Day 7 2001.12.02
We leave early, not daring to brave the breakfast. On the bright side, the motel didn't burn down in the night.
Here's a view of the motel's "club" Billie's Club, that was disgorging stumbling drunks as we checked in. More cheerful by daylight.
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We shamble off to McDonald's and have a mcbreakfast. Then on the road for mucho driving. It looks like Interstate all day -- first 44 then 40.
Drive
Drive
Drive
Stubby trees.
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Drive
Oklahoma horizon
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Drive
There has been a prevailing wind from the south for a long time.
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Drive
Finally I decided that I had to see something besides Interstate. We got off on "business 40", a desolate 4 lane divided highway with no other traffic this sunday. In a few miles we reach Erick, OK.
It's quiet.... Too quiet.
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Business 40 is also what remains of the famous route 66, so this road is the oldest trans-continental highway. The side I'm on is the original road.
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Along old 66 I finally snapped a picture of a small oil derrick, something we've been seeing for the past few days. Farmers have these in the middle of their fields, right in the middle of their crops. Mostly they only pump a barrel or two a week, but that's more money than that land would give in crops. This one's just in scrubland.
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We've actually seen them all the way from Ohio. Pennsylvania was the site of the first Oil Boom.
There have been many interesting signs along the way. Most are gone before you can even think about snapping them.
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The best were DO NOT DRIVE INTO SMOKE, (scary) and HITCHHICKERS MAY BE ESCAPED CONVICTS (scarier).
The scenery in TX was, shall we say, big.
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That changed on the border of New Mexico. Suddenly we fell off the plateau that is Texas and plunged into the desert scrub of NM.
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There's always left-over bits. Here they're called mesas. And my daughter.
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Petrified wood (it's scared of souvenier hunters)
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And off we ride into another sunset.
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