A Highway Dream

One afternoon my girlfriend and I were sitting on a patio enjoying a warm winter breeze in Houston, Texas. As she became consumed with her book, I looked out at Highway 288. After several cars and trucks strolled by, my mind began to wander.

All of a sudden, it was now 6 PM and the sun was slowly losing its light, with the wind gently blowing the beautiful auburnish tall grass. Other than the grass all I could see was some dry farm land, an occassional windmill and the open road.

With the wind pushing my automobile, I began to passionately caress the pavement of Interstate 40/Route 66 outside of Vega, Texas. My direction: west and into the unknown. The radio was playing Bob Wills, a perfect ode as I two-stepped across the "Mother Road". After several minutes, however, the music stopped. All of a sudden I began to sing; a song praising God not only for all his kindness and generosity, but for the beautiful picture he drew up in which I was the protagonist.

Slowly as I hit the apex, the orangy-red sky began to shine real bright. However, once the pinnacle ended the sun faded into memory. I got off the Interstate in Tucumcari, New Mexico and headed down 66 with only moments of daylight left. I strolled past the Aloe's were I bought some Aloe 5 years earlier to treat a horrid sunburn; then I drove past the Blue Swallow where I met my idol James Dean. All of this felt real, almost too real, maybe even surreal. As I left the town where a man and a woman fell in love hundreds of years ago atop a mountain, I wake up only to find myself sitting on my patio chair wondering where I was.

My eyes looked up and heard the voice of Rod Serling say, "If you live to drive and ride the eternal highway only to find yourself sitting and gazing at a road from an apartment building, then you have reached the Twlight Zone."