Friday April 6th

We’re not going slow anymore, btw. Not since we left Las Vegas, and certainly not since we left the RV behind in Parks.  The speed limit has been 75 mph almost the whole way, and our agreement is to go no more than 3 or 4 miles over. That way we don’t stress over police cars, while we beat Ms. TomTom’s expected TOA every time. Yes, it’s a game – helps keep the mind active on the long stretches.

Wednesday evening we were in Albuquerque at a reasonable hour, slept reasonably, had a reasonable breakfast (mind you, the coffee was barely reasonable) and got underway just before 8 AM, and drove route 40 until just before 7 PM through New Mexico, the top of Texas, and most of Oklahoma. We had lunch at Stucky’s – saw the billboards for miles and miles, and it was just about lunchtime when we got to their exit. Miss Callie (seriously gray-haired cute old lady) makes the best hamburgers in the world, they said. Nothing prepared ahead, all to order after you arrive. Good thing there weren’t a lot of other people because that took Miss Callie a bit of time. But I must admit, a close third behind Islands’ (the runner up) and the little burger joint in Honolulu where they also invented the peanut butter shake (definitely first place). Henk had a barbecue sandwich that also got an honorable mention.

Along the way the landscape was made up of flat ShortGrass Prairie, rolling Sh.Gr. Prairie, SH Prairie with an occasional small shrub, SGP with scattered small/medium shrubs and  junipers, more SGP with nothing, more junipers, SGP w/junipers on the rolls but not in the bottoms, hey! a little tree!, etc. etc. It sounds boring but it really wasn’t. Mother Nature is tentatively looking through her green outfits and there were yellow and white flowers along the road too. Texas looked drier than New Mexico, but in Oklahoma it slowly got greener and greener. In Oklahoma City it looks definitely like Spring has arrived. The temperature was nice too.

Other than the landscape there’s enough to see to keep the mind from slacking off: route 40 is so busy with trucks. I saw every single color on the rainbow and all of them except yellow also in metallic. The trucks with “YELLOW” painted on the side are actually orange. My favorite color was a septic tank truck in bright pink with purple letters. As far as cargo is concerned, of course the flatbeds are the most fun: plastic pipes in blue and green, concrete culvert pieces, steel bridge parts, or maybe a future cell phone tower?, tires – old tires and new tires and super large tires and MEGA super large tires. Those were lying flat and made the truck a superwide with orange flashing lights… A commercial truck with military jeep-like vehicles and a camo truck with a tank. Every possible piece of construction equipment, with me guessing what the $%? It could be for. When I get bored with that I look at people’s numberplates to see where there’s from. Too many to list. And w hile I’m driving Henk is keeping his mind on the job with phone calls and emails.

Somewhere near Elk City, Oklahoma you could tell I was getting tired and started to zone out because I almost ran out of gas. The Prius can of course drive 450 miles on a 10 gallon tank,  but I had been steadily going for 438 when I noticed the blinking light. Just made it to a gas station. Phew. Opa Henk was done with his calls, it was the end of his workday anyway, so he took over the steering wheel for the last hour or so. We cruised into Oklahoma City around 6:30 and spent the next half hour trying to find the Fairfield Inn, ended up at the wrong one, but after a phone call to the reservations people Opa got it straightened out and we didn’t have to drive back to the other one.

When we were having dinner Lisa texted if we wanted to have Easter dinner with them after getting back. With a little rerouting, longer drives today and tomorrow, and different hotel stops we got it organized so we will be there in time for dinner. So today’s goal is Indianapolis, 700something miles, about 12 hrs. We’re taking turns. I started out while Opa did phone calls, now it’s now lunchtime and he is driving for a while.

When we left Oklahoma City we left rte 40 and went northeast on route 44. A very nice toll road through Tulsa, and Joplin, on the way to St. Louis and Indianapolis. It was a bit foggy-misty this morning, but the sun found us back not too far further northeast. The landscape in this corner of Oklahoma looks dutch to me – almost flat other than the highway overpasses, green fields with cows, farms and barns with their little herd of green trees around the buildings, the road as straight as an arrow. Very pleasant. We’re in Missouri now and here there are rounded hills full of leafy trees with only an occasional bit of cultivation in the valleys, the road curving mildly left and right. Big blue sky overhead. Progress is excellent and life is good.