Honestly?

Most Beautiful City In The World.

it ain't just a curvy street

Maybe. It's hard to commit to a definitive superlative like that. But sometimes I really think so. Not because of this one view, but because all around San Francisco one is exposed to arresting views and a visual stimulation that is arguably unparalleled. The water and the hills and the nature are mesmerizing and evoke emotions of wonder and awe. And here I'm just repeating the sentiments of many, as expressed for centuries. In Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune she echoes this in the passage,

"They spent the rest of the evening listening to the captain's wondrous stories about California, even though he hadn't been there since the discovery of gold and the only thing he could say about San Francisco was that is wasn't much of a town but that it did sit on the most beautiful bay in the world."

In the city itself there is lots of innovative architecture and design

though what gets me drooling are all the rides that are are just too too clean.

Traveling is Fun...

Traveling is fun because there is so much beauty in this vast and diverse land, even through a bug-splattered windshield.

driving into the Tucson sun as it sets

And when you turn your shotgun head to the right, there are all these wondrous things whirling by on the other side of the glass.

Like the green pastures of West Virginia

and the arid brush of central Texas.

The looming mountains and new blossoms of Arizona

alongside their majestic cacti companions.

SoCal holds its own, what with lush fields backdropped by mountain range and freight train 

brushing right up against the stunning starkness of the Algodones Dunes.

And there you are seeing it all go by...

Sahara Chronicle

"The immense desert territory of the Tuareg was split in five by the colonial empires, covering substantial areas of Algeria, Libya, Mali, Niger and Chad. Tuareg existence is transnational by definition. They worked out a system of information, itineraries and topographic literacy to manage the most valuable resource in these latitudes: mobility. Revitalizing tribal bonds across borders, the nomads quickly organized the transport of migrants into an efficient network. On the Atlantic coast, new migration systems are emerging as the Straight of Gibraltar is sealed off. Here different networks intertwine and reorganize themselves as border regimes change."

- "Sahara Chronicle" is a collection of videos on mobility and the politics of containment in the Sahara. The multimedia exhibit is part of the geography of transterritories exhibition at the San Francisco Art Institute.

"Wanderlust"

"Our paths long ago diverged. But two decades on, the most recurrent features of my love life remain airplanes and letters. I've met people who can't separate love and lust; for me the tricky distinction is between love and wanderlust. They're both about wanting and seeking and hoping to be swept away, so lost in the moment that the rest of the world recedes from view.

Some people spend their lives looking for anchors. For years, I cut ties as fast as I formed them, always struggling to be free...

'Wanderlust,' the irresistible impulse to travel, is a perfect word, adopted untouched from the German, presumably because it couldn't be improved. Workarounds like the French 'passion du voyage' don't quite capture the same meaning. Wanderlust is not a passion for travel exactly, it's something more animal and more fickle - more like lust. We don't lust after very many things in life. We don't need words like 'worklust' or 'homemakinglust.' But travel? The essayist Anatole Boyard put it perfectly: 'Travel is like adultery: one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one's own country. To have imagination is inevitably to be dissatisfied with where you live... in our wanderlust, we are lovers looking for consummation.' "

 - From "Wanderlust" by Elisabeth Eaves in The Best Women's Travel Writing 2010, given to me by my Father Dearest and which has been my main road trip reading.