Great American Road Trip: Part 3

7:15 a.m. Santa Fe Farmers' Market

I had a lovely, albeit brief, visit to the market this morning. Our car is so crammed, I only purchased a few things; mulberries, New Mexican chile powder, Anasazi beans (dried) and apple cake.


8:30 a.m. Departing Santa Fe, Cloudy 67*

Matt had a bit of trouble packing up the car, but is satisfied that his "visuals are better than the first day." Our hotel was comfortable and much quieter than last night's. The scenery is stunning--blue green sagebrush, golden-green grass and rocky pueblo-dotted hillsides.

9:20 I-40, Cloudy 65*

Just saw two signs advertising Amarillo--1 for the 2nd largest canyon in America (and you can drive in!!) and the other for a dinner theater featuring "Amarillo, the Musical." I woke up a little Hungover from the "best margaritas in Santa Fe" and swollen from a salty meal and couldn't deal with coffee, but now am feeling tired and suffering from lack of caffeine.

10:20 Santa Rosa, NM, Clouds and Sun, 75*

Mc Donald's for a quick pit stop and coffee. Matt got out some trail mix from the back of our car and it took him a good 2 minutes to get the hatch to shut again....

Favorite sign in New Mexico: Gusty winds may exist.


11:41----12:41 (Central Time Zone) Welcome to Texas! Cloudy, 85*

Owen requested a county music soundtrack for our drive through Texas and DJ Mama is happy to oblige. Texas is FLAT and quite prairy-ish (is that a word?) and looks a lot like where I grew up. (Oakdale, CA).

1:08 p.m. I'm totally into this Texas thing. We're singing along (loudly) to the Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, Travis Trit and Brooks and Dunn. Who knew I had so much country on my ipod? I guess you can take the girl out of the country, but not the country out of the girl. My cowboy hat is on and my hair is in braids.


1:45 p.m. Cadillac Graveyard just outside Amarillo, Cloudy, 83*, and muggy as heck.

The CG is a ridiculously perfect example of random things one sees on a road trip . It comes up suddenly, and is a row of about 10 old Caddies, planted in the ground and spray painted. Someone shared their cans of spray paint with us and the kids got to practice their tagging skills, which will give them much street cred when we get back to the "hood."

Afterwards, we headed straight to Dyer's BBQ, an Amarillo restaurant, popular with the locals. Although we didn't see anyone with a handlebar moustache (like we did in Santa Fe), we did see plenty of cowboy hats and boots and even some overalls.

3:02 p.m. Back to the interstate after a quick lunch at Dyer's. The kid's chicken plate came with chicken strips, fries, toast (the Texas kind, of course) and gravy. Matt and I split the rib plate that included 3 large pork ribs, cole slaw, onion rings, potato salad, beans and apricots (like applesauce) for $8.95. We also enjoyed Texas Tea (ice tea and lemonade). The meal was good and cost us all of $24--less than McDonald's!

Favorite Texas road sign: Don't mess with Texas, litter and pay a fine of up to $1000.

4:27 p.m. Welcome to Oklahoma! Partly Cloudy, 89*

5:02 p.m. Back on the interstate after a quick stop in to the Oklahoma Welcome Center and rest stop with a dog park...how cool is that? We met a couple from Pennsylvania that are truck drivers and they stop there every week on their way back from California. Two days there, two days back...then three days off. Wow! The rest stop had the nicest bathrooms we've seen on the entire trip, including our hotel rooms. Wonderful! (It's the little things, you see...) Cricket loved the chance to run around and bark at the perimeter of the park, guarding her peeps, just like home.

6:37 p.m. Cloudy and 87*, somewhere just outside Oklahoma City

Before the trip we bought season one of the Amazing Race for the kids to enjoy on the road. And Matt and I have always said that this road trip is our "Amazing Race." We're mostly racing against crazy...just waiting for it to catch up to us. Well, tonight, it caught up to Willa, in a big way.

Owen had just spotted the animal he has been dreaming of seeing on the trip. For Ben, it was the Condor, Owen has been obsessed with armadillos. Unfortunately, the armadillo we spotted was dead, and so was the next one, and the next one and the one after that. Apparently, Oklahoma is a roadkill wonderland, if I might be so bold as to call it that, and we saw all manner of dead things including several armadillos, a fox(?), a dog, a raccoon and a headless deer (that was super stinky....). Shortly after we passed the deer, Willa burst into tears and cried hysterically for the better part of the next hour. Evidently she was deeply saddened by all the dead things (or just needing an excuse to have a good cry). When she started banging her head with an empty water bottle and throwing things around in the car, we hurriedly decided to pull off the road at the next exit. Everyone was hungry and we had been searching for a Waffle House for dinner (Owen just had to have a waffle). But times were desperate and we needed to get off the road, come hell or Waffle House.

Luckily for us, there was a Waffle House at the exit and order was restored to the universe once more.

8:02 p.m. We're done with our dinner and it's still 84* and damn humid and windy. We're just out of Oklahoma city and the landscape is filled with rolling hills that are densely covered with oak trees. We've all recovered, especially Willa, who happily tucked into her $1 waffle and extra large orange juice (gotta keep healthy now). Dinner (for 5) cost less than $20, which explains why it is a road tripper's dream.

Tulsa is a mere 92 miles away. We have no idea where we are staying tonight...should be interesting.

9:15 Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We made it and decided on Motel 6 again. Room is the cleanest we have had so far. Kids are bouncing off the freaking walls.

Miles traveled today: 637. We're half way there! Whew!