Days 3 & 4– April 12th/13th

Day 3 - Today was an easy day, and a fun day with side trips. I left Albuquerque at a leisurely pace, having slept in and headed to Santa Fe to pick up the “Old Santa Fe Trail” and ended up at the historical plaza in the center of town. Spent time wandering around then set out for Tucumcari and another section of Route 66. Along the way, I passed, going the other way, a covered wagon being pulled by horses. Apparently one can rent it and travel in old style. No AC. Sadly, the little towns on Rte 66 have been mostly forgotten by time and commerce and have become a bit dilapidated, if not in some cases, abandoned.

Other fun things I saw were:
 tumbling tumbleweeds
 the mileage sign for Roswell, NM
 A meteor crater
 and in one of the dust bowl a baby tornado-in -training – a little dust devil funnel, dancing across landscape with a collision course with the highway about 50 feet in front of me. It just dwindled out once it hit the highway, but it was fun to watch
 I had hoped to see an armadillo near Amarillo, but did not

Stopped early in Amarillo somehow, I found the only motel with no wifi, so on to…

Day 4 – Woke up to dire warnings of storms, winds and potential tornados, so I got out of town, right quick, as they say in Texas. It felt like I was racing the storm, in my rear view mirror, dark threatening clouds, in front of me , clear skies. So on I went, skedaddling across the border into Oklahoma. Just before getting into OK, I went through Donley County.

Over the OK line, instead of counties, they partition the land by First Nation tribes, so I went through the Arapaho Nation, the Kickapoo Nation and the Cherokee Nation. (Next to chipotle, Arapaho is one of my favorite words.) Eastern Texas and Oklahoma are flat, Although Eastern Oklahoma is green and there were more trees and water. Thank heavens for books on tape.

The people here are very friendly. I stopped in Shawnee and got into four separate conversations in the store with four different women… that’s a lot for me. I keep driving by signs for places I have heard of like Muskogee, Fayetteville, and now I know sort of where they are.
I Stopped in Alma, Arkansas for the day and hiked up to the reservoir to see the worlds largest can of spinach, their water tower. Big local business.

As my family knows, I was born with a bit of wanderlust, and like discovering new places, wandering around aimlessly sometimes to see sights, so it is no surprise that I am enjoying the drive but I keep forgetting to take pictures.