Saket Vora

Driving through New Mexico and Arizona is much better than Texas or Oklahoma. In fact, it’s the nicest drive of the trip out West so far. Starting in Amarillo, we were truly in ‘big sky country’ — perfect 180 degrees of sky. As we entered New Mexico, the monotonous plains and grasses of Texas gave way to mesas, rocky outcroppings, and colors ranging from reds to whites, tans to greens. The desert also features interesting skyscapes. The light of the plains is harsh and bright. The desert is more varied — the ceiling of clouds shine like highlights while the floors appear brooding in grays. Off in the distance a streak of clouds look lazily smudged, while a single cirrus puff stands out starkly high above the road. We drive in and out of shadows, and these shadows mottle the land around. It’s pleasing.

We made two stops today. The first was in downtown Albuquerque, which has a distinct southwest vibe. We grabbed lunch on its Main Street, while convention goers (Association of National Postmasters…go figure) scurried around the various stores and pubs.

The second was Meteor Crater, a national landmark near Flagstaff, AZ where a large meteor created a 4,000 foot wide, 550 foot deep crater in the middle of the Arizona desert 50,000 years ago. The aerial pictures make it seem very, very large, but when you are standing at the rim it doesn’t look very big. I got my first real taste of a problem the astronauts had on the moon — a severe lack of depth perception. With no recognizable objects for comparison, it’s very difficult to accurately estimate distance.

We can make it to Palo Alto tomorrow if we push, but we’ll see. Might take a detour and see something.

Nothing too exciting today. Oklahoma is very boring to drive through. Not very good roads and frequent construction zones slow things down. No rain either — on the contrary the weather was very nice.

We pulled in early to Amarillo because we’d have to go another 2 or 3 hours before hitting the next real town. We’re going to make it to Flagstaff tonight, with stops in Albuquerque, NM and Meteor Crater, AZ.

Today went fine. We hit the road around 7am and checked into a hotel just outside Little Rock, AK at 9:45pm. Tennessee took forever to get through, staying on I-40W the whole way. We ended up driving through several intermittent bands of extremely heavy rain. I could see the haze down the road, and it would go from dry roads to torrential downpour in the span of ~15 seconds. Visibility would cut down to a single vague outline of a car in front of you, and the whole scene would dissolve into an angry sheet of plaster gray.

It was the kind of sudden change that can cause a truck to hydroplane directly in front of you, do two 360 degree spins over all 3 lanes of the highway before swinging wide into the shoulder ditch and facing the wrong way.

Just like the truck in front of us. Yeah.

Here’s an idea: when such bad weather descends upon you, you probably shouldn’t go the posted speed limit of 70mph when you’re in an old creaky truck with balding tires. Good thing I had cut my speed down to 45 mph and was keeping a safe distance away.

Anyway, we’re doing well. We are going to push to Amarillo, TX for tomorrow. 600 miles.

Ok, I admit it. The publishing on this blog has been very, very slow.

A lot has been happening, and you will certainly hear about it.

I finished my internship at RTI today, and in two days I’m setting off with my mom to drive cross-country to Stanford. I’ll be blogging a lot as I start at Stanford to let everyone know what’s going on.

Move in: September 15th

Orientation: September 20th

First Day of Classes: September 24th

Let’s roll.