On the road...

I am typing this in my hotel room in Amarillo Texas. You don’t really realize how far it is across the country until you drive it, that’s for sure. On Thursday I was on the road for about 16 hours, driving from Archbold to Memphis Tennessee. Really, if you drove straight, it’s like 14 hours, but I stopped every few hours to get out and stretch… try to remain sane. Yesterday I drove from Memphis to Amarillo. Today I’m making the trek to Boulder Colorado, which is a shorter, about 8 hour drive. I took the chance to sleep in and relax a bit.

I thought I’d bring you some fun/ insightful observations from the road.

1. Like squirrels are the road kill of the East, Armadillos are the road kill of the southern Midwest/ West.
2. Drivers in Oklahoma and Alabama are really nice. In Alabama I almost missed a turn at one point, and the first driver that saw I had my blinker on to get into the proper lane let me in. In Oklahoma road construction deemed it necessary to drop traffic down to one lane. Everyone, (and I mean everyone) lined up in that single file line ONE MILE before the actual merge sign and construction began. No cutting off, or trying to jump ahead by racing up the side.
3. Going in to a gas station, or other place of business I am a little weirded out, wondering if the people here think I have an accent… (I think I confused a gas station cashier yesterday. I guess I talk kind of fast.)
4. It is really windy in Amarillo… I don’t think I saw more than 10 trees from when I crossed the OK border on I-40 to when I got here. That said, it’s kind of scary when passing an 18 wheeler you come out the front and suddenly get buffeted by a blast of wind that was previously blocked by the truck.
5. I go insane at about hour 12 on the road. (read: the permagrin appears for no apparent reason, I start bopping around in my seat, and generally being giddy.)

6. I do not fit the demographic of the most common visitor to Elvis’ birthplace in Tupelo Mississippi. (and the statue of the 13 year old Elvis is kind of creepy.)


Toejam has been enjoying the ride. As you can see here, he was working on his Godzilla impression for OK City.


Now I've got to go get ready for another day on the road...