Day 3
Sunday March 4
Oakhurst, California to Williams, Arizona


The motel clerk, a woman with lank hair and puffy sad arms said there was dial-up internet--but I just get a busy signal. Last night, I got a strong wireless signal, but no website connections.

I have a space heater in here. Not just the internet out of order.

Ah, well. Clear cool weather—ten hour drive through amazing scenery: snowy forested mountains, to rolling grassy hills pocked by large rocks (as though a giant child had played marbles on the lawn), to agricultural flatlands with flowering fruit trees and citrus trees, to volcanic mountains, Mojave desert scrubland, some looking like it had recently experienced fire, crumbly shale-type mountains, tabletop mesas, more forested hills. Not sure in that order, but non-stop vistas.

Ate lunch at Marisco’s in Barstow, California --a restaurant populated by more than 20 stuffed beasts--deer, bear, coyote, turkey, pheasant.

The caldo was a feast in a bowl--pieces of chicken on the bone, rice, carrots, potato, a bit of bright yellow corn on the cob, green cilantro. Fresh made tortillas. It was beautiful.

No telling what will capture our attention when traveling. With all of that scenery, what I liked best about the day were the trains. What is so fascinating about those mile-long chains of colorful container cars, slowly moving out in the distance on the desert, or in and out of rolling hills? I don’t know. There is surreal romance to them.

As I turned off the freeway into Williams early this evening, the bright full moon through gauzy cloud was rising from behind a dark quiet hill. It was beautiful.