coming up with haikus. This is a new past time for me, but fills the time very well. Here's a few of my top picks, covering my time in NOLA as well as my travels...

The humid summer;
Sweat circles soaking cotton:
A case of swamp ass.

Rumble strip jolting,
Passing by Tickfaw exit.
Bathroom break: one hour.

Eight across: Hepburn.
So-do-ku not So-du-ko,
You stupid moron.

Enemy of Sun.
Eternal sweat singes scalp:
Must change my head band.

Wave baton not there,
A teammate crazy driving:
way too much coffee.

Texan twilight hour;
Faded earth in horizon;
Ruffled silhouettes.