Thinking spaces

I've never been one who's big on traveling. At any point in my life, really. I dunno, I kinda just wouldn't seem that impressed by certain things. My dad would love to go see the Grand Canyon, and I'm probably totally underestimating it, but it just seems like a giant crater in the earth. I don't really know how much (or what) I'd get out of being somewhere like that.

Where I do want to travel, or at least insert myself in the place of, is where thinking happened. Namely, a thinking space. I have my own on campus -- the waterfall with the weird statue right outside Martin, where I just like to sit and listen to the rushing water. I've end-of-the-year blogged there before, and I plan to at least one more time. But that's six minutes from where I live on campus...what about a place where others have thought?

My main (and currently only) place I would like to be is the Monahans Sand Dunes, in Texas. Why the hell would I want to go to Texas? Well, it's where Explosions in the Sky got the inspiration for The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place. On their website, they talk about the creation of each of their albums. Regarding the sand dunes, they say, "This place is hard to describe. You're just surrounded by weird, untouched desert. And you can see all the stars in the sky. Michael once described it as 'like being on another planet.'" Any other weird, untouched desert would be exactly that to me (boring), but to know that the band laid on the sand and listened to music, which was the beginning of the album falling into place...just seems like something I'd be all over.