As I've mentioned
many times before, I spent a year post-college in Namibia, Africa. I lived in a small village teaching geography and computer science at a boarding high school. Just 1 kilometer from the Angolan border, Odibo, Namibia was certainly the driest, hottest place I'd ever seen or lived.
Then I visited Nevada a few weeks ago.
Driving south from Las Vegas along a lonely two-lane road, I looked out the car window and saw....mountains....dirt....more mountains....more dirt...and a few Joshua trees.
Human beings were rare sightings.
Twists and turns in the road seldom came.
It felt open and empty, and little lonely, but it also struck me as grand in the way that the American Southwest should.
As an East Coaster born and raised all over the American South, there's something thrilling and very private about being out there, seemingly all on your own.
I can't wait to go back.