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The training I received during my two weeks as a Boy Scout in junior high has once again let me down. Already out in far-west Texas, I'm beginning to face the reality that I'm much less prepared for this trip than any previous.

I'm on the road in preparation for Weird Arizona, the second book I've signed on to write for the Weird U.S. series, following Weird Texas, released last month. Having finally tied up a Web site I've been designing, which had prevented me from concentrating on research with the energy I needed, I set out from North Texas this morning feeling wholly ill-equipped.

I've got a rented SUV packed full of photo equipment, clothes, water and aerosol cheese, plus a database full of leads, but I have only a vague idea where I'm headed. I collected as much material as I could the past few weeks, but it's not nearly as organized as I'd like it to be.

Of course, I'm probably just being hard on myself as usual. I normally plan out my timetable to the hour — who I'll be meeting and when, what I'll be shooting and how, and where I'll be sleeping and for how long. But that's a lot easier to do when you're already familiar with the terrain and you plan to be on the road a maximum of 3 or 4 days. This go-round, I'll be out for 2 weeks straight and Arizona is an 8-year-old memory from a short stop on my way to California. I remember a giant sundial, a Titan missile silo and a really terrific steak, but I couldn't tell you which highways I took to get to them or whether they cut through desert or mountains.

I'm sure things will turn out great, but my anxiety meter is still, at present, quivering in the yellow, what with my late start and the road work at I-10 putting me only as far as Pecos tonight. Not to mention the door of the SUV ripping my thumbnail cuticle back to my knuckle this morning, leaving my left hand without the dexterity granted lower primates.

I was, however, lucky enough to pass by Odessa's relatively new Stonehenge at UTPB on the way, and to discover a terrific abandoned warehouse next to the highway, and just at sunset. So at least I didn't end the day with an empty flash card.

As for everything else, I'll just have to rely on experience, antiseptic and whatever fortunes I take away from the Chinese buffets to come.

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