Oklahoma and Texas (again)

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Oklahoma was revealed through foggy and dusty morning air. Again, the diversity of the landscape was stunning. One side of the road would be overtaken over by rolling red hills and huge pointed mounds of red dirt that gave a very rugged, worn feel while the other side of the road would be completely flat. The land told a story of a very worn, roughened and tough life. The feeling of insignificance that Texas had given me was still there throughout Oklahoma.

I pulled into the wet parking lot of the Route 66 museum in Elk City, Oklahoma as the fog cleared. We bought a map of Route 66 and some postcards, then asked the cashier (who I remember as being unusually kind and helpful) where a good place to eat was. She pointed us in the direction of the Elk City Cafe… “Drive back four lights and turn right on Main Street”. Main Street was lined with old family run businesses, simple designs and stores selling items that seemed a bit out-dated. The people and things I saw made me feel like I was in a flashback to my childhood in the mid 1990’s. Yet everything seemed new, even the thick, chilled morning air. My chicken-salad sandwich was delicious.

We followed 66 out of Elk City and tried to keep on it as much as we could. In Sayre, we had a hard time getting back on after we pulled over to explore for a little bit. Someone misread a map or missed a turn and took us on a quick 20 mile (de)tour. Before long we were back on the Mother Road, and Jack Johnson’s “Sleep Through the Static” album was keeping it chill. As we explored Oklahoma I wanted a skateboard so bad to ride the landscape-- It looked like I could have rolled down a road for hours with just a single push. I had never been in the middle of that much openness before. The small, rolling hills I had noticed early were getting much bigger, longer, and further apart. Everything was just bigger here; it was almost overwhelming how much bigger the world felt. There were massive hills, massive fields, massive voids, massive trees, and most of all, a massive sky. “It feels like a bead of water on a windshield during a thunderstorm… insignificant and just sliding across a massive space of everything being bigger than you.” We thought we found our way back from the detour but ended up back in Elk City…

We stopped in Texas to sleep for the night under the Texas sky. What I remember most about Texas is how much space there was. The sky felt overpowering and I never thought it was possible to see that far without trees or houses in your view.

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