Out West The West is about vastness and solitude, about shifting light and silence. A place where dimensions play tricks on you. I remember a road we drove in Colorado last year, reputed to be the longest, flattest stretch of straight road in the country. Heading home to our Bed Breakfast, we could see the town it was in, see it like it was only two miles away, post office on the left, gas station sign on the right, half an hour before we actually got there. We drove and drove but it just never seemed to get any closer. It was like chasing after the moon. Then in July when I was in the Alps, I watched an airplane take off from a mountaintop airfield and head straight for the mountain just across the valley. When it did not veer I waited for it to crash into the mountain; it got smaller and smaller until it simply disappeared against the vast backdrop. I find myself growing more and more drawn to these sorts of huge, solitary places.
  ¶ 11:25 PM