that straight shot across in the north is the route i've most frequently taken (on the way to Santa Fe)... when i was driving more i could get from here to the rest stop by Amarillo in one leg, take a nap and then finish up after that.
very funny! i always loved the Far Side comic and had one of those calendars with one cartoon for each day of the year. no idea where that got to... (maybe the far side?...)
that cartoon and other recent postings in another place remind me of a time of driving with a friend across the country and taking some rather dubious roads (which turned out to be fire breaks). in a 1980 Grand Prix... at one point we were tired and it was getting late and so we just stopped and pulled off to the side and slept in the car. next morning we get up and there's a skeleton of a calf about 20ft from the car. it was not scattered around and was in very good condition. eventually we got into this one road that was so bad that we were forced to turn around. no place to turn around so we had to back up quite a ways until we found a spot to back into enough. very tricky on mountain roads...