i did a cross-country drive from illinois to la about a decade ago, and it was actually fun as hell seeing the landscape change gradually. it's basically like the shire where i'm from, with forests and rolling hills through missouri and arkansas, then flat grassy plains in texas, and then the shrubby kind of desert in new mexico, and then arizona and southern california basically being the lifeless surface of mars, and then you're in la. i was terrified of my car breaking down on that last stretch of the trip, because there's fucking nothing out there. i thought movies like tremors and the hills have eyes were exaggerating, but they most certainly are not.
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