Currently in the car. En route to Florida, and realizing that this is an absurdly long drive that only crazy people would take on. Woohoo! We’re going from Boulder, CO (uber hippie capital of the universe) to Manhattan, KS (“little” apple. Ha.) Stopped in Arriba (excellent name and excellent miniature town) at this tiny treasure trove shop where I got the coolest ancient watch and a bouillon tin. I just liked the tin and planned on filling it with very tiny very useful things, but good news: there’s some fifty year old bouillon cubes in there. After the antique stop we drove for a million more miles through the flattest place on the earth, then stopped for lunch in Burlington. Drove around hopelessly, and almost settled on stinking lame Subway, but saw all the fifteen cars of Burlington parked outside “Mexico #2.”. Entered the crowded restaurant, got some buckets of iced tea, eavesdropped on the locals, and ordered some tacos. Steak for A, pork for Mama. A weirdly happening spot, with surprisingly good food. I’m fascinated by this whole small town America thing, even though I grew up in a small town in America. Everything out here seems sort of ancient and eerie and trapped in a time/space warp of town halls and falling-apart Main streets. And crowded taco spots with chatty locals and crooked paintings of Frida Kahlo.

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