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Written by Catherine Futter, Mentor
What a day!! It was fulfilling in so many ways.
I have made so many new friends on this trip, seen the beautiful and stark Southwestern landscape and driven an electric 1977 Lotus Esprit. Life can’t get much better. OK, we could have seen an armadillo and experienced local culinary delicacies, but I am not complaining.
Dawn was pretty late this morning, as we are close to the western edge of Central Time zone. It was cool with a lovely breeze–what a skyline–with dramatic plateaus, prickly pear cactus and mesquite. Tom took a really spectacular photo of the Lotus driving into the sun rise.
Today was momentous for me, in that I got to drive the MINDDRIVE Lotus twice! As the first driver of the day, with Christana as co-pilot, I drove from Van Horn, TX to Balmoreah, TX. It was about an hour and a half of awe-inspiring scenery, a beautiful breeze and the metallic rattle of the electric motor. Once I settled in and Steve set the pace with the lead car, we cruised along and I learned how to use the throttle to control the amount of power we were expending. Truly an amazing trip. But it became even more important when the toughest critic of them all, Brian, said I did great job of maintaining speed and line. He is not generous with this praise. Steve and Walt are, and they also congratulated me on my inaugural trip.
I then had a nice break out in the landscape–found a snake skeleton and wild watermelons! The kids were at a spring for a swim at Balmoreah.
If the day could get better, it did when we arrived at the Texas Proving Ground in Fort Stockton. Steve asked me to drive the two 60 mph laps in the Lotus. It was pretty intense trying to maintain 60 mph for an 8 mile oval in a car with very subtle adjustments. I did one lap with Luis and another with Javier. We did great. In the end we averaged 169 mpge!
A town square presentation in Ozona rounded out a busy day. It was the most popular event we have had to date.
Our final dinner as a “first week” group was at the Sonic in Ozona. It was pretty emotional with the students expressing their feelings about the program and their appreciation for all the Steve and Linda and the mentors have done for them. Steve, Linda, Jim and I gave little (emotional!) speeches about what MINDDRIVE students mean to us. Lots of hugs and some tears.
It is going to be sad to leave tomorrow but new students will have the opportunity to experience the country, the car and the family that is MINDDRRIVE and have lots of fun!
I cannot express — and am still absorbing — all that has happened in the last six days and what this experience will mean to me. I know, however, that this trip will stay with me forever.
