After spending the last several hours in the sun chasing rabits, snakes, and lizards we headed to old town. Here we found the usual touristy shops containing your Route 66 and various New Mexico paraphernalia. We enjoyed a little live music and walk around the central plaza. Satisfied we journeyed to the main downtown area. After a little parking adventure and meeting our new fiend John. We were guided to a restaurant just next to the University called the Frontier. Here we had some traditional New Mexican grub smothered in an excellent green chili stew. After our meal we took a walk around the University of New Mexico campus before heading back out on the road.
As we drove on towards Amarillo we found that it was getting dark but it was only 7:30pm. We had not realized that in a day we had passed through 2 time zones. It was actually 9:30pm. We had planned on getting in at around 11 only to find that it was actually 1am the next morning. We dozed off cracking the windows before bed at another great stop along the way. This place was called walmart, surprise surprise!
We awoke the next morning to a light rain coming through the windows from the sprinklers. It was actually quite enjoyable as it was already 85 degrees at 7:30am. We headed to starbucks for a bit of time online, some morning coffee, and then ventured off to Oklahoma City.
As our drive wore on we found that although the temperature was not rising rapidly the humidity added to the heat. En route we ran into a car from Nevada. We seemed to stay together for the entire 4 hour drive from Amarillo to Oklahoma City even after stopping at different rest stops. We stopped at a Cherokee Indian Gift Shop to have a look around and check our tire pressure. In this gift shop we found a new friend who will join us on our journey. He is a 3" tall cactus named George. We headed back onto the highway only to find Nevada close behind. Our states neighboring location and their ability to mooch off our radar detector kept us within a quarter mile of each other the entire time.
Hungry from the four hour drive we stopped at Ann's Fried Chicken House. Paden had Chicken Steak and Michael had Chicken Friend Steak. Both were very good and served as expected, with gravy, "vegetables", either mashed potatoes or french fries, and a side salad. Following this delicious meal and a sweet request to "Hurry on back now" we headed off to the Cowboy Museum!!!
The museum was awesome, the map was awful. The map designated which exhibits we were allowed to photograph and which ones we were not. Being such an awful map we ended up taking photos and getting caught on 2 separate occasions and missed out on opportunities to take pictures in other places. We also got to see what Paden called, "Cowboy Disneyland" It was a full-scale replica of an old western town. We were promised by the sweet old docent that EVERYTHING was authentic and original. This thing was no joke it was probably the size of a 8 house neighborhood. It had a bank, a school, a saloon, blacksmith shop, church, dentist, rail road station, post office, and more. The museum had so much more. There was an awesome hollywood section devoted to all the actors and actresses and well as the history of western movies and television through out the development. It also had a huge collection of paintings, drawings, and sculptures, depicting both western and native lifestyles. If that wasn't enough their was an extensive collection of knives and guns that we barely made a dent in. The cowboy museum closed at 5 so we squeezed in every last minute that we could and then hit the road.
On the drive to Little Rock we saw mysterious "red" lightning, fireflies on the side of the road and a disney-like, light up bridge. The weather here is muggy but tolerable at night. We will have to see what the day is like tomorrow. We plan to hit a few museums and historical landmarks before heading off to memphis for some awesome music history.
Listening to some bluegrass on the way down, we will leave you with:
-"Rock me mama like a wagon wheel!"
No comments:
Post a Comment