Soemething I came up with while driving on a Long Straight Stretch of road.
There is something about driving across the desert that brings out the philosopher in me. Something about all that open land. Something about driving for an hour without seeing another car. Something magical about driving into a sunrise on a long straight stretch of highway rolling across the bottom of an open bowl of sagebrush ringed with dusty red mountains.
There are straight stretches and there are straight stretches. I’m not referring to those long dull sections of highway 99 in the central valley of California. Lined with oleanders to block the view of businesses and tract homes backed by farm land. I’m talking about those sections of road unencumbered by human habitation on either side. Places where the only view of something hand made is the highway it self. Maybe a lonely power line dissecting the alkali flats to one side of the highway.
Highway 50 through˚ Nevada has some classic Long Straight Stretches. Billed as the “Loneliest Highway in America” the highway crosses mountain range after mountain range and in between are some of the best Long Straight Stretches you can find. Highway 305 from Austin to Battle Mountain Nevada is a great Long Straight Stretch. Nevada 233 to Utah 30 skirting the northern end of the salt flats is lonelier and straighter still.
Interstate 80 which follows old highway 40 has a fine stretch across the salt flats from Wendover to Salt Lake City. When it was still two lane highway it was one of the classic Long Straight Stretches in America. Somehow the four lane interstate highway takes some of the romanticism out of the trip. They did build an unusual cement tree near the rest area which returns some of the character to the drive. But interstate highways don’t quite have the soul of a lonely two lane stretch of desert highway.
Highway 97 from Ely to Vegas is a great Long Straight Stretch which includes an occasional elk herd¸ to spice up the trip. There are many many more to be found through out the western U.S. Wyoming, Montana, eastern Oregon and Washington and across the desert southwest. This is where you find the great Long Straight Stretches.
They may exist, but I have yet to find a great Long Straight Stretch east of the Mississippi. The eastern highways I have driven have their own charm. The interstates all look the same lined with woods so thick that you could be anywhere from Mass to South Carolina. Without the highway signs I’d be lost. But then I’m a westerner and used to my open spaces. How does the song go... give me land, lots of land, with the sunny skies above, don’t fence me in... something like that.
Many people, my wife included, don’t appreciate the beauty of Long Straight Stretches. They don’t delight in the pulchritude of a perfectly straight ribbon of concrete through empty land. They don’t cherish the anticipation of cresting the hill at the end of a Long Straight Stretch and seeing an even better Long Straight Stretch on the other side. They just groan, oh, another dull stretch of highway. Not me. When I pop over a hill and catch a glimpse of a great flat bottomed valley before me with that mystical ribbon of highway I gasp in wonder and joy. How many miles is it? How long will it take me to cross? Where does the road go from the other side? How many (or how few) cars will I see on this crossing?
The right music is essential to the proper appreciation of Long Straight Stretches. Now, this is a personal choice, but I prefer fast and hard, Rock n’ Roll. I like to feel the beat pulsing along to the rhythm of the tires and the motor. Radar Love by Golden Earing or anything by Stevie Ray Vaughn. Early Santana has a great desert beat. Paint it Black by the Stones. When I’m driving in the forest I like classical but on a Long Straight Stretch it’s gotta be upbeat, hard driving music.
One last thing is essential to the full appreciation of Long Straight Stretches. The time of day. I prefer sunrise. Start your crossing in the middle of the night, several hours before the first light of day. Listen to the local radio quietly or nothing at all, perhaps a book on tape. Then as the sky grows light, just before the sun rises put in that special tape of your favorite hard rock songs. I have never watched anything on TV as wondrous as a sunrise over a Long Straight Stretch. At sunrise the colors are deeper and more contrasting. The shadows ad dimensions not seen during the middle of the day. Evening and the s≠unset is fine as well but there is something special about the anticipation of dawn while driving across the desert in the dark of night. When that light does finally arrive, you have earned it and appreciate it just a wee bit more.
There is a Zen quality about driving across a Long Straight Stretch. Driving these lonely paths of desert highway give you time to think and room to breath. I have solved many of life’s mysteries during these desert sojourns. My eyes have been opened to many new possibilities, and I’ve solved a few life crises driving Long Straight Stretches.
Learn to appreciate the journey. Learn the value of empty land. Learn to love Long Straight Stretches.
Tomorrow on the blog: Philip the Bard returns.
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