08.03.07 - 11:08 am

el paso to fort stockton to houston.
some 20 hours of driving.

el paso was a beautiful sight coming out of the darkness. as the soft blue of the moonlight gave way to warm glow of sunrise, the familiar sting of a city in the middle of nowhere, finally became within reach. it was expansive. there were lots of cows. hundreds of cows, all with their heads sticking through a fence in a line half a mile long - i assume for their morning feed. there were the occasional oil pumps and in the distance the gleam of a metallic palace: the texas refinery. el paso sat wedged in between the desolate border of mexico and the rolling hills of endless army green shrubbery. the soil was white and rocky, peppered with green shrubs and brush for ever. this would constitute the majority of what ben and i would see throughout texas.

not what either of us imagined.

i pictured an extension of arizona habitat: moutains in the distance, dry brown horizons and cacti and yellow sage brush everywhere. this was not the case, as texas was far more green and lush.

hours would pass, and it would appear no progress had been made. everything looked the same in every direction. until fort stockton.

off the main I-10 E highway, a road veered only to eventually reconnect a few miles later. this small sideroad cut through the downtown of fort stockton. well, fort stockton itself actually. does having a walmart actually create a town when it would otherwise be an extended truckstop?
ben and i ate at the sonic burger. when we couldnt fingure out how to order our food, ben wanted to leave. the small structure where the food came out of was clearly marked EMPLOYEES ONLY. so we had to figure out the big metal sign next to our car or suffer starvation. with the judging eyes of the other texas citizens who mocked us with every bite of their wretched hamburgers, we made our attempt.
after a push of a button and some awkward fumbling with how to pay, food arrived, and with it, the name and location of my new 55 year old girlfriend.

parked in a van next to our car, a woman asked which one of us were from oregon. she told us she has a sister who lives out there, and she had been considering the move as well. instead she chose a job with Texas A&M. this was all very interesting. after a slight pause that seemed to end our discussion, she mentioned her sister was single. single and fifty five years old. it didnt stop there. she proceeded to tell us she where in eugene her sister lived. she listed off a street, next to some park but struggled to remember the cross road and actual address. ben and i could only humor her bizarre interest in hooking us up with her fifty five year old sister. leaving the small village of fort stockton behind we continued east, satiated.

somewhat.