crossing the country...

When I woke up this morning we were in Maricopa, Arizona. Say Maricopa a few times. Say it with a raspy voice. Last night while talking on the phone to a friend I said it with a rasp, imagining an old leathery cowboy telling his crew where they were headed next. I imagined tumbleweeds and cactus. I thought of the Pace Picante commercial (even though that brand is from Texas). It's funny how many of my references are from TV and movies. Maricopa was close to what I'd imagined, except without tumbleweeds. Does it sound crazy to admit that I can't wait to see a tumbleweed?

I was eating breakfast when we arrived in Tucson Arizona. I saw two cool murals on the sides of buildings and a few bronze sculptures from the train window. Breakfast was great - a spinach omelette, a croissant and fresh fruit served up hot. I ended up sitting with two people that were from Vancouver Canada! We chatted throughout the meal. Husband and wife, they were both retired teachers and bought one of those thirty day passes for Amtrak travel. They told me how they'd spent a day in Los Angeles and were heading to New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago and New York before returning home. We had a nice meal together. I ended up giving them postcards of my work and we shared what we planned to do in NOLA. Later today the same woman came to my car and gave me a list of dancers from movies from the 40s whom she thought of. She thought if I created dresses inspired by the dancing of these woman that it would be great.

Most of my day has been spent looking out the window, texting photos to Facebook or simply taking photos out the window with my camera. I've found myself fascinated by all of the wide open spaces. having lived all of my life in a small congested city like San Francisco, I'd almost forgotten that there are spaces that are simply natural, and open, and left alone. For miles though Arizona and New Mexico all I saw was open space - lots of short green shrubs, cactus and a big sky filled with clouds. When we'd get to inhabited areas I noticed the poverty. Crumbled decaying houses, factories, trailer parks, abandoned cars. I gasped as we got near Texas because I saw the Border Patrol! There they were - two big vehicles driving fast near the border. As we pulled into El Paso Texas there was a moment where you could see Mexico on one side of the train and Texas on the other. How wild is that?

If today had a color palette it would be olive green, dark leafy green, tan, dark brown rust, white and pale blue.