what a good time that was! i left yucca valley, california and drove for almost 4 days. the drive was perfect, luckily i spaced the days out so i wasn't too mental at the end. the entire trip was almost all on highway 10 heading east of course. which means i was on the southmost highway, so that was fun. i have never gone this far before nor have i seen all that i did! unless you count that time we drove to texas when i was 6 with my dad. however all i seem to recall is long stretches of brown and dads' way nasty habit of 'hocking a loog?' and then spitting it out the window. good times....i wonder what jude remembers?
i had never been east of phoenix, along that route, so it was fascinating to watch the terrain change. and it did drastically. i had no idea that arizona would turn from desert into green and red! it was all gorgeous. the landscape was lush and frankly the antithesis of my imagination. and then i saw rock piles, to equal those in joshua tree, and i was more in love.
and texas was more of the same, minus the rock piles. which further blew my mind! my image of texas (this was my first ADULT time to see it, mind you) was NOT of verdant land or luscious green plants every which way! i have never seen an ocotillo that was actually green, and i had no idea they even did that, ha ha. the ones in the desert are like driftwood!
anyway, it was beautiful.
of course, texas took a day and a half to drive through.
which is also mind blowing.
the rest, louisiana, mississippi, alabama, and then florida were all pretty much alike. seen lots of south florida, but never the other states. they are just green and wet and crazy rainstormy. which is what happened the night i drove into mobile, alabama.
this was a night i will never forget because i saw purple lightning for the first time. yes!
it was gorgeous. gigantic bolts like from a graphic novel. and truly purple. it was surreal. it's something about how high up they are in the atmosphere, that turns them that color, mom was telling me.
anyway, i hope to never forget. the rainstorm that followed was pretty intense too. i made it to my hotel just in time to get only a little soaking.
