Joe Klein on the road. Photograph by Peter van Agtmael - Magnum for TIME
Phoenix, Az.
Traveling Companion: None
Events: Long drive through a desert rain
I’ve been enjoying the natural world, for a change, as I’ve been driving along, but things keep getting in the way. I was simply blown away by the eastern vista as I came down through Raton Pass into New Mexico–just a spectacular buff khaki American vastness, with distant mesas interrupting endless grasslands in a randomly gorgeous manner that suggested a master plan, when I noticed a police cruiser behind me, gumballs atwirl: I’d been doing 77 in a 65 zone…on a fierce downhill. Gimme a break, dude! And he did: I escaped with a warning.
Then, driving through eastern Arizona in a desert rain that tinged the tan grassland dim olive-gray, my ipod seized up and died. Uh-oh. I’m now forced to listen to local radio, which is filled with ads for zero-interest mortgages that just reek of deception. More on that as we continue west. The iPod gave me one last gift of serendipity. As I left Fort Carson, overwhelmed by my reunion with Captain Ellis and Sgt. Robison, on came Joan Baez, singing “The Band Played Walzing Mathilda,” about a young Australian soldier who loses his legs at Gallipoli–may be one of the six saddest songs ever written.
Now I know you’ll say: just buy a new ipod. Of course, but the computer with my songs is back in New York. So what do I do? Suggestions?
Meanwhile, here’s my latest print column about life among the Republicans.
This post is part of my Election Road Trip 2010 project. To track my location across the country, and read all my road trip posts, click here.