On The Road

Days 1 & 2 of my driving trip to LA:

I don’t really feel like I am anywhere. I’m in New Mexico, yes, but I am traveling at 70 miles an hour. I watch the country pass by, but I’m still in my car! It’s a strangely cool sensation.

Day one went great. I packed from 5:30 am till 2:00pm. But it’s okay, I kept telling myself, because noon is the new 7am!

I tried to pack way too much stuff into my Jeep, so I ended up stopping at Fed Ex and shipping 7 big boxes to myself. I really tried to have all this done before the last minute, but I worked until 7:30 PM the night before I left!

I finally got on the road about 3PM. I just put on some tunes and wanted to put as much distance between Chicago and myself as I could the first night. No turning back now.
I made it as far as Rolla, MO, 400 miles, which is pretty close to where I wanted to be.

Day 2:

Waking up at 6, I was out the motel door by 6:30. Man I couldn’t get out of there quick enough.

Went next door to a place called the Waffle House. You’d think with a name like that, they could make a decent waffle? Uh-uh, not to be. And the grits, swimming in butter? I don’t think so.

Yesterday I drove through MO, OK, and TX, 758 miles to Tucumcari, NM. I like driving so it was easy. I listened to local radio part of the morning, and my playlist for yesterday included Jim White, Johnny Cash, Moby, Buckethead, Joni Mitchell, and some classical music.

If I wasn’t in such a hurry to get to California, I might have stopped along the way at some of the fine monuments along the way. Instead I passed up some fine roadside attractions. I missed Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, I missed the worlds largest collection of precious moment statues, and the worlds biggest knife collection.

I really did want to stop in Oklahoma City and see the memorial to the Oklahoma City bombing, and the new federal building, but I didn’t. Another time.

I drove for 12 hours, and I was dreaming of a Margarita, chips and salsa, and a hot plate of Mexican food when I arrived. I got into Mountain time in NM, so I gained an hour when I arrived. I checked out the restaurant/bar at the motel and decided to drive through town instead. Well, on the whole 5 mile strip of old Rt. 66 that is Tucumcari, there was only one Mexican restaurant, and there were no cars in the parking lot at all, so I gave it a pass. There were only a couple of local chain restaurants, a Dean’s, and a Del’s, and they didn’t look too good to me either. So many motels; so few food options. Am I spoiled or what?

A disappointing Margarita and some mediocre appetizers back at the motel bar. They were out of chips! This is the southwest, how can you be out of chips? I wanted to ask the bartender. But she was too busy chewing loudly on her dinner at the end of the bar to hear me. “Just a sec”, she said to a new customer at the bar, holding up a finger and shoveling another forkful of food in her mouth. “I’wl be wight wit chew” she said with her mouth full.

Leaving Tucumcari in a few minutes. I’ll be in Phoenix tonight, 650 miles from here.
They have good Mexican restaurants in Phoenix.

Does anyone really care about this?