American Mars

Sorry Brian Kearney, I had to steal the title from you.  If it's any consolation, that is the perfect way to describe the Southwest....because we're headed to Texas, people!  Happy Monday!!

My Fear and Loathing Look

This drive from Baton Rouge, LA to Abilene, TX was originally supposed to start in Shreveport and plow through Dallas and Fort Worth (Northern TX), via I-20 in 6 hours - i.e., planned a lot shorter.  But *I* wanted to see Austin, having been informed by Anthony Bourdain that the street food there is to die for, and therefore decided to take the southern route I-10 through Dallas, then cut up to Abilene via US-183.  This took a whopping 12 hours, which I did in one day...not such a blast, and no ghost hunting, whatsoever.  But I'm glad I took the long way for the following reasons:


1.  The scenery change was like nothing I've seen anywhere else in the country.  You go from swampland to desert in about two hours, hugging the Gulf.


2.  That's all I've got, actually.


Reasons I would have liked to go the original route:


1. Six hours.


2. Shreveport is vampire-central in the Southern Vampire Mysteries (a.k.a., the books True Blood are loosely based on).


Check out this progression of scenery:

...pretty crazy, huh?  


~A