I really can't believe that I forgot to mention on the Day 2 post about how awful that drive was. After the first hour it began pouring rain, and we drove in rain the rest of the day. It was pouring, I-40 was slippery, traffic was awful, basically we were stressed out that whole day.
Day 3 by contrast, was the best day of the trip so far. We had beautiful sunny skies, clear roads, nice high speed limits, and it felt like we covered a lot of ground. On Day 3 we drove from Oklahoma City, OK through the Texas Panhandle, and into Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
As we crossed each state line on the trip we would do a little mini celebration, fists pumped in the air, "yay, we made it to Texas" kind of thing. Well, Austyn had been dying to get to Texas the entire trip thus far, and so I was particularly excited to celebrate crossing into Texas with her. Instead she got all dejected the minute we crossed into Texas and announced "But I can't see any cowboys!". Apparently she thought cowboys roam free across the Texas prairies and she would be able to see them as soon as we got across state lines - the mind of a 5 year old is a fascinating place!
We were amazed by the long periods of time we would go between towns or any signs of life at all. All the towns were 50 miles apart and there would be literally no homes, businesses, or buildings of any kind between. The towns we did come to looked like ghost towns from old western movies. I don't know how anyone could live there! We were also surprised at how cold it was in Texas and New Mexico. We expected to be warming up by the time we hit NM, but it was in the 20's that night!
We finally stopped and did some sightseeing in the Texas Panhandle. In Amarillo we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch. Basically, some billionaire back in the 70's decided to make a piece of public art by burying some Cadillacs nose first in the dirt. It has since become a major attraction of evolving art, as visitors to the Ranch bring spray paint and decorate the cars. The cars change hourly as new visitors add their touch in spray paint. The cars are visible from the interstate, but we decided to pull off and check them out up close.
As soon as we got out, the girls took off running to get a closer look:
Of course I made them do the required picture posing wih the cars:
We failed to come prepared with our own cans of spray paint, but a nice family got bored of painting the cars and handed us the leftovers. Austyn quickly got to work marking a car with her name:
Taylor had to do the same:
Then we realized that people with leftover spray paint would set the half-full cans on the cars somewhere or the ground nearby. We found several more cans and everyone got in on the painting action:
After the Ranch, we loaded back up and continued on to New Mexico. We stopped first in Tucumcari, NM where we got gas and checked out the hotel situation. It looked pretty desolate, so we made the decision to press on to Santa Rosa, and by the hotel conditions we were glad that we did.
We went looking for a place to eat, because we were hungry and because it was my birthday! There were a couple of chain restaurants nearby and then no more choices for the next 54 miles. Literally. So, we finished the day with birthday dinner at Denny's, complete with Pancake Puppies as appetizers and dessert:
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