Monday, August 13, 2012

Sonora: The Delight of Nowhere


One of the major goals of this trip was to stop in a completely irrelevant town, check into a nasty motel and engage in conversation with two old veterans in the parking lot over two cans of beer.  Today I did exactly that in the town of Sonora, Texas.

This county is beautiful but empty, filled only with pipeline workers from the oil industry.   The place is claiming a place in history on the basis of having been visited by the bank robber Will Carver when he was looking for oats to feed his horses in 1901.  That’s the most exciting thing that ever happened here.

But you walk into a restaurant and the bar is full of enthusiastic workers, eager to tell you how different and thrilling their jobs are.  Just around the corner, a young man from New Mexico told me that he loves to travel one hour and a half to his workplace and not knowing where he will be a month from now.  There is no limit to the capital of stories these people are willing to share for free.  I haven't talked with as many friendly strangers in the past five years as I did today.

I love to be on the road.




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