By the Time I Get to Phoenix…

I have a slightly strange routine that I follow when heading out on the open road. As I’m pulling out of the driveway I play one of my favorite Glen Campbell songs from the late 60′s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, just to get me in the mood. Jimmy Webb wrote this song when he was only 21 but Glen Campbell made it famous as his first Top 40 hit. Webb then wrote my next road-trip selection “Wichita Lineman”.

So if you’re traveling in central Texas and you pull up next to a green Subaru Forester with the windows down, don’t be surprised if you hear some grayed-haired dude belting out a few of these lines…

By the time I get to Phoenix she’ll be rising
She’ll find the note I left hangin’ on her door
She’ll laugh when she reads the part that says I’m leavin’
‘Cause I’ve left that girl so many times before

By the time I make Albuquerque she’ll be working
She’ll prob’ly stop at lunch and give me a call
But she’ll just hear that phone keep on ringin’
Off the wall that’s all

By the time I make Oklahoma she’ll be sleepin’
She’ll turn softly and call my name out loud
And she’ll cry just to think I’d really leave her
Tho’ time and time I try to tell her so
She just didn’t know I would really go.

Looking at Turkey Peak – Fredericksburg, Texas
Copyright © 2009 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II set on aperture priority (Av) using an EF 24-104mm f/4L IS USM lens tripod-mounted. The exposure was taken at 24mm, f/11 for 1/25th of a second at ISO 100 using a Singh-Ray warming polarizer. All post capture processing was done in Adobe’s Lightroom 3 Beta 2. Click on the image above for a larger version.