After our fabulous first day on the road, Meg and I were excited to get on the road again and see what new adventures the day would bring. Coffee in hand, we began our drive promptly at 8am and began our trek west to Truth and Consequences, New Mexico, the hot springs resort we had reserved for that evening. Lawton is the home of Fort Sill army base, and we saw some neat military jets and things we could only assume were missiles on our way out of town. We also saw some mountains that oddly resembled a pair of boobs, so we were off to a great start.
Thus far, we had been driving only on major highways, and the route to T&C took us through the back roads of Oklahoma and Texas, so we were excited to see more small towns and whatever else "the country" would bring. After we plowed through the "metropolitan" areas of Oklahoma and hit the true back country, we realized that we had underestimated how little there actually was out there -- no signs, no buildings, no cars, no people, just cows for miles and miles and miles. This lasted about three hours. Fun.
Finally, we made our way back to the main road and hit the mother load -- the Devil's Rope Museum in McLean, Texas, the largest barbwire museum in the world. Anything that claims to be the "largest in the world" is a must-see for us, and we definitely weren't disappointed. We saw a tiny model city, a cowboy hat, giant balls, and so much more made entirely of barbwire, along with tons of Historic Route 66 memorabilia. It almost made up for the shitty back roads... almost. We also saw a severely leaning water tower and a giant cross, which considerably improved our moods.
Next stop was Amarillo, which was a little underwhelming and, well, rather shitty. I knew the Big Texan Steakhouse wouldn't be St. Elmo's, but I figured that even a tourist trap in Texas would produce a decent steak. Not the case -- a disappointment for this foodie. As we continued our drive through the excruciatingly boring Texas panhandle, we could not wait to get into New Mexico. It couldn't get any worse than Texas... or so we thought.
After stopping at a few shitty roadside attractions, we made our way to Old Town Albuquerque and picked the most crowded restaurant we could find, thinking that crowded = good food. Not the case, unfortunately. Who knew you could find such shitty Mexican food and weak margaritas only 3 hours north of the Mexican border... New Mexico - 2, Girls - 0.
From Albuquerque, we began our 2 hour drive to T&C, anxious to finally relax in the hot springs after our long day of shitty drives and shitty food. We were laughing and joking in the car, and for some reason, I made a joke about Meg's "twenty-year-old mom-mobile with a billion miles on it." She screamed for me to apologize to the car and demanded that I kiss the dash -- I could almost reach it without removing my seat belt, so I petted the dash and blew it kisses instead. "You're going to feel awful when we break down!" she yelled.
...And awful I felt, as our car started rumbling and making an awful noise not 30 minutes later, as we were still 40 miles from our destination. Still in daylight, we got out to check the car, and as best as we city girls could see, everything looked fine. Good vitals, no smoke or smells, and nothing appearing out of the ordinary. Hoping we could make it to T&C before dark, we slowly kept driving. As the noise got louder and louder, we slowed more and more until we were at a mere crawl -- until BAM, our right passenger tire flew off and bounced away into the distance! New Mexico - 3, Girls - 0. This state is kicking our asses.
We made it to the shoulder and called the police and AAA, and were quickly reassured that help was on the way -- though I have never encountered a more rude 911 dispatcher. She basically told us to suck it up. The minutes felt like hours as we sat in the darkness worrying that every car driving past held a serial killer, but we were finally greeted by the flashing lights of a tow truck -- turns out, our lugnuts were either too tight or too loose (thanks, mechanic in Indy) -- and were taken to our hotel in T&C.
Shitty back roads, shitty food in two different cities, shitty roadside attractions, shitty breakdown, shitty 911 operator, and shitty situation where two girls were just chillin' on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Probably the world's shittiest day. Here's hoping it gets better tomorrow!
Wow, sounds like the perfect day to me. Glad you girls didn't go flipping around the highway after the tire ripped off. Par, be much nicer to the car, they really are sensitive.
ReplyDelete