I’m writing this from Elk City, Oklahoma Рwhich is about 100 miles or so east of Amarillo TX (if the signs and my math is to be trusted.)
It‚Äôs been a fun day driving. A friend of mine has been asking me each day about the ‚Äúcoolest‚Äù thing that I‚Äôve seen as I travel. Today’s would have to be the signs telling me that I was entering and leaving the various tribal nation lands in eastern Oklahoma. The runner up would have been the AWACs planes doing touch and go landing at Tinker AFB just outside of Oklahoma City. Third runner up was the First Pentecostal Church of I-40 just outside of Little Rock AK. (That church had the most amazingly confused combination of architecture I‚Äôve ever seen. If traffic hadn‚Äôt been so heavy, I‚Äôd have stopped for a picture.)
Things have started to look different outside the car window finally. Most of the driving so far has been in the Appalachian and Ozark mountains, which pretty much look like the place I grew up in Pennsylvania. Once I left the tribal nation lands and got into Oklahoma City, I saw a bit of the plains, some buffalo and some amazingly large long-horns.
I’ve been listening to audio-books the whole way so far. They help with the tedium of driving a great deal. I wish I had known about how much they help a while ago. It would have made the trips I’ve been taking in the last few years a lot more fun.
I should be in Phoenix tomorrow evening around dinner time, all things going according to plan. Tomorrow I drive through part of Texas and then into New Mexico (which I’ve never visited before.)
It’s a little eerie reading your description of a route I know so well. Yes, I know that Pentacostal church, and that Air Force base. Tomorrow will be a real adventure as you encounter the high desert of New Mexico. Wave for me as you go through Albuquerque. They have had a lot of rain this year, so it will be much greener than usual.
Hi Nick, lurker here–the church where I’m the interim is directly under that approach to Tinker, with the AWACs flying by all day. Makes talking on the phone and preaching at weekday Eucharists –interesting. (Thankfully they don’t fly much on Sundays).