1/31 Relation of a country’s size to the modes of transportation available during its existence. My flight to Tucson of about six hours, and my drive back which took six to seven times as long.

Truckers are the gravity of the road. For such long stretches I was all alone with nothing but trucks around me. Each of them a semi with no special markings, exactly the same shape and a smudged out grey because we’re all covered in finely sprayed dirt. The truckers know what they’re doing, or so you presume, although I saw maybe twenty wrecks of trucks having veered off the road into the ditch in various states of damage. But if a truck goes seventy in a curve you can assume that you can do it, too. If a truck slows down you better follow their example. If a truck passes another one, and it takes a minute or two, there’s no reason to get upset or impatient. They know what they’re doing, and they have respect for you too. If your eyes are tired and you’d rather not squint to figure out where the road is going, it’s okay to hang out behind a truck and let them find the way. Their tail lights are everything you need.