Robin McLean

The departure from EL PASO was pushed back and back. Hot. 101.

I 10 to I 25, though Las Cruses, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Lamy, Las Vegas, Raton.

Pink lightning in the far off distance.

A few sprinkles rain.

Hummus on Triskets.

Fruit stabbed with a toothpick.

I think I can. I think I can.

FIXED. Mystery problem remained a mystery but was worth $168.53.

BOULDER, COLORADO HERE WE COME.

June 23, 2015, Reading INNISFREE POETRY BOOKSTORE AND CAFE , 6 pm, and June 25, 2015, Reading, BOULDER BOOK STORE, 7:30 pm.

Break down in El Paso:

"The trip is a piece of cake, unless the car breaks down."

The repair shop is one mile away

not full stop in the New Mexico desert.

This is Drama. They write books about such things. Read More 

Welcome aboard to my newest travel partner, Gloria Barragan, as she prepares for the Sidewind Across America Tour -- shopping in a local camping section. She claims she had never slept in a tent.

She pretty much blew the minds of the Barnes and Nobel staff in El Paso.

"How did you do the publicity?" they asked after the standing-room only crowd on Wedneday night.

"They're my friends," GB said. "I've got lots of them."

The B & N sold out and had to reorder!

GO GLO! SO HAPPY TO HAVE MY FRIEND WITH ME ON THE SIDEWIND.

GB has been to Alaska with me before. She will do it again now after we pick up my nephew Marshall and niece Carlyn in Denver. We will hang in Denver / Boulder with Carol Keeley, Jodi Hoke, and hopefully catch a glimpse of BK Loren.

Then this dream team will cross the Rockies heading straight for the Pacific.

Departing El Paso Monday for points north: Boulder, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Anchorage and on...

Next stop Boulder Colorado on June 23 at the Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Cafe @ 6 and then on June 25 at the Boulder Book Store at 7.30. Read More 

Friends for Life for real.

Thank you Barnes & Nobel El Paso.

Thank you Gloria, Cristina, and Richie and Ivette Barragan.

Thank you all Gloria's wonderful friends.

Thank you for Melissa Guerra who has been with right there with me (near or far) for 30 years.

xoxo.

SAN ANTONIO to EL PASO:

At The Twig we had to swim from the parking lot.

Ok, waded.

Ok, we just ran really fast.

It had been hot early on the river walk,

Turtles floating in the sun, turtles swimming fast, turtles sunbathing.

The river winds through town with a tunnel under the  Read More 

Parking was $15 so we circled for a $5 lot.

The stone walls were thick, admission was free, the giftshop was made in China with a diorama in the middle of tiny men climbing up tiny wooden ladders up the tiny slits at the top of the walls. A few trees. Enemy encampments at the edges, who is the enemy? One man was shot in the minute ear, barrels, wagons, tents by the creek running down the center of the grounds (can't have a fort without a creek), firewood stacked for the 12 day siege, tiny horses rearing, tiny cattle penned, tiny dogs. The men fought hand-to-hand, the uniforms and weapons were painted with care. "See this cannon? Come take it!" Santa Anna did.  Read More 

BUDA, TEXAS: I 35 south of Austin to exit 220 past the giant Cabella's to the train tracks. Wait for the freight train, wait in the signals bells -- Buda people are used to them and the whistle. Wait, though the blinking red separates you from a mattress. It is Buda tinted red at 2 am, Buda delirious after BookPeople, then a "tone" chat across the table between bottles of beer, between musicians on one side and and writers on the other, amid warm night city-breezes, then cherries with Kirk and Donna somewhere on a dark Austin hillside -- more about  Read More 

Dallas to Austin: THE CHISHOLM Perspective #2:

When you live a day on the Chishom Trail
You watch the gas gage.
Drive south where cows once walked -- Cowboys followed
with tunes and whips
to Fort Worth -- the Stockyards --
Then onward, like all of us.
The Chisholm (in a car) is not
Dusty / muddy.
Hills
as if Vermont had been pulled tight at the edges.
Vistas and dips  Read More 

DALLAS to AUSTIN: CHISHOLM TRAIL: Perspective #1

198 miles, an easy day.
South again.
35W S was most direct
did not take it
121 to the airport to Grand Prairie
Fort Worth just over there
Hidden Creek Parkway
To Cleburne to Hamilton to Hico
The largest styrofoam cup was $1.19.

The storm cloud loomed for 50 miles.
A sheet of gray to the ground.
A  Read More