Les véhicules de collection, ou comment l'imperfection rend amoureux

We were cruising across the Great American Desert in a small English car, designed a quarter of a century ago to run on narrow green lanes and mist shrouded race tracks in a country where sunlight is about as common as a lunar eclipse.

On veut des images de femmes et de voitures, pas de gros boudins

I hope you folks aren't too hungry for your bacon and eggs. That's the cook out front lookin' at your car.

Just across the Colorado border we pulled into the town of Cortez right on the tail of a huge parade passing down Main Street. It was Frontier Days or Yahoo Centennial Days or something. We passed through just after the parade, and the street was still lined with people, several of whom were sober. We drove down a 3-mile gauntlet of whistling and shouting citizens. Most, I'm sure, thought we were part of the parade, a late entry. We smiled and waved at everyone, and Barb said, "I wonder if I should sit on the back deck of the car and blow kisses."

I looked at some cowboys who had just staggered out of a bar and said, "Better you than me."

The cafe was cool, bright and polished inside: lots of stainless steel coolers with that sweating, refrigerated look. We had iced tea, soup and coffee with a side of ice water. "This is a nice place," Barb said. I was nodding when a man with a pressurized canister and nozzle asked us to move our feet so he could spray the crack along the bottom of the counter.

"What are you spraying for?"

"Roaches."

"Talk about service," I said when the man was gone. "You won't find roach spray much fresher than that."

Barb said, "I wonder what the Indians thought when they first of t walked up to the edge of this canyon." 'Probably, `Wait'll the white man sees this. The eviction notice is practically in the mail.' "

The heat in the Westfield's footwell at noon was astounding. I considered stopping at a supermarket and propping a frozen turkey against the gas pedal. That way my feet would stay cool and dinner would be ready by the time we got to Durango.