The End

Well, I can't say it was glamorous, but the end result of my cross-country trip is a good story, a great new job, and the 3 pounds I earned by sitting on my ass and eating fast food for a week. Obesity is truly an American epidemic - all trans-fats and highway miles.

American Express was quick to respond to my distress call, so I've got money in my pocket and a new credit card on the way. The camera, however, is gone, which is why the picture accompanying this post came from a Google search. I did, however, hike the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, which, in addition to rock formations, featured cattle and a bunch of mobile homes.

(The loaner photo reminds me of this band I saw in New York. They get old slides from garage sales and garbage cans, and then refashion them into a $10 audio-visual show with their daughter on drums.)

I'm having some difficulty getting used to the sun, but am otherwise very happy here. My roommate is very smart and very fun, there's a great yoga center (lots of rich women with fake boobs - hysterical), and I'm already vested in the ASU retirement plan. What more could a single, 26-year-old woman ask for?

The Short Version of a Long Drive

Non-speaking, walk-on role in a WEIRD Austin short film. Old man with arching German accent time travels and returns as a black Lab. He decided to stay in the present upon seeing Scout. Or something like that.

Eight or 10 or 12 hours from Austin to El Paso, of which I remember only thinking, "It's an electric border flower field." (Acres and acres of yellow street lights, stretched out flat across the desert.)

Truth or Consequences, NM, an off-kilter hippie town with the janketiest mineral baths I've ever seen. Just rows of tubs separated by partitions, fed mineral water by PVC pipes.

Bosque bird sanctuary. I would show you the pictures, but my car was broken into and my camera (and purse) stolen at a dog park in Santa Fe.

But, I met some really nice people from Michigan who brought beer and lasagna to me at the hotel.

Austin is HOT

It's Ali's and my third day in Austin and we are very pleased to find that it's everything savvy travelers and the NYT Travel section promised: bright skies, urban renewal, funky bars and friendly people. It's also liberal and activist, which means I'm feeling right at home.

Nobody told us how dog-friendly the city is, so it was a nice surprise to find that Scout is welcome nearly everywhere and that the city park has a huge riverfront area designated off-leash. After four days of eating on my lap in the driver's seat, it's nice to have a meal that doesn't have an aftertaste of styrofoam.

The weather is gorgeous - warm and sunny during the day, cool at night - and the men are HOT. Not just regular old good-looking hot, but Matthew McConaughey-rugged-athletic-tanned-toned-polite-drawling HOT. And way better than the guys I saw at the truck stops in Arkansas.

I could definitely live here.

That's right, we're not from Texas

Yesterday I drove through Arkansas, which from highway 40 seemed to be an altogether unremarkable state. A few Clinton references in Little Rock, a mangled and burnt tractor trailer, and, finally, traffic moving at 80 mph were its only standout features. I did spend about 15 minutes thinking I'd killed my dog by feeding her pumpkin seeds, but it turned out to be a panic attack brought on by the noise of tractor trailer traffic.

Texas, however, is beautiful. At dusk the sky looked as though it were splitting end to end to reclaim the sun. I was surprised by how green the pastures are and how blue the sky is - like a chambray blanket falling softly over the horizon. The clouds are as still as if they've been in the same place since they were scattered by the Big Bang and the sagging roadside antiques shops are honest enough to advertise that they sell nothing more than old junk. I thought it was funny that McMansions have spread to the ranches, many of which have replaced their old farm houses with four-story, faux-brick mansions and matching stables.

Today I met Ali in Austin, where we checked into a Super 8 and walked for awhile beside the Colorado River before heading downtown for dinner and margaritas. At the restaurant we ran into a guy I know from Buffalo and watched cheerful protesters amble by with pro-life signs and happy indignance.

Quite possibly the city's best feature, at least as far as I'm concerned, is that dogs are welcome nearly everywhere with a patio. At dinner, Scout enjoyed the French fries and Ali and I enjoyed eating somewhere other than a park bench.

And then, glamorous creatures that we are, we capped off the night with a trip to Target so that Ali could get white-girl hair dye. Apparently, they've got nothing lighter than chestnut in Mexico. Can you imagine?!

Memphis, Memphis ... Memphis, Tennessee

Yesterday I woke up in Cincinnati, at the house of a very cool woman named Annabel and her dog, Josie. Cincinnati was a surprise - much nicer than I'd imagined - but the snow I slogged through in PA and northern Ohio was not.

Scout and I tracked south and west through Kentucky, over the rolling hills and around the white split rail fences. We stopped for lunch in a small town called Bardsville, which called up memories of being a tiny child in Jackson, WY. Small buildings, pickup trucks, and a pharmacy with a lunch counter slept in the thin sunshine.

After lunch, we drove and drove and drove, accidentally crossing the Mississippi and then tracking back to a dirty motel in Memphis. So far, good radio, bad continental breakfast.

Today should be a better driving day, since I spent much of yesterday afternoon and evening easing off the gas to avoid getting pulled over. It took me about six hours and 450 miles to realize that I wasn't driving through a state full of speed traps, but was just unused to seeing American cars in my rear view mirror.

Last Night I Flushed My Debit Card Down the Toilet

That's pretty much the whole story. My aunt and uncle took me to a great French restaurant and between the cheese plate and the main course I flushed my debit card down the toilet. (Btw, you judge the quality of a restaurant not by its food or decor, but by the power of its flush. We, obviously, were at a very nice restaurant.)

Now, you may be asking yourself why I would flush my debit card down the toilet. True, it would have come in handy during my 9-day, 3,000-mile road trip, but the thing is, I'm not living a life of convenience. I'm living a life of challenge, of excitment, of glamour (in retrospect) ... And now, I'm living a life in which I never, ever, ever carry my debit card in my back pocket.

Welcoming Precipitation

It's snowing in Arizona! A welcome gift for me, perhaps?

It snowed here last night, too, and Scout staged a sidewalk sit-in when her paws got too cold. She's a southern girl, I guess.