Biggo Road Trip (Thoughts and Prayers)

Full Moon

Oh my goodness, here we go again. On Wednesday, I will load up my truck-camping gear and some camp-stove vittles into the cargo holds of Spugly the Spectacularly Ugly Palomino Transporter and vroom off toward the sunrise. With luck, I intend to make a long journey around the southwestern Divided States of America, visiting amap national parks and monuments, state and county parks and monuments, random town gazebos, artsy-fartsy bike racks, and of course, my highly esteemed friends and family.

Primary among the family list is P.S. I Love You, whose personality and residence in Plano, Texas are arguably famous in contemporary American literature. Arguably. The day before Halloween happens to be the end of her 77th orbit around the Sun, which warrants a celebration or two, if not a full-blown, life-risking, spine-jarring careen over mountains and deserts and plains in a 1987 Mazda B2200 pickup. Such is the nature of true brotherly love.

This is what people will see when they pass me on the highway, moving just a little bit faster.

Phase One of this trip (please don't call it "epic" for Chrissakes) will take me up and over Pacheco Pass into the Great Valley, up and over the Sierra Nevada via Yosemite National Park, down past Mono Lake along the Eastern Sierra, through Death Valley, past Lost Wages, over the hump through Flagstaff to Petrified National Park, through Gallup and up to Chaco Canyon, winding around the Sangre de Cristo (scary name) mountains to the ruins of the Pecos Pueblo, possibly to the Billy the Kid Museum in Fort Sumner, straight across the Great Plains to Lake Texoma, and due south to Plano (thoughts and prayers appreciated).

Biggo b-day party ensues here.

Phase Two will loop south and west through Lago Vista to the Guadalupe Mountains, Silver City, Chiricahua National Monument, Tombstone, Yuma, the Pacific Crest Trail southern terminus at Campo, Warner Springs, Cabazon, Agua Dulce, Santa Barbara, Big Sur, and back home (keep those thoughts and prayers coming).

This will be an old-fashioned, low budget, cheap-ass, sleep-in-the-dirt, rice-and-beans, no frills road trip. If I can pull this off, it will take a month or so and I will be immensely, intensely happy.

Peace, Love, and "Boondocking",
Jim
,