Missouri Flash Trip, Part 5: Duran Duran

The eyes of Duran attracted me in 2012 and 2013, when I lived in Alamogordo:

Eyes of Duran, New Mexico. 2013.

On my way back to El Paso from my 2017 Missouri Flash Trip, along Highway 54,  I felt eager to slap my own on them again. Here they are, four years after ours first met:

Eyes of Duran, New Mexico. July 2017.

Eyes of Duran, New Mexico. July 2017.

Eyes of Duran, New Mexico. July 2017.

Missouri Flash Trip, Part 4: Come Ride With Me

Highway 54, between Alamogordo, NM, and El Paso, TX. July 2017.

July 2017

On the way back to El Paso from my Missouri Flash Trip. 

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, how nice it was to re-ride Highway 54 from Tucumcari to El Paso. I drove this path so many times when I lived in Alamogordo in 2012-2013.

Come with me. We'll listen to oh-so-good music on the way.

Here's Highway 54 mile marker 165, between Corona and Carrizozo, accompanied first by Connie G in Let the Good Times Roll, followed by Boozoo Chavis with Johnnie Billy Goat:

Here's Highway 54 mile marker 155, between Corona and Carrizozo, as we're a tiny audience to the renowned Canray Fontenot's quiet song, La Tabla Ronde:

Here's Highway 54 milepost 133, about 10 miles north of Carrizozo, being sung to by Cedric Watson's Bijou Creole:

I had to pull over to the side of the road between Carrizozo and Tularosa to take in the beauty of a train against the mountains and a splendid sky, while being serenaded by the now-deceased Buckwheat Zydeco, with Tee Nah Nah:

Close to home here, between Alamogordo and El Paso, accompanied by the Balfa Brothers performing La Danse de Mardi Gras:

Missouri Flash Trip, Part 3: Hellfire Revisited

On my way back to El Paso from my Missouri Flash Trip, I passed through Alamogordo (my old home!) and stopped for dinner at the Subway on the north side.

This was in the ladies' room:

Hellfire in Alamogordo. July 2017.

I had just seen a family leave Subway after eating. What looked like a youngish dad with his youngish wife and two daughters. The woman and girls were dressed in the long skirts with the long hair that bespeak one of the ultra-conservative Christian sects that put women and girls into a box of submission. No different from the ultra-conservative Jewish sects or the ultra-conservative Muslim sects.

I have no patience for that kind of thing anymore, "that kind of thing" being the denial of an individual's rights to self-determination. In this case, a girl's or woman's rights to self-determination. Some people want to call this kind of thing "culture" or "religious freedom" as a way to deflect criticism. But it's nothing more than garden-variety oppression. It's on the same continuum of oppression as female circumcision, child marriage, and so-called honor killings.

So when I saw the pamphlet sitting on the white sink of the ladies' room, I picked it up, crumpled it, and put it in the trash. Then I walked across the way to the men's room and looked inside to see if there was a pamphlet in there that I could destroy. No.

On my way, then.

The flyer looked like the one I saw in Arkansas back in 2012, driving back home from a road trip to Louisiana:

Hellfire in Arkansas. January 2012.

Missouri Flash Trip, Part 2: The Space Capsule Shower

On the way back to El Paso from my July flash trip to Missouri, I stayed at a motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico.

I pulled in just in time to beat a clapping, dark thunderstorm.

I was as delighted with my space capsule shower in this motel as I was with the red velvet love seat in the previous night's room in Missouri.

Space capsule shower in motel, Tucumcari, New Mexico. July 2017.

As small as it was, it felt grander than my shower box in El Paso.

Missouri Flash Trip, Part 1: The Red Velvet Couch

July 2017

In July, I had to dash to Missouri for a turn-around trip.

There are some things you can do by email, post mail, phone, video conferences, or even fax (!), but some things require bodily presence.

So it was I ran to Missouri, requiring two overnights, three days travel time, and a few hours in Missouri to take care of a few minutes' business. 

My destination was a small town in Missouri. I didn't book a motel room in advance, because why would I? How many people go there at one time?

Well. It turns out that when said town hosts a statewide sports event for youth, ALL of the in-town motels are booked!

I had driven all day and it was night when I arrived. I didn't have a Plan B.

Thank goodness there was a motel about 15 miles out of town that had one room left. One. And it was affordable. I grabbed it.

Nothing was remarkable about the motel or my room except this: It had a red velvet couch.

Red velvet couch in motel, Missouri. July 2017.

I was entranced. Red velvet. Budget motel. How can one's mind not contemplate what this couch - love seat, more accurately - has seen and experienced?


I'm carried back to the love motels of Guatemala.