Unfortunate signs

Move Road Trip Day Two

These are all from real live billboards seen driving through New Mexico:

FIREWORKS!
Worldwide
Pyro
Headquarters

BBQ! Certified Angus!
Burgers Steaks Mexican

Vasectomy Reversal
Microsurgery guaranteed

Roadkill Apparel
Buffet - $7.99

Watching the sun rise over the Arizona desert was truly spectacular. We drove through the night, Dad and I taking turns sleeping. There was a bit of scary weather through western Arizona, driving through a lightening storm. Thank god I slept through most of it, but the forks and flashes I did see were stunning.



Most of Arizona was moon-lit desert. Even through the storm clouds, the moon lit up the sky with silver, throwing the rocks and bluffs into stark relief. The sun came up, looking at first like the light of a distant city, the turning the sky shades of turquoise and teal before becoming pink and gold. Watching the dawn put on her morning colors is rather miraculous, there are no other words for it.

In less natural wonders, Albuquerque has the most beautiful freeway interchange I have ever seen. You would think that a freeway interchange would be, in all places, hideous, but this one was actually really lovely to look at. They had made the whole thing out of sandstone colored cement and trimmed it with turquoise. The turquoise stood out against the sandstone like narrow ribbons of light almost. They had done some nice little detailing at the ends of the spans, to give the whole thing a Southwest flair. Very nice. If only cities the world over paid attention to things like having attractive freeway interchanges, the highway system here would be a much nicer experience.

The rest of New Mexico was fairly uneventful. The cat still refused to get out her box when we stopped, but seemed to be doing just fine. I fell asleep again, and woke up in Texas. A flatter place I have never seen in my life. It's beautiful though, in a huge, flat, open kind of way. Everything just seemed so big. I understand now why we Americans have such a hard time with scale. With so much open space, and 300 miles between each waypoint on this trip, it's no wonder.

Anyhow, we got hungry and stopped for some real Texas BBQ in Amarillo. Oh. My. Gawd. Yummy does not ever begin to cover it. California may have Happy Cows, but Texas has Tasty Cows. I've developed a whole new appreciation for BBQ and this sweet tea thing.

Amarillo was our first major waypoint, and since we got there in just about 24 hours and still had plenty of day light and energy left, we pushed on to Oklahoma. Here is another truly beautiful state, but it kind of looks like a giant golf course. I've never been through real grasslands before, so the gently rolling hills and greenery look like nothing more than a somewhat overgrown golf course to me. It's lovely though and quite pleasant to drive through.

We finally checked in to the AmeriSuites in Midwest City around 8 I think. Time is getting to be a very vague and confused sort of thing. I honestly have no clue what time people here think it is. The clock in the truck is set to Virginia time, my watch thinks it's still in California, and what with spotty adoption of daylight savings time, I had no idea when it was through most of Arizona. Now I'm just hopelessly confused.

At least the cat has come out of her crate and eaten something. I was starting to get a bit worried. She's been very well behaved so far, but I still worry.

Anyhow, I'm getting exhausted and am having a hell of a time uploading any of the pictures I took. Windows sucks is all I have to say about it. It would figure the one time I manage to get the camera, the cable, and a laptop all in the same place I can't get FTP to work for whatever reason. I am determined though, and will upload pictures as soon as I can. Even if it kills me.

Edited to say that I got the FTP problem worked out and am adding in pictures for the last two posts. yay! It's about time.