From Oklahoma to Texas

The Drive to Heavener Oklahoma wasn’t that long and the scenery was lovely. I was very excited to visit my friend Tom, who I hadn’t seen in a very long time. Unfortunately, getting in touch with him takes an act of God. You see, Tom lives in the mountains on a bunch of land with this brother and their thousand animals, bugs, and craziness. In order for Tom to use his phone, he has to hike up to the top of the mountain to get cell service. Fortunately, he knew we were coming because I had talked to him the week before and he was sitting on the mountain waiting for us to call.

~Photo Op~
On the way to Heavener:

About 20 miles out of town (or what they called a town) I gave him a ring and he told us to meet him at this little gas station off the road which was pretty easy to find. When I saw him, he looked the same as always: dusty black hat, long grey hair, tanned skin, black pants, and a rock t-shirt. Oh, did I mention he’s up there in years? Well, he’s more than 50- I won’t share the exact number, but he is a very young for his age.

~Photo Op~
Me, Tom, and Mom:

Anyway, we hugged, talked, and then he offered to buy us some lunch at this little restaurant inside the gas station where we met him. Apparently, it was the only restaurant in the town. (Yes, the town was that little) We all readily agreed. Everyone ordered the same thing, a burger, potato wedges, and a soda. Little did I know it was going to come with a special surprise gift: Montezuma’s Revenge!

So, from here on out, we will refer to this section of the trip as: Food Posioning.
We got all of our food to go, as the dogs were in the car and it was too hot outside to leave them while we ate, and we went across the street to the Cemetery where we could park our cars in the shade, let the dogs out, and eat in the shade. Of course, my mom hated this idea. She doesn’t like cemeteries at all, so she leaned against the car and ate instead of sitting in the grass with us, which turned out better for her in the end because she wasn’t attacked by angry cemetery ants like the rest of us!

~Photo Op~
The Cemetery Lunch:

I managed to fend off the ants and in the process save a few of my potato wedges from anty destruction and eat them. Unfortunately, not sooner had I swallowed the last of my tasty wedges then I started to feel strange- uncomfortable, bubbly (and not in the good way). I rushed everyone back into the cars and we headed back over to the station with a quickness. Then I made a run for the bathroom.

I swear, that burger and wedges attacked me and were trying to get revenge on me for eating them. It was miserable! I was sick, sweating, and my dinner was having a race to see which end it could come out of the fastest. It was NOT a good time, but I’m a trooper so I popped a couple of chewable Pepto tablets and tried to ‘walk it off’ like a big girl.

Tom was waiting for us out by the cars when I came out. He was offering to get us a hotel room in town for the night so we could hang out for a while but unfortunately neither hotel allowed dogs so we had nowhere to stay. So, we all said our goodbyes and headed out toward our next destination: Albuquerque New Mexico.

The first part of the drive was lovely, except for the sickness roiling around inside my gut and the lack of places to go to the bathroom. At one point, we even had to pull over on the side of the road to pee. Nix’s first time ever peeing outside was a hilarious adventure. She peed all over her leg!

Dear travelers, I am going to give you a quick driving trip here:

Driving tip: When peeing outside, if you are standing on a hill, be sure to angle your ass facing down the hill so the pee doesn’t run down the hill onto your feet as you pee. If you don’t, you will get this-

~Photo of Nix’s Pee leg~

I have to give you another little driving tip here:

Driving tip: Make sure you bring sunglasses if you plan to drive from Oklahoma to New Mexico, via the top half of Texas. The hills are big and rolling, and as you are coming up the hills the sun is directly in your eyes the whole way! It’s a real killer! Even with the glasses on, it was blinding and there was a lot of traffic on the road to dodge.

We hit the Texas border late that night and decided to stop at the welcome center for a quick pee. If there is one thing I can say for Texas, it is that they have very nice welcome centers. Pulling into it I was reminisced of a traveling carnival of sorts. There were huge lit up stars and interesting walkways. They had playground for the kids and picnic tables with small BBQ’s in case you wanted to grill out. Definitely not too bad at all, perhaps a little over accentuated but what isn’t in Texas?

~Photo Op~
The Welcome Center:

We took a few quick photos and were back on the road again- the long boring road. Although the Texas welcome center was interesting, the highways are not. It was hour after hour of wide open spaces and cattle. It was dark, quiet, and even Nix playing crazy old school hip-hop while the two of us danced like morons, wasn’t keeping me awake any longer. We had to stop.

I found a stretch of roadside hotels and we took the hit to our wallets and stayed in one for the night.

Before we go on: let’s stop right here and let me give you another quick roadside tip.

Driving tip: Unless you absolutely have to do not, I repeat, do not, stop in roadside motels in Amarillo Texas. They charge you an out of state fee, another zillion dollars in taxes, and by the time you’ve put all the charges together your 60 dollar hotel room is more like a 100 dollar hotel room. I suggest you nap in your car or you drive right on through to New Mexico and pray you can find a hotel somewhere across the border.

We checked into our expensive-cheep-ass-hotel and quickly grabbed showers and hit the sack. We were completely exhausted and we didn’t really have any money to do anything other than sleep anyway.