Well, I guess today was OK. Weather was still cooler than we expected. It was in the 90s when we left Palm Springs. Since Williams, the temperature (according to the car) hadn’t reached higher than the low 60s. At least we don’t have to worry about the cats getting too hot. I got up first, showered and ran to the gas station to fill up the car. We were on the road before 9am again for the second day in a row! The cats had taken their quarter of a Dramamine again and the results were similar to yesterday. Tom meowed for a bit, but was quickly snuggled up in the back of the kennel. Lucy was loud, but at least she wasn’t as jittery today. We never had to lock her up in the kennel.
After a little over an hour, we crossed out of New Mexico and into North Texas. Lost another hour. The nice scenery of the West was definitely now in our rearview mirror. We had hit the plains and were now driving through what we usually only see while flying at 10,000 feet from Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego or LA to Atlanta to make a connecting flight.
Stopped in Amarillo to get lunch. Though, I had never been to Amarillo while I lived in Texas during my AmeriCorps year, it had the same feel as any small Texas city. Very spread out through the highway corridor. This state just has so much room, but the size doesn’t match the actual population. We found a Chick-fil-A for lunch, just because they are available to us again and it is the best fast food ever. Went way out of our way to get to one. Sadly, it looked strangely deserted. Oh, right, today is Sunday. There always has to be a catch when fast food is that good. At In n’ Out Burger, there is always a line. Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays. Thus, I always crave Chick-fil-A on Sunday. After our 10 minute detour through the streets of Amarillo, we ate lunch at Subway. This was still better than yesterday’s Burger King lunch, which left me feeling bleh. There was a Burger King right next door to the Chick-fil-A but I don’t think I can do another greasy burger for the rest of the trip.
Just east of Amarillo, we blew through Groom, TX, which claimed to have the World’s largest cross. There was one giant white cross surrounded more life-sized ones and nearby a small hill with the three crosses and “bodies” on them. It was set up similiarly to the Washington Monument and there was even a tour bus. Note to small Texas town: having what you claim is the world’s largest cross (and an internet search says there is some competition from Effingham, IL) only proves is that you waste money on creepy landmarks . I am sure that money was well spent on an oversized exhibit of the method of torture and death for Jesus, rather than something like a rec center.
Another hour or so, and we were in Oklahoma. The wind had really picked up at this point. Had to keep both hands on the wheel. This is the first time on this trip that we crossed over into a state that I had never been to. Sam even pointed out that it was reminding her of Anchorage. The sky was overcast with a low ceiling and it was 50 degrees in May. Well, at least Anchorage still had the cool mountains looking over the city. Oklahoma has… a lot of Czechs, apparently. Even though I am half Czech, I had no idea so many of us settled in Oklahoma. There is even a Prague, OK. A Kolache Festival was advertised to be going on this month celebrating the Czech culture. My opinion of Oklahoma went up a bit. On a side note, thank you grandma for settling in Alaska rather than Oklahoma when you moved to the United States.
Missouri. Massachusetts. Georgia. Wisconsin. Arizona. The license plates going by on the 40 were very random and scattered. Maybe Oklahoma is more than a fly over state. It is a “blow through” state as well. We weren’t the only out-of-staters blowing through it at 80-90 mph. Even the wind seemed in a rush to get through. Another strange sight was all of the severe storm and weather SUVs we saw driving down the 40. You know, those giant vehicles with a large antenna (almost looking like a spy van), like the ones in the movie Twister? Yeah, we saw a lot of those in Oklahoma. Most were from the National Weather Service and some from Texas Tech. Creepy, given all the wind and the gray sky.
Oklahoma City came and went. It was still workday afternoon when we got through, so we kept going. Interesting thing about Oklahoma City is that it really isn’t that big, but it seems bigger because there is really absolutely nothing on either side of it. It is an urban sprawl (and not much of one compared to the other urban sprawls across the U.S., such as its sisters to the south in Texas) in the middle of nothing. Not even much in the way of exits leading up to the city. Lucy was still a little loud, but was at least calm enough to stay free of being locked in the kennel. Tom even got a little adventurous and came out to say hello. He laid on top of the kennel, which may have irritated Lucy since it is one of her favorite spots to sit when not in one of our laps.
We made it all the way through Oklahoma and crossed into Arkansas. Finished Duma Key. The book took a while to build up, but the last third was really intense. Fortunately, we had the best parts through the most boring part of the drive. If anyone wants to borrow the 18 CD book for a road trip, just let us know. Stopped for the night in Van Buren/Fort Smith, Arkansas. Arkansas is another state that I had never been to. Knocked out two of them in one day! Oklahoma was #39 and Arkansas #40 by my count. (Only have Maine, New Hampshire, Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming and Montana to go)!
Dinner was yet another example of reaching the Bible belt. We went to the Mexican place next to the Motel 6. I perused the menu and didn’t notice any beer or margaritas on there. I asked our waiter for a margarita, hopeful that he had just neglected to give us the drink menu. The restaurant doesn’t serve alcohol. We just drove 600 miles and I can’t have a drink with dinner. Ugh. The food was good, though. And we had a bottle of wine in the car, which we opened in the motel room after dinner. So, it turned out OK.
M.E.
Up Next: Driving through the South Like Sherman.
Epilogue: We are in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm. Tom is sleeping and Lucy is nervous. It's completely backwards. You can actually smell the rain! Matt went outside to the car... in the downpour... to get my camera and the atlas (I think just because he thought it would be fun). Thankfully we are out of Tornado Alley, but there have still been reports of tornados along the I-40 east of here. So we are attempting to determine alternate routes out of here to the south, but we accept that we might be hanging out here if the weather/ road conditions do not improve. Below is the weather situation. We are currently at the southeast corner of the "severe storm" area. Fun!
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