On A Roll

I one time either heard or read a little saying that said, "if you're on a roll, you just might be going down hill".  It has stuck with me, and I thought of it today as it seemed like I was going pretty much down hill all day today.  When I got over to Flagstaff, Arizona I turned south onto I-17 which takes you down to Phoenix.  The elevation of Flagstaff is 6,903 feet.  When I finished my day's driving and got myself parked at the construction site where I hope to be the first in line to get unloaded tomorrow I looked up after I had parked my rig and here's is what I saw.

Now maybe you can understand why it feels like I've been "on a roll" today.  I-17 from Flagstaff to Phoenix is one of my all time favorite stretches of interstate in the country.  You start out way up high in some really beautiful forest land and you have an eighteen mile descent of 4-6% grades that settles you down into the Yavapai Valley.  It really is a beautiful drive full of panoramic scenery of all sorts of flora and fauna, and every type of Mesa, Buttes, Tablelands, Gorges, Mountains, Draws, Washes, and Cliffs.  Louis Lamour's skillful and voluminous descriptive word pictures of this type of territory don't even come close to doing it justice.  I would have loved to provide you with progressive pictures of my descent, but it was only safe and prudent for me to stop at one resting point and take several shots from that vantage point, but hopefully you get the idea.  I'm hoping when I get to take Abigail with me for her eighteenth birthday present we will get to travel through here together.

When you enter Southern California on I-8 you come right through the Imperial Sand Dune Recreation Area.  This is pure desert country - not a drop of water anywhere, and it was 110 degrees here today.  I had driven eight hours at that point and was forced to take the D.O.T. required thirty minute break here, so I took a picture of each side of the interstate from where I was parked in a roadside rest area.

The sand here is simply amazing, like a huge beach only without any water.  It goes on and on for miles just piled up in ever changing mounds controlled by the whimsical desires of the ever present wind.  While I was driving I saw two or three "dust devils" that were maybe 60 - 80 feet tall prancing across the plains as if they were being choreographed by some unseen hand.  They looked like little juvenile tornadoes testing out their skills so that one day they could release all their fury on some unsuspecting trailer park.

I had a good day today, very pleasant in many ways.  It felt good to be moving again after taking that 34 hour break.  I guess I am a real truck driver, something starts to bother me if I'm not moving down the highway.  I love what I do, I love ending my day with a brief and always pleasant conversation with the finest woman I've ever known, I love the way she keeps the home fires burning, I love the way she loves me.