driving across texas.

once, what feels like a lifetime ago, i picked up, left my life, and flew to the most southern tip of texas.  probably one of the most impulsive things i've ever done, but i needed to go.  i stayed with my lovely friend Y and her wonderful family and got a wallop of that famous texas hospitality.  i was definitely leaving with a taste for authentic tex-mex cuisine (to die for), new country music, radiant texas sunshine that permated right down to your bones, fresh salsa and exquisite mexican tequila, that no matter how much you drink, just floats into your blood and doesn't make you more than tipsy.

when it was time to go home, Y was to drive with me to houston, where i was flying out.  however, i couldn't make her do the 8 hour drive again (she had come to pick me up) so i rented a big red truck (of course i had to have a truck - it was TEXAS - go big or go home), packed up my one little bag, and tossed a handful of CDs onto the passenger seat.  definitely one of the highlights - probably of my life. 

the texas landscape is much prettier and varied than the flatlands of the prairie provinces - we've done the drive out there and it is quite boring. along the highway, there are huge, rambling longhorn ranches with great big farmhouses, fields of flowers, orchards and tiny little towns.  because i chose to take Route 77, i also caught glimpses of the gulf of mexico.  i watched a brilliant sunset from the side of the road and enjoyed the texas twilight.  i passed by the cutoff for waco and tried to take a photo but it was too dark.  i got stopped at one of those famous highway patrol stations where a drug-sniffing german shepherd took stock of my truck and a silent state trooper with a rifle waved me on my way.  i was actually sorry when i pulled into the bright houston airport and had to relinquish the truck.

lately, i find myself thinking about that long drive and how the solitude surrounded me.  i'm not much of a traveller, but i love long drives.  i probably should have driven all the way to texas and back, now that i think about it. 

i guess the idea of leaving everything behind, being somewhere else, just for a brief moment, is a little appealing right now.