The American West. The Road Trip. Taken separately, each speaks volumes in languages understood around the globe. Married, the pair assails a traveler with iconography that’s too easy to describe by hackneyed observations or deafening silence. Is there a Middle Way?

How do we describe an unseen feeling, both individual and universal? The space that floods in between thoughts and molecules on a road trip. How do we describe a place rooted in macro vastness that does not undercut the value of its micro-thin places? A solitary Brewers’ Blackbird soaring along the undeveloped north rim of the Grand Canyon.

Even when pushed by unrelenting schedules, by needing to get from Point A to Point B because Object C is just around the corner demanding our attention tomorrow, we find solace in wandering today. Even if it’s just our mind wandering, with heightened awareness and a strengthened resolve to return at a slower pace.

Heading West to the California dream – through Southwest places revered by the Ancients – demands our attention and commands our psyches. The numbers that follow are measures of a road trip well-taken, experienced, and imprinted. As Jack Kerouac said in On The Road, “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”

 

Although this is hardly a Slow Down See More style “itinerary” we like it because it shows what can happen when we allow our creative minds to daydream.

 

15.5:  Hours to drive from Northern New Mexico to Northern California
3:  Stops along the way
38:  Minute difference between what Waze calculated at the beginning of the 15.5-hour trip and the actual arrival time

 

13.5:  Hours feeling completely free
Pi to the nth degree:  Increased space between my cells from the beginning of the road trip to the end

 

6.32am:  First sip of Peet’s coffee (pour-over) as the sun peeked over the Sandia Mountains
8.40pm:  Last sip of Peet’s coffee (iced espresso) as the sun sank over Central Valley near Bakersfield

 

13:  Bonafide stops or nearby detours for a ‘normal’ visitor along this route (Acoma Pueblo, El Malpais, Navajo Nation, Hopi Nation, Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Route 66, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Phoenix/Scottsdale, Havasu Wildlife Refuge on the Colorado River, the Mohave Desert).
10:  Days for a ‘normal’ person’s trip through this region

 

11:  Teepees seen at wayside tourist traps in Arizona
3:  Tyrannosaurus Rex seen at wayside tourist traps in the Petrified Forest

 

292:  Songs listened to from 3 iTunes playlists
289:  Songs sung at the top of lungs (the last 15 minutes were quiet)
146:  Number of songs danced to while driving

 

25:  Ounces of espresso consumed
16:  Ounces of Thompson seedless raisins consumed
4:  Green chili and tricolor quinoa turkey burgers consumed
0:  Other food products consumed

 

Million:  Ocotillo and cholla cactus within 30 miles of the AZ-CA border (as far as the eye could see)
Quarter million:  Joshua and Yucca trees within 30 miles of the AZ-CA border (as far as the eye could see)

 

3:  Conversations with friends
3:  Dropped cell phone calls

 

0:  Facebook check-ins
4:  Email check-ins
0:  Emails returned
17:  Siri-dictated texts sent

 

5000:  Wind turbines in Tehachapi Wind Farm that provide energy needs to 350,000 people annually
100s:  Commercial airlines parked in the graveyard of Mohave Air & Space Port, from where Richard Branson launched “Space Ship One”

 

114:  Highest temperature in Mohave Desert
31:  Degrees (Fahrenheit) drop after a 10-minute monsoon-like downpour

 

2:  Accidents seen that were probably fatal (one flipped car on fire, one motorcycle)
2:  Times slowed below the posted speed limit

 

0.5:  Lanes the car was thrown (once) by a heavy gust of wind
1:  Single syllable word blurted out loud (to that a gust of wind)

 

27:  Mile-long train seen ferrying a gazillion cubic tons of goods in double-stacked Maersk shipping containers
1200:  Semi-trailer trucks passed along a 120-mile stretch of I-5 in CA after dark

 

1:  Bird seen crashing into car in front of me
0:  Birds seen crashing into cars in front of me in my entire lifetime

 

1:  Number of cows seen running in front of a power plant
9:  Number of minutes spent smiling at the sight

 

1:  Apocalyptic sky over Barstow with a freaky-day-glow-orange sun
24+:  Cars destroyed by a brush fire that jumped the highway near Victorville and caused the sky to look Armageddon-y

 

8: Different types of clouds (cumulus, stratus, nimbostratus, cirrus, cumulonimbus, altocumulus, stratocumulus, cirrocumulus)
1: Photo taken while driving (see final photo)

 

6559:  Elevation in feet of home in Albuquerque (NM)
243:  Elevation in feet of home in California (CA)

 

72:  Degrees Fahrenheit on departure from NM
73:  Degrees Fahrenheit on arrival in CA

 

610:  Elevation in feet of Mohave Desert (on my I-40 route)
7320:  Elevation in feet of Continental divide in Arizona (on my I-40 route)

 

210:  Minutes spent wishing for driving glasses
210:  Minutes driven after dark

 

180:  Minutes spent playing this “by the numbers” game after dark
0:  Minutes spent playing this “by the numbers” game during daylight
362:  More stupid and silly “by the numbers” minutiae that crossed my mind

 

1:  Airbnb guest left in my Albuquerque house
1:  Person greeting me with open arms on the curbside at midnight in the East Bay