Driving into the sun

After packing and unpacking and packing some more, I have finally started my short time off to get to Portland. Ideally it would have been great to take my time across the Southwestern portion of these United States, but I stopped all of 6 hours or so the entire time through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Mostly only because I had to find toilet facilities. I can't decide if it was because I was determined not to get dehydrated along the way or if it's signs of getting older. Sigh. It was definitely strange to have to stop at a gas station more often for myself than my car....

So there are a couple of pictures from along the way. I decided to go the US 40 route, the old Route 66, rather than the US 10 as I haven't been to OK City in ages and the It was also I think the cooler way to go, as driving to El Paso or even further south through Big Bend country would require battling the sun for hours at a time. OKC was a solemn stop. The memorial for the bombing of the federal building April 19, 1995. It commemorates those victims who died, who were in the building, and those who were involved in finding individuals in a outdoor setting and museum. One enters though the Gates of Time which borders what was once 5th Ave. and either side of the reflecting pool. On the west side of the pool are chairs indicating the number of individuals who passed away and what floor they were on at the time of the bombing. Further up is what remains of the playground and the names of the children who died near this location. The east side of the building is flanked by the museum, which was once the Journal Records Building.

I remember that spring, as it was my junior year in high school. In the midst of studying for AP exams and wrapping up the semester, this bombing occurred. As close in proximity as the bombing was, it never crossed my mind as being absolutely real. Even when there was a bomb threat at the school (which was evacuated during the final moments of the AP Economics exam, which the administration forgot that there was a class in the basement taking), the idea of a bomb was and still is a foreign concept. And after visiting the memorial, it still seems surreal and something that I will never, and never hope to, understand completely. I feel very fortunate to live in a place where bombings are hardly considered a threat, despite what the current terror reading may be. Perhaps thats a naive take on the current situation with the problems in the Middle East, but the last time I saw a soldier fully armed in the US was at a border stop.

After OKC, I continued along the 40, going through Texas, yet again, where I stopped of course at the Big Texan, home of the free 72 oz. steak. The tradition began in 1960, when a roper managed to eat the 72 oz of steak after a long day of ranching after declaring he could eat a whole darned cow. The owner, Bob, then declared that anyone who could finish the same meal within an hour, it would be free or currently, a $72 meal. Some 400,000 people have attemped and 7000 have managed to finish.

Well, needless to say, it made me want to go back to being a vegetarian.

Santa Fe was of course great as usual. I spent a good part of the next morning trying to get the sore spots out of my back from sleeping on my plastic storage containers and walking around town, enjoying Santa Fe without the crowds and remembering good times spent there before. And of course eating at the patisserie...yum.

Arizona was hot lots of construction and I was very glad to be out of there and into foggy smoggy L.A. Basically exhausted from the driving and still recovering from being delirious.......

More to come after Mt. Whitney.....

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