Breakfast in Oklahoma, Lunch in Texas, dinner in New Mexico

June 15, 2012

Today, we traveled through Amarillo, Texas, and had lunch at a really fantastic authentic Mexican restaurant.  Most days, our lunch is a picnic at a rest stop over the road, and that gives us a chance to stretch and enjoy the scenery (such as the teepee pavilions in Oklahoma that Ray mentioned the other day).  Ray knew I’ve always had a fascination for Texas, and since we weren’t going to be staying the night in the Lone Star State, he wanted to find something there for us to do.  So when we were planning this trip, he figured out where we would be at about midday and looked up good local restaurants and surprised me with this cool little place.  Even Claire, who doesn’t usually like Mexican food, loved the very excellent food, although she didn’t even know what it was.  

Something I realized last night while at the KOA last night.  If were not impressed with a campsite, it doesn’t matter, because we’re leaving in the morning anyway.  That’s very different from our week-long camping trips, where the campground and our particular campsite are integral to our enjoyment.  This is a nice freedom. 

We drove along the historic Route 66 for a little way, and parallel to it for many, many miles.  It’s neat to think about all the people who traveled that 2 lane road, without the benefit of the highway. 

An interesting phenomenon:  I’m getting sunburned in the car.  Because we’re going west all day, every day, the afternoon sun is streaming in through the windshield and accosting me.  Leave it to me to get sunburned while indoors all day.

 

We’ve gone through flatlands and mountains today.  We’ve seen wide open areas as far as the eye can see, filled with giant windmills that look like something out of a SciFi movie, with their huge arms gently spinning in the wind.  We marveled at vast mesas, with far-away flat-topped mountains. Now we’re driving up and down the valleys, with beautiful mountains rising up on either side of us, looking very much like a mountain model that Eric made for school once, with boulders and little trees spotting the terrain. 

We’re reaching elevations of almost 7000 feet.  It was so gradual at first, as we were coming out of the flatlands, that we didn’t even notice how high we were until we checked the GPS.   

Poor Claire started this trip with a cold, and it hasn’t gotten much better.  She has times during the day when she’s not too bad, and times when she’s downright miserable.  Today, as soon as the camper was set up, she climbed into bed and fell asleep.  I’ve been checking her throat and it looks clear (no strep, no tonsillitis), so it’s just a waiting game.  Hopefully tomorrow will have some improvement in store for her. 

It’s now 8:15 pm, local time, and we’re in our next campsite, in Albuquerque, NM.  This campground is really different.  Completely flat and open, gravel, no trees at all.  More of a parking lot than a campground.  However, there is a rec room with really nice pool tables, and the breeze and mountain views are really nice.  Eric and I played 2 games of pool and were abut to sit outside and have dinner.  Every day is something new! 

Tomorrow, we’re heading to Kingman, AZ, for two days.  Grand Canyon, here we come!