Road Signs

We got a late and hungover start out of Phoenix on Friday with a good portion of I-10 awaiting us for the next two days. I noticed the various road signs. Truck trailers proclaim, "America stops without trucks" under a picture of an 18-wheeler with a stylized American flag in tow. A green Arizona road sign declares in all caps to suggest importance, "RODEO NEXT EXIT." "Maintain your vehicle," Texas instructs in its didactic and self-important style. A highway construction warning sign seems to belong on Twitter rather than the roadside: "B SAFE NO B4 U GO." I am not clear what is warning us of, but appreciate the public service announcement. "Don't pick up hitchhikers. Correctional facility in the area," seems to be the most grim of the warnings.

And then there are the billboard updates on what our old friend Jesus is up to. "Jesus is coming." "Jesus saves." "Jesus lives." "Jesus is the answer." I silently thank the billboards for answering the question, "what is Jesus up to, anyways?"

Texas Canyon in Arizona provides one mile of huge rocks and boulders amidst a desert of sand and sage brush. A glowing New Mexico red sky lights the land and makes it feel other-worldy, presumably from a distant forest fire. And then the entrance to Texas on I-10: "El Paso 22, Beaumont 852." That is just like Texas, always bragging about its size. And a string of national parks and monuments, from Pipe Spring to Saguarro to Guadulupe Mountains, provide a new mystery or adventure just off the highway every hundred miles or so.

Places with crooked roads, I have learned, are far more interesting. Any reason that causes a road to wind - be it mountains, existing structures, ocean - is a good one. Windy roads are superior to straight roads. 852 miles of straight Texas interstate awaits.