Sometimes I feel the need to disappear, to suddenly pick up and leave – especially at those times when I feel the world is spinning just a little too fast. To slow it down, I find the perfect getaway vehicle is a car and an open road. It’s just the thing to clear my head and open myself up to new ways of thinking.
Recently, I took a road trip from Dallas and ventured West toward New Mexico and on over to Colorado. With my GPS set and iTunes playlist in hand, I drive. It doesn’t take long before the landscape changes from skyscrapers, retail centers, sprawling housing developments to openness. It’s easy to lose yourself in this place called Big Sky Country. Out here your mind is given plenty of latitude and space to stretch for days on end.
What Texas lacks in trees is made up in cattle ranches and roadside attractions. Amarillo is home of the 72 oz. steak and Cadillac Ranch. Out here, the wind screams, full of strength and vigor – giving tumbleweeds the power to wander freely. It shakes you to attention. In the distance, I spot something white standing against a clear blue sky as I head west toward Albuquerque. As I traverse closer on I-40, row upon row of wind turbines spin in the distance. I exit the interstate at Vega (an old Route 66 town), pass the historic Magnolia gas station and head north on 385. Open plains quickly erode into mesas and canyon out. Scrub trees, cactus and cattle dot the terrain. Soon the Spinning Spur Wind Ranch comes into full view. The late afternoon light, dusty red rock and Death Cab for Cutie’s song, Bixby Canyon Bridge, all collide to provide the perfect backdrop for these giant titans of energy, standing and spinning defiantly on the mesa’s edge.
At this point in my journey, one can’t help but be overwhelmed by the possibility of new ideas, swirling wildly around inside my head. My mind is completely open, with miles and miles and miles of discovery still before me.
Aside from discovering that Texas is a really, really big state, here are a few new ideas I learned being shaped by the wind.
Meet the BAT, An Airborne Wind Turbine
A Peek Into The Astonishing Future Of Wind Power
New Battery Material Could Help Wind and Solar Power Go Big
Wind Turbines
Bladeless “bird friendly” wind turbine.
David Fambrough is a technical writer for Mouser Electronics. He’s adamant that Lost in Space, Star Trek and James Bond have had a strong role in inspiring innovation and new design.