Last week was my spring break, so Jason and I took a much needed vacation. My first real road trip in the States. Early on a Saturday morning, we packed up the car and set off, and as soon as we hit the interstate I felt a giant weight lifted.
Every night my dream’s the same
Same old city with a different name
There's been something about the desert. I've been so head down in my routine, and on my way to work or class or errands, any glance I get at the wide open spaces beyond the outskirts of Santa Fe just compels me to keep driving. For the longest time I thought it was just the beauty of this place, the draw to see more and more of it. Partly that's true. But in recent weeks it's felt like something else.
There’s a weight that’s pressing down
Late at night you can hear the sound
I need to keep going. I'm not there yet.
I'm ready to go.
We drove south first, then northwest through Shiprock, New Mexico. We turned west into Arizona, and finally shot north just across the Utah border and into Monument Valley.
Less than forty-eight hours and we looped back through Utah, back east through Arizona, then northeast into Colorado. Climbed up and over a mountainous pass into high plains. On and on through strange little railroad towns. Graffiti urged us to vote McCain/Palin in 2014. And on, until we met up with the Sangre de Cristo's again, running north along their edge to the Great Sand Dunes.
Two days later, east, back to the interstate, and a straight shot north to Denver and Boulder.
The next Saturday, back south, home. Kind of.
They don't know where and they don't know when
It's coming
Keep the car running
The act of going, getting away, really helped me see more clearly the things that waited for me back in New Mexico. Beforehand I had been so caught up in my web of things, I barely felt like myself anymore. With the windows down and the road rolling, I took a breath. Santa Fe has been a blessing; a place to do some searching, be challenged, and now to get a bearing on what's next. The time to move on from this place is already on its way.
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