I am in the process of traveling to Portland, Oregon, in order to see how I like it and find an apartment. I’m taking a long route because I’ll be mooching off friends on the way to and from Portland.
Today I drove eleven and a half hours, from Topeka to the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I’m at a hotel (Econo Lodge) in a state I’ve never visited before. I started in Kansas and have been to Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. That’s four states in one day! Well, I’ve read there are thirty-six levels of deep meditation….
Albakoykee—that’s how Bugs Bunny pronounces it with a Brooklyn accent.
It’s so nice to be in a hotel, but it’ll be even nicer to be in Phoenix with my brother Francis. I’m dizzy from driving so long, like after riding a sleeper train in India or the Tube in London or riding a plane across the Atlantic. That constant motion stays with you even after your feet are finally on the ground.
The scenery I witnessed in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas was drab. Boring. Flat Fields and Big Skies. If you drive through western Kansas and the parts of Texas and Oklahoma that I’ve been through today, you’ve got to listen to tapes or CDs, preferably some rocking tunes. Just to stay awake.
After I entered New Mexico I finally encountered some satisfactory scenery. Under the vast sprawling sky was rolling landscapes with green pompoms dotting it—shrubs. Eventually I saw some genuine trees. Finally, I came to mountains, although compared to the Himalayas they scarcely seemed like mole hills. They’re elongated and so squat, it’s as if the fabled ogre/goddess pinned down by the main temples of Tibet finally got loose, got up, and angrily stomped on the mountains. As I got really close to Albuquerque, the mountains were taller and more curvaceous, like about the size and shape of the mountains around Rajgir, India. But of course, comparing the mountain range around me to mountains I’ve seen in the past is not living in the present moment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment