Just made it to Clovis, New Mexico, having passed through Moriarity, and Fort Sumner (home of the grave of Billy the Kid), and lots of forest, and desert, and . . . empty, empty land. Lots of it. One visit down in ABQ, and one more tomorrow in Muleshoe. Texas, of course.

I enjoy this traveling as I do the rounds, seeing the factories. Puts my time in LA in perspective. After all, when do I smell the city, in LA? Now come on, I'm not putting anyone on, or trying to embarrass anyone, but our sense of smell is so precious, and we have lost the sense almost, as we can use it outdoors. What about the great pine smell as I pulled into Mammoth Mountain to ski? Or the icy rush high in the Wasatch Front Range? And now, in a small town in a rural area, as a freight pulls through (hotels are always by the rail line, be it Mohave or Clovis), the aroma of cowpies is, well, pungent.

Its so human. Its so real. I love it.