According to Wikipedia, there are 3,239.7 miles of interstate highway in Texas, and they are all maintained not by the USofA, but by Texas. YIKES! The longest segment of Interstate Highway in Texas is I-10 at 878.6 miles; I-20 is 636.1 miles long. And I drove each one of those miles.
People have asked how I stay awake, how I am not sleepy while I'm driving. Partly, I think, it's adrenaline. I'm excited to be traveling, I'm looking forward to seeing my dad and Paula, and I'm eager to get painting, and to start the shows.
I listen to the radio, to my own tunes, to books on tape. And mostly, when it's safe, I look at the countryside. I watch for interesting things, wildlife, signs, people, cars. There's an awful lot of Texas that is straight and wide, and so the driving is easy.
On some trips, I will get off the road and paint, or get off the road to take photos. I only did that once on Friday, to get the photo below. And it's still so far away that you can't see these birds. I think maybe they are sand hill cranes, but I couldn't tell. All I know is I've never seen birds like them. They're a little larger than Canada geese, and their necks are longer and thinner. They are a blue-gray color, and they're wary.
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Every time I have driven through Dallas, I've been delighted by the feel and the look of the highway overpasses. They are airy and soaring, and decorated, like this one.
I SPENT MUCH of Friday wondering why I have negative feelings about Texas.
If I take it apart, bit by bit, it has a lot going for it. It is pretty in places - the Hill Country, for example. It's strong - Western Texas. It's bold in places, it's filled with beautiful colors. The sky is big and open, the vegetation is interesting.
But in the middle, there is a lot of nothing - and it's not particularly enchanting nothing. I mean, I like landscapes with nothing in them except a strip of land and a strop of sky. In Texas, I think that part of the problem is that the nothing just goes on and on and on and on for hundreds of miles. And there's an incredible amount of trash.
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I SAW SOME signs that I couldn't manage to get photos of - they flew by too fast. But I made notes -
The Silverado Cowboy Church. Yes! Really!
A BILLBOARD purporting to be from God, telling us to "Stp ur txting and pray."
I agree, we shouldn't text. But does God care? And how does whoever put up the sign dare to tell us that he knows what God wants?
AND THEN, THERE was this one: "Auditions this month! Actors Models Talent for Christ"
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OK, Do not Exit. That was followed quickly by the sign below.
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I saw a fair number of junkyard-type places in Texas... the sort of place that would delight
a person who makes art out of pieces of rusted metal.
In western Texas, I whooped when I began to see the mountains of the West. It was pretty exciting to see them loom up out of the flat, open spaces around I-20.
Here's a house in a pretty setting on the eastern side of the state. 
And a ranch. Doesn't everybody in Texas live on a ranch?
I saw trains in the state that seemed to go on forever and forever.
And this, I thought, was interesting - two crops, the old and the new. Hay and wind power.
I thought this field was pretty beautiful, rich with color and texture. This will become a painting
one of these days
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Dog of the Day
Love the shearling-lined vest!
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