[Image: Continental Divide Trading Post, 2013, JA Van Devender]
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”
Mr. Bennett, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Day 02 was not nearly as difficult a drive or as long a day as Day 01 but the scenery was pretty drab. Basically it was flat, arid, gravely 'wasteland.' After we got to Tuscon I did take some photos at the Saquaro National Forest but we went back the next day when the light was better and so I will have something a bit more beautiful tomorrow, I hope.
But there is one thing about these United States of America, we don't hesitate to laugh at ourselves. Right in the middle of that "nothingness" the "Continental divide (West)" slices through the desert (figuratively meant of course). And right there... all by itself... with absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing, there to commend it is the "Continental Divide Trading Post." It looks like it's been there since the 1930's and the crusty old ladies who sold touristy trinkets inside it looked like they had been there when the foundation was set.
It is a place you have to see to believe. Old ramshackle out buildings... a dead gas station on an adjoining lot that has great big gaping holes through the sign. In other words, it is an American treasure.
As we drove in I noticed the car (above) sitting up on blocks under the overhang where the gas pumps were at one time. Inside was an old "fella"... look closely and you can see him. Now, I was a bit curious as to why they would have a car, sitting out front, with a fully dressed skeleton behind the wheel. I went inside and got one of the old ladies attention and politely asked "What's up with the car out front?" The lady didn't even pause for a breath... "His wife is still shopping!" she said.
I had to chuckle. "I don't suppose anyone has ever asked that question before, have they?" "Nope, you're the first." She replied.
Yeah, right. But that's America. I don't think any foreign traveler would have known it was a joke.
It's those little tid-bits that make life worth living sometime. We take ourselves far too seriously far too often. There is a bit of a farce about ordinary human life and if we can just step back and look at it, most of the stuff that drives us crazy really ought to just make us realize how foolish we are. I suppose Mr. Bennett was about as an astute an observer of the human condition as they come. If we can just laugh at our non-sinful follies instead of being diminished by them I think quite a bit of our stress would be relieved.
In the midst of a desert... there was humor... and a touch of wisdom. Not a bad day.
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