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ROAD-TRIPS | SOUTHWESTERN U.S.
A Van Date in the Southwest Led Me Down Memory Lane
What landscapes bring you back?
Ellen, a woman I haven’t seen in 35 years, grins at me from the passenger seat of a camper van. We’re driving into the Arizona backcountry for a 48-hour weekend date. The last time we talked in person, I was finishing puberty. Now I’m 52 and bald, and she’s on the backside of menopause. Life is one crazy ride.
My breakup after a five-year relationship, Ellen’s divorce, and connecting on social media spawned this midlife madness. I can’t think of a better backdrop than the Desert SW for the most vulnerable thing I’ve ever done in dating. Returning to the SW is surreal. The dry and desolate terrain streaming by stirs memories.
Snapshots of my life play out in my mind like desert winds uncovering lost artifacts.
My first time in the SW was in college for a school-sponsored backpacking trip to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in western Texas. At twenty years old, my prefrontal cortex had matured. Shit my Dad said to me hundreds of times, like, think before acting, finally hit home. Drama in the dorms, bong hits, and Disney movies taught lifelong lessons on how to be and not to be. College educates in…
