(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66

Day #4 Miles: 541

Day #4 States: 3 (Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico)

Mileage Total: 1666

This morning hit me like a sack of bricks. With the time change, and trying to sleep in strange surroundings, and moving worries, I was in bad shape. My body ached, I was exhausted, and my one solace was thinking 'I only have to drive 8 hours today'. Also, I knew once I hit Albuquerque, I gain an hour, which can easily translate into an extra hour of sleep. Not a positive start to the day. 

I decided that if I did not feel like driving, then I would play a role. I decked myself out in my best trucker hat, my raunchiest wifebeater, my biggest flannel shirt, and I became Bubba Adrienne. However, my trucker hat says Cornell Class of 1974 (stolen from my dad), and I feel like this detracted from my road cred. But it was definitely worth it. When I stopped for a morning coffee, one of the shop patrons said, "Are you really class of 1974? Because... dang! What are you on and where can I get my wife some?".

And this was the rather interesting sign on the ice machine at the hotel in OKC in the morning... what exactly is 'winterization'?

Oklahoma, although it doesn't seem like much, is just really really beautiful. The ground is all dead grass with a golden amber shine, with flecks of emerald grassy farmland peeking out. There are giant windmills in the background, and I liked to pretend I was Don Quixote. But the flat land and complete lack of any tall construction means the state is just telephone poles and giant blue sky. And if you are like me and crowds frighten you, there is no greater sense of peace than miles and miles and miles of comforting open spaces.

I picked up the historical Route 66 outside of Oklahoma city, and it's a great ride. The whole route goes from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, LA and has been around since 1926. And of course, I busted out my Nat King Cole. Soon enough, I was feeling a little restless. I saw a sign for 'CHEROKEE TRADING POST', and decided it was just enough of a kitschy tourist thing to provide at least 15 minutes worth of entertainment. And it was next to a gas station. Fake arrowheads and fuel. Sounds good.

I spent about 2 minutes just staring and inhaling. First, the air quality in rural Oklahoma is unbelievable. It's like you get more oxygen in every breath, and you inhale and have nothing get caught in your internal filter. And second, I was trying to figure out if this is offensive or not.  I decided on 'yes'.

And then they had this tee-shirt:

And I settled on two simple souvenirs:

I'm a huge fan of oversize coffee mugs, and I saw the buffalo penny and wanted to make one in the crank machine. I loved it. 

And then I decided to take a few minutes to explore the area surrounding the tourist stop.

I sent the above photo to Stefano. He said he was glad I was making new friends.

 Following my touristy distraction, I was feeling a million times better. Then I passed into Texas (again).

After only about 15 minutes in Texas, I noticed that the median and the other side of the road were smoking. I didn't know what it was, it seemed really weird. But it was a grass fire that extended for nearly a mile, ravaging the median with orange flames and polluting the perfectly crisp air with smoke. 

But after that, the ride through northern Texas looked something like this:

The second major stop for the day was in Amarillo, Texas for some lunch. My research revealed that there was a local specialty that I really needed to try, and that this was pretty much the place to try it. 

Blue Sky is right beside Route 66 and caters to the 'burgers and beer' crowd, featuring fast food made from things that are edible. For a drink, I tried a sip of something called 'Fanta Red', which might have been some kind of fruit-flavored soda, but was really just sugar and food dye. I eventually settled on unsweetened iced tea. But the meal was, as mentioned, a local specialty: the Green Chile Cheeseburger. The point is really simple: take a really well-prepared, flavorful cheeseburger that is already decked out with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, etc. and serve it besides a pot of green chiles, so that you can spice your patty to your hearts content. I don't know who invented this, but I am madly in love with them. The combo is perfect. The green chiles don't offer an aggressive punch of heat that can sometimes cancel out more subtle flavors (like a toasted bun), but it offered a textural change, a temperature change, and a slow-spice finish... like if you marinated tomatoes with pickled jalapenos or something and put those on a cheeseburger. I typically avoid eating animals that are born live, including beef, but this was kind of worth it. A great stop.

The next major milestone was passing into New Mexico.

 In New Mexico, the land isn't as flat. And! I finally got to drive off into the sunset...

Pulled into Albuquerque, New Mexico for the evening. The city is pretty at night, and a lot larger than I thought it would be. But I couldn't help but think about the Weird Al song, 'Albuquerque'. I'm looking to get a lot of sleep so that hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow morning and not feel like hell. It's hard to get used to time changes. I also am working on downloading some additional podcasts as I quickly ran out of episodes of 'This American Life' and 'Radiolab'. I am a little bummed that I did not find the taxidermied armadillo that I originally wanted as a souvenir, but I think I've done alright.