Wednesday, December 28, 2005, 09:47 PM
We left Oklahoma City at about 8am or so.. after a nice hearty "continental" breakfast which consisted of waffles and OJ.
We headed out on I-40 and gunned for Amarillo. The first thing of interest we ran across was a vast windfarm in Weatherford, OK... It kind of made me feel like i was back in copenhagen!
;)
On down the road on I-40, we came across one of those "stupid landmarks" you always see on the side of random roads. We drove past the largest cross in the western hempisphere. Check it out:
;)
;)
We stopped for gas in downtown Amarillo and could not figure out why the _whole_ city smelled like cow manure... we soon found out why:
;)
There was a giant beef farm, and there were literally thousands of cows right along the side of the highway.
I-40 is a long road, with a lot of really random stuff along the side of it. So far, this one takes the cake for being the wierdest... Just driving along and i saw a bunch of cars poking out of the ground in a field... in the middle of nowhere right along old rt 66 this is what we found:
;)
;)
After a quick lunch right next to the "cadillac ranch", we decided to take a nice ride in the country. To see our ride, look just West of Amarillo, TX on the tracking page, with day3 selected. You'll see we left the highway for a bit. The flatness and open space was mind boggling... a picture is worth 1000 words, here's a few thousand:
;)
;)
;)
We continued heading west on 40, at some point it seemed like we were going a bit uphill, i checked our elevation on the GPS and we were at over 6000 feet! We continued watching and i believe we topped out just over 7000 feet, before descending down into Albuquerque.
The change of scenerey was fast and drastic. We went from being on flat ground with fields on either side to dramatic cliffs and ravines within a few miles... The railroad tracks alongside our route provided some entertainment as well:
;)
Here is a picture of the mountains just before we entered Albuquerque:
;)
We checked into the hotel and headed up to Santa Fe (about 60 miles north of Albuquerque) for dinner. Todd's Aunt and Uncle had recommended a restaraunt up there, so we *attempted to find it*... Apparently the name had changed, so we drove all around Santa Fe looking for it... zoom in on Santa Fe in the map if you want to see our search attempts :)
Here is where we ended up:
;)
Santa Fe was incredibly cool at night-- they had all of these candles that lined every building. Apparently they only do this during the holidays... here is a picture i took while at a stoplight:
;)
On the way back i realized just how many stars there were in the sky and had to take some pictures.. here is one of the shots i took.. take notice of the shooting stars in the sky...
;)
Tomorrow we are planning on heading to the Grand Canyon via one of two routes... we are either going to head straight across on I-40 to Flagstaff, then cut up on 64. Or we will take I-15 north out of Albuquerque, hop on 550 up towards Farmington, then drive up to the 4 corners (the stop where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado intersect). From there we'll head down to the Grand Canyon's east side and drive along the south Rim.
The second choice is _much_ more scenic, but we are a bit worried about the weather up there, as we will be at about 6-7000 feet for most of the time.
Check back for updates!
[ 2 comments ] ( 74 views ) | permalink
Tuesday, December 27, 2005, 09:26 PM
We left Nashville at about 8:30, after enjoying a pleasant continental breakfast which consisted of small danishes, bagels, toast and OJ.
Heading out on I-40 for another day, here is how the day generally went:
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
We stopped by in Memphis for a walk :) For those of you who don't get the reference, here is a song:
http://www.drivexc.com/walkin_in_memphis.mp3
(the country version of course, since it is Tennessee!)
A walk in Memphis, on Union Avenue... we didn't see the ghost of Elvis :)
;)
After Memphis, we headed across the great Mississippi, and into Arkansas, which we jetted straight through.
Sunset on I-40 was beautiful, here is a sample of what we saw:
;)
Once we arrived in Oklahoma City, we checked ino the hotel then headed back downtown for some grub. We ended up at the Toby Keith's I love this Bar restaraunt right in Downtown Oklahoma City. Here is the outside of the building:
;)
And here we are inside the place:
;)
We then headed over to this awesome Bass Pro shop, more or less a huge store of all outdoor stuff. I'd say it was 1.5 times as big as your average Walmart... and had tons of stuff! Here is a picture of me with the Bass Pro hat on.. maybe i should have been a redneck:
;)
Here is a picture of the entire store:
;)
We then headed further downtown to find the bombing memorial.. amazing it has been 10 years since that happened... The memorial consists of a reflecting pool and a bunch of chairs, one chair for each person who was killed in the bombing. Here are a few pics from that:
;)
;)
Tomorrow we are heading to Albuquerque, NM... and we hope to head to Santa Fe, which is just north of Albuquerque to grab some dinner. Keep track of our progress on the tracking page, although tomorrow may be tough as we are in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
All pictures available at http://www.drivexc.com/pics
[ 1 comment ] ( 55 views ) | permalink
Tuesday, December 27, 2005, 01:30 PM
So we've been playing the "license plate game" to keep ourselves entertained along the way... FOr those of you who have never played this game, you try to see license plates from as many different states as possible.
Here is our list... i've noticed a few interesting things about it:
-Florida was the second car we spotted, and before we left Connecticut, we had seen at least 4 different cars with Florida plates
-At #34, Rhode Island was a big surprise to see in the middle of Tennessee
-Surprisingly few Canadian provinces
1 Connecticut
2 Florida
3 North Carolina
4 Massachusetts
5 New York
6 Kentucky
7 New Hampshire
8 Pennsylvania
9 Quebec
10 Nevada
11 Ontario
12 Missouri
13 Maryland
14 Tennessee
15 South Carolina
16 West Virginia
17 Oklahoma
18 Louisiana
19 Virginia
20 Illinois
21 Maine
22 New Jersey
23 Utah
24 Texas
25 California
26 Alabama
27 Montana
28 Arizona
29 Mississippi
30 Delaware
31 Indiana
32 Ohio
33 Arkansas
34 Rhode Island
35 Alaska
36 Iowa
37 Georgia
38 Michigan
39 Minnesota
40 Wisconsin
41 Kansas
42 New Mexico
43 North Dakota
44 Nebraska
45 New Brunswick
46 Colorado
47 Idaho
[ 3 comments ] ( 97 views ) | permalink
Tuesday, December 27, 2005, 05:45 AM
I have put all of our pictures here:
http://www.drivexc.com/pics
Time to head for Oklahoma City.
[ 1 comment ] ( 47 views ) | permalink
Monday, December 26, 2005, 09:09 PM
We left South Windsor shortly after 3am... Headed west on 84, all the way to Scranton, PA, where we hooked up with 81 at about 6:30am. A long drive on 81 led us to just outside knoxville, TN, where we hopped on I-40 west and jetted over to Nashville.
We saw many cool things along the way, highlights of which were:
-An electronic LED sign over the highway that said, "Drive Hammered, Get Nailed"
-A man who was retreiving a tire that did not belong to him from the center of the highway, attempting to cross 2 lanes of 80+ mph traffic twice.
-Random stuff in the roads
-The truckers and their rude mouths
-Convinient "bear" reports that allowed us to slow before speed traps
After arriving in Nashville, we checked into the hotel, dropped our stuff off and headed downtown. We ended up at this place caleld the Wildhorse Saloon... awesome place, i accomplished one of my goals for this trip... i learned to line dance. Yes, Todd Eric and myself all did it. :) There are no pictures (thank god), and more importantly no video... but it was a "hell of a time".. .we learned to do the "country walk".
Here are some assorted photos from today:
The car setup with the computer, gps and CB
;)
Some scenery from along the way:
;)
Random vehicles along the way:
;)
;)
Some dangerous vehicles too:
;)
Some images from the Wildhorse Saloon:
;)
;)
;)
;)
The mapping thing is broken for some reason... no idea why, it may or may not be fixed tomorrow, our internet here is really sketchy
[ 3 comments ] ( 66 views ) | permalink
Sunday, December 25, 2005, 02:50 PM
This is the route we are intending to take...
;)
We are going to leave around 3am... hopefully getting into nashville by dinnertime or shortly after.
The link to the tracking is up, although either no data or old data will be displayed until later this evening when i will clear the databases in preparation for departure.
Merry Christmas!
PS: Here is a pic from a while back of the 3 of us driving out:
;)
[ 1 comment ] ( 42 views ) | permalink
Saturday, December 24, 2005, 09:26 PM
So i’ve been working to get the escape ready for the trip… I took it in for the 60,000 mile checkup at Bill Selig Ford, and apparently my alternator case was cracked– got that replaced along with a bunch of other checks.
I put a CB antenna on top so we can keep in touch with the truckers as to road conditions or ’smokey bear’ reports… here is a pic of the car:
;)
[ 5 comments ] ( 132 views ) | permalink
Back Next
