26. Aug. 2010
Losing one’s self is chiefly due to poor navigational skills, poor directions, or poor attention span. Getting lost is inevitable if you are out shredding new routes to whereeverville. I am a pro now, but I used to be really ‘bad’ at it. That is to say, one can become lost or misguided at some point in a wander that results in panic, stress, anger… but an experienced wanderer shrugs his or her shoulders and becomes a fatalist. That is, there is no use black ‘thoughting’ the mishap that can have positive outcome anyway. Instead of dwelling, use it as a chance to discover more area and perhaps an interesting eatery or ‘pint'ery.’ Since I’ve done my reluctant 'get lost honing' I’ve: panhandled gas from a flu stricken, no screen door open’in kind soul somewhere near Heppner Oregon, met a happy to share with me his mother’s delicious dessert cookies Romanian, discovered that there is more to Edinburgh than the Royal Mile/missed a rendezvous dinner, and, now, I know where to pawn gold in the Dallas area.
I got lost in Dallas, which later turned out to be Fort Worth, when I listened too carefully to directions. “Get on the H-183 from I-30 and take the Ester exit.” No problem, but the 183 service road threw me for a bit before highway 183 (hence the ‘Dallas’ area pawn shop parking lot turn around just outside of Ft. Worth). I should mention now that I don’t use electronic guidance, only stars and maps for me. If I have to use the straight, boring Interstate and miss the Will Rodgers Highway/scenic route zigs and zags, I might as well not take all the romance out of the old road with a GPS too. I’ve turned around a lot on this trip… but never once complained to my passengers.
Took I-40 from Albuquerque to the H-84 junction, the H-84 to Lubbock the I-20 to Ft. Worth, and I-30 to Irving.
Besides seeing the Long Walk (see last post), the I-84 afforded me an intimate view of some towns on the two-lane highway. : long walk website in case one might think that because of my last blog the meteor crater was more important to me than the suffering of the Native Americans :
