Good, long driving day today. We went from Sallisaw, OK to Gallup, NM -- a grand total of 836 miles over 3 states, and it could have been four if we'd taken our chances and headed into Arizona (a mere 16 miles away) not knowing if there were any hotels just across the border. Oh well.
Tomorrow's destination: San Diego, CA to spend New Year's Eve with our friends Kristy, Michael and Florie. Until then, here are some of the highlights (post-Oklahoma City & using that term loosely) of the colossus crawling west:
* Before we left everyone was asking if we planned on going on any side trips to see, for example, the largest catfish, the largest ball of string, etc. Well today we hadn't planned on passing such a landmark, but we did. Somewhere in Texas, along I-40 before Amarillo, we passed what 2 different billboards exclaimed was "the largest cross in the western hemisphere". I can only infer, therefore, that there exists, somewhere outside the western hemisphere, a bigger (badder?) cross -- which is pretty mindboggling since this one was easily 15 stories high (the picture below really doesn't do it justice).
At first we thought the picture might be unuseable, but I think the gunk buildup on Erika's yellow make this hemisphere's biggest cross, all the more ominous!
* About 30 miles later, just as we passed through Amarillo, I was driving and admiring the view out my window when Erika said "Bushland". I just assumed she meant that she'd seen a Bush/Cheney '04 sign along the road. But when I looked over after she said it again, I caught a glimpse of the exit sign announcing "Bushland". I have to admit that it took me longer than it should have to convince myself that Bushland had always been named such not renamed following W's reelection last month. (Turns out it's been called that since 1908.)
* After my panic about Dubbya renaming every town in Texas subsided, we got to enjoy what turned out to be a really beautiful sunset:
Unfortunately though, I think we missed the amazing stretch of I-40 that Joe C. had been telling us about before the trip, because it got real dark soon after Amarillo. Sorry Joe!
* Just after we got into New Mexico, we attempted to stop for dinner in Tucumcari. I say attempted b/c when we got off (after first missing Route 66) we followed the signs to the "Historic Downtown District" assuming that we'd be able to find something non-McDonalds. But when we got there it was simply deserted -- at 6:30 pm. We passed one car. The one restaurant we did find was so depressingly desolate that we decided to try our luck down Route 66. We came to another restaurant and I went in to check the menu. I waited for someone to come to the front but no one ever did. The restaurant looked to be set up for a busy Friday night, except that there was, again, no one there.
We figured that where 66 met back up with I-40 there'd be something (even drive through fast food at this point), but there wasn't even a gas station. I started to feel like we might have driven into the Twilight Zone or something. Finally after circling back we found a place (Del's Restaurant) that looked like there were some actual people in it, so we decided on that. But just as I go to turn into Del's a Slowie pulls in front of me and starts going 20 mph. Aargh. Luckily for you, our loyal reader, Erika caught him on film -- well, sort of (see actual Slowie, above).
As we might have predicted, given the farcical romp we'd gone on just to get there, Del's was very average New Mexican food.
I'm sure there were a few other unamusing stories but it's late and I can't really remember them. Thanks a bunch to everyone who's left comments -- they are a real treat to read. Like I said tomorrow we're makin' it to San Diego (home of YOUR AFC West Champion Chargers!!!!), but I promise that at lunch tomorrow i'll put up the first 2 installments of "The Red State Diaries" -- Getting the Uhaul Stuck in Gainesville, and The Horror that was Room 262 at the Tupelo, MS Red Roof Inn. I'm sure you can't wait.
