We left Paul's house with a fond farewell on the morning of the eighth of June and headed out for our next destination of Bloomfield New Mexico, refreshed and excited.
(Refreshed because our time at Paul's had been great for our spirits, excited because- well in my case I had never seen the desert. And if there is one thing that can still inspire the wonder of childhood, seeing a foreign place and landscape is most definitely it.)
Dirty, dirty windshield- remedied in a bit
It was a twelve hour drive not including stops, much of which was spent crossing Oklahoma. And not to disparage that particular state (I'm sure there are plenty of lovely places within it) but I have to say that I'm glad this leg of the adventure occurred at this point on the journey or it would have been extremely tedious. Like the look on this woman's face:
In fact the only thing of note that occurred during those many hours was our startled amusement at a highway sign. I tried to get a photo, but wasn't fast enough, so I'll ask you to picture it from this description- it was a digital sign, the type you typically see if there's a traffic advisory such as an accident. Bright orange letters flashed across it stating
DON'T FANCY DANCE TO THE POW WOW
which was followed up with the advice to 'stay safe and drive slow'.
We spent a bit of time speculating on what it meant to fancy dance to the pow wow, imagined ourselves being pulled over by a traffic cop- We weren't fancy dancing, we swear officer!-- erm, okay we probably were, but it wasn't to the pow wow it was to eminem!
At any rate, I'm grateful to that befuddling sign as it helped pass the time before we began to see the scenery change.
Oh right, I almost forgot! My daughter was a bit creeped out by this:
Which was at a gas station just off the highway somewhere in Oklahoma. And since we went there while we were still musing over what constituted fancy dancing...well, let's just say I hoped not to run into any pow-wowing men in the ladies room ;)
And then we were in Texas- two things stood out as we drove through the panhandle,
this:
Am I weird, or would anyone else be thrilled by this new danger?
And this:
Howie called them wind farms, and when I asked what they were farming he said 'electricity'. I admit to feeling my first real instance of ignorance at this information- lots of owlish blinking.
Slightly concerned about that water tower...*
The sun was going down when we entered New Mexico--
which meant that I would not have my first real glimpse of the desert until morning. It was a good thing the drive had exhausted me or I might have lain awake like a five year old on Christmas Eve.
And I had fully intended to launch into this experience in this post, then found myself needing to fill in some details. And now I think both myself and my readers will be better served if I turn this into a
to be continued....
So stay tuned for Part Three of this epic cross country adventure- The Land of Enchantment!
Other posts about the trip so far:
From NY to Arkansas and @therealpaul
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