January 14, 2018

I had to switch rental cars this weekend and I lucked out. Instead of a compact I was given a virtually brand new SUV that includes Sirius satellite radio. So when I drove AZ state route 93, a route I’ve taken many times before and that goes through incredibly remote and beautiful terrain with various iterations of desert landscapes, and where cell and radio service are nonexistent, I was listening to the sixties channel, from the Beatles to Motown. For a few minutes I was transported back to being a 19 year old again, speeding cross country listening to the same songs on the AM radio in my Dodge Dart.

Between Wickenburg and Bullhead City there’s Nothing. Literally. Former population 4, now population zero. On the boarded up ruins of the one gas station someone had stenciled “Let’s Be Better Humans”.