Brownsville turnaround on the Tex Mex border

I've learned a load on this trip, most of it has been new to me but now I've arrived in America there's a level of familiarity borne from previous experience, from tv and films and also I guess the internet. I've gathered my opinions on the place based on these things and over time gained my own prejudices.

On this trip however I've approached many of these thoughts again, largely based on my time overland. Based on my time so far in the USA this trip, on a few moments overseas and specific ones such as wandering through Winslow in New Mexico where there's not a lot happening but railway tracks running through carrying immense trains while the rest of the town is in decline from it's Route 66 heyday.





In most of the other countries I've been in I've tried to think about where the country has been in history and how it's developed within it's own borders as well as outside. Since arriving there's been a few occasions where I've gotten a bit wound up about big plates of food, the sense that the food I've eaten doesn't seem all that fresh and what seems to be a wasteful approach to lots of aspects of life. Las Vegas has been a major turning point in these thoughts for me and I've afforded the country the same respect I've given other countries on this trip.

As part of this the train tracks and also Route 66 are a tale in themselves. Telling a story of a country on a journey. Trying to get somewhere. In some respects like Route 66, destroying parts of itself to try and find a better way to the destination.





As a European it's easy to scoff at Vegas, at the waste, the electricity burned, the huge buffets in every hotel, the faceless entertainment of it all. When I made it down to a shopping area called The Town Square I found that it is laid out like a pretend prettied up town centre. I wandered for a while and let myself get wound up at how false the place was.





Then it hit me. There's not a load of history. I've known that for years, like I've known the people are more likely to move town for work than Europeans. Like I've learned over time that the distances between towns and states is much much larger than I once could comprehend.

So I thought about that shopping centre and yes it's false but I look back to home and the shopping centres I see there. The new ones are false, constructed to order in a manufactured fashion leaving areas of town elsewhere to effectively rot and slip downhill to the point that businesses don't see the sense in paying to sort out difficult untidy areas. What do the people do? They flock to them. Maybe we aren't that different.

History wise, there's not a huge amount (other than the native Americans but for a variety of reasons I'm going to put them respectfully to the side as they have largely not driven the country to where it is from the points I'm considering here). This shows itself in the young girl tonight who's best friend loves Scotland, but has never been despite always looking at photos and saying how beautiful it is. Also in the guy the other night who loves Scotland and was desperate to travel to Belfast... Then the day before there was guy who was Scottish, well his grandparents were. From my own history I've a load of examples like this but realistically there's not a depth of national history like many other nations have. It's a fact and there's no shame in it, it's a young nation.

Then there's the cars. I'm now driving a Jetta, not a big car in the grand scale of things but it's got a 2.5l engine, I'm not sure if they sell them with engines that size in Europe. I got out of the car the other day and was stood next to an American "Chelsea tractor", a big Ford truck with a 6.8l petrol engine that looks like it's never seen any dirt. Now there's a change happening and the cars are getting smaller over time as far as I can see from my experience, but they are generally still much bigger than the rest of the world.

It also seems to me that the cars, the huge buffets, the huge food portions, the twee shopping malls and ridiculous competition to make the biggest and grandest hotel / casino is a function of how much wealth they have here as a nation (again I'm ignoring huge issues such as the national debt, lack of social care and personal credit issues). There is and has been a load of cash visibly sloshing around for most of the population. There's been the ability to make things better, more comfortable, better.

This last point here brings me back full circle again to the train, to Route 66. I was in a small town called Grants today, a small town which grew thanks to the railroad, exploded (figuratively) thanks to uranium mining and then collapsed following the end of mining. It's a story seen over much of the rest of the nation of not being overly rooted, of being able to move, to change to make things better for themselves and their families.

So here I am in a nation with relative wealth, a desire to find itself and a need to make things better without being encumbered unduly by history or real threats to it's own borders (unlike much of the rest of the world with invasions within their histories). A nation with space to do as it pleases and the lack of fear to get on with it.

It's easy to kick the country as it's problems are obvious to all whether they have been here or not. I continue to see a lot of stuff I don't like about the country but this trip, like those through so many other countries has allowed me a new view over and above my earlier preconceptions. In that sense I feel lucky to feel that I understand the place more than I had before. Although I knew much of what I've written here prior to this journey there's a sense of comprehension I don't feel I could ever have had without seeing and understanding like I have in this last few weeks. I'm glad I'm here.

Location:N Main St,Roswell,United States