* Miles Driven from Marfa: 2611 * Days on the Road: Seven (on the last day, I rested by eating oysters in Washington DC) * Tanks of Gas: Seven (Average price per gallon: $1.79) * Pig’s Ears Eaten by Stella: Eight * Pounds Lost: Three (This phenomenon has been noted on all of the nine cross-country drives I’ve made since May of 2005, when we moved from Venice Beach to upstate New York and I vowed never, come hell or high-water, to spend the winter there; the weight loss is surely not diet-related, so I’m convinced it has to do with muscle atrophy.) * Meals Eaten at a Chain Restaurant: One (A 6-inch Spicy Italian at Subway, outside Richmond, Virginia.) * Other, Non-Pork Food Consumed: Apples and dried cranberries * Nights in a Hotel: Five (two nights--Austin and D.C.--were spent with exceedingly hospitable friends)
* Music: Lyle Lovett, Waylon Jennings, Bob Wills, and Patsy Cline (Texas); My own 50-song Seventies mix; Hall & Oates, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Steppenwolf (Mississippi, after lunch with my Great College Love, not seen in *& years); Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, Grateful Dead, Shawn Colvin (Tennessee); James Taylor, ZZ Top, Doobie Brothers (North Carolina). * Phone calls to and from C: 789. * Really Large Road Construction Projects Endured: Six (Is it too early for these to be signs of our stimulus dollars at work?) * Road Kill: 7 deer, 4 armadillos, 2 possums, and (gasp) 2 dogs.
* Favorite Profound Thought of Eleventy ‘leven: Ranging across the wide open spaces of America’s West and South, I see many animals grazing. The fact that cattle and horses like to eat grass, something that grows quite naturally, mostly without encouragement, seems improbable and wonderful.