The Big One

Two days ago, I was on a plane flying from New Orleans to San Francisco. The nine days before that consisted of that same trip, in reverse, in a car. We only had a couple of planned stops – the first night in Vegas and the last two in New Orleans. Between those two points lied a relative freedom, a balance between where the road can take us and where we wanted to go. It was a prototypical american experience; the motorized and air conditioned version of the old school walkabout.

In Michael Moore’s 1997 movie, there’s a scene where he is getting interviewed on the radio. Following a question from the host, they brainstorm what would be a better name for the United States of America. In a laugh, they end up agreeing on “The Big One”. After this trip, it’s essentially impossible to disagree with Moore’s judgment: this is one big country.

Long roads, endless plains, massive dams, gigantic holes in the ground, mile-long trains, big craters. And it’s also remarkably empty. Besides narrow corridors of civilization lie prairies and mountains as far as the eye can see. We saw the Hoover dam, we got snowed on at the rim of the Grand Canyon, we saw Meteor Crater and then came the New Mexico desert and the desolation of West Texas.

I took a bunch of pictures which I will be working on soon and I also have a couple other write-ups that I want to publish soon.