Skylines: Driving West Part 3

Driving this most recent time I began to develop a theory about Texas and the "American Southwest". While Texas has its own flavor of Southwest-ness, which is undeniable, its still almost an identity that's feels more "Texas" than "American Southwest". Except for...

If you look at a map of Texas, and mentally sever the northern panhandle and the western pointy nub, you almost get a square. Those cut places have one large town each, and being in each of those cities, Amarillo in the panhandle, and El Paso in the western nub, you get a sense that that's precisely how they feel: Texan, but almost forgotten and detached. Amarillo identifies as Texan, but they're almost a plains/cotton farming core.

El Paso, on the other hand, is what I consider the eastern boundary of the "American Southwest". It's the Texan part of the "American Southwest", like Barstow is the Californian part of the same region, and what I consider the western boundary. LA might be in the southwest, but it's not part of some larger region that holds the romantic spot in the imagination of the masses as being "Southwest". El Paso is a large population center, and more than doubles in size when Juarez, directly across the Rio Grande and in Mexico, is considered. It's in Mountain time instead of Central time. They just have a dynamic that is Texan, but unlike every other major Texan city.

Maybe I'll make a post about that concept on it's own...

In any case, here are some skylines from the drive. This first one is Austin. The pink capitol building is visible, as well as the UT football stadium. That's the reason I used this (rather crappy) picture: the stadium, inspired by the earlier shot of LSU's stadium a few weeks ago.



Here's El Paso, with Juarez in the background. Even the skyline is brown and dull.



Here's Tuscon. Tuscon, like it's bigger sister Phoenix, as the two large metropolises in Arizona, are very new and awash with money. Streets and highways are well manicured, the cars are overwhelmingly new and nice, and the skyline is handsome and freshly painted.



This is our contraption taking up six spots, while I have a chuckle, at our hotel in Long Beach.