And here we are...

In my mind, anyway, this trip started a long time ago. The words I wrote in 1971 could sum up many of the days of the fantastic road trips Leo and I embark along together. Between driving, and when driving, however, a lot happens along the way. This blog is my attempt to fill in some of the blanks between the "and droves".

On our latest adventure, I really wanted to capture my thoughts each day, but covering about 8,400 miles in three weeks left little time for reviewing pictures and writing anything other than quick Facebook posts here and there. This trip was a celebration of six years of reading a phenomenal number of journal articles, writing hundreds of pages of notes, headaches, sleepless nights, stress, tears, conducting research, and innumerable hours of forcing myself to stay at my computer until I'd written at least one paragraph. It was finally time for a break and time to hit the road for (nearly) endless days of only needing to consider where to get gas, picking a likely place to get a good rest, and determining the best place to sample the local specialties.

We started our trip on a Friday evening, packing up the car after I got off work. We only got a couple of hours of driving in before exhaustion set in and we pulled off a lonely exit just west of Flagstaff. Not all that lonely, however, as a truck and another vehicle also pulled off there for a rest. For some reason we didn't take any pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it that the stars were amazing and the sunrise was striking.

Some (a lot of people, actually) wonder why we sleep in the car most nights when we're on a road trip. There are several very good reasons: no hauling in luggage; we're never stuck in a room by an elevator or ice machine; literally within minutes after we wake up, we're back on the road; what we save on hotel rooms, we can spend on gas, amazing food, and experiences. In addition, we often wake up to amazing sunrises in beautiful locations.

In this case, we were on the road very quickly with one destination in mind... Amarillo, Texas. We both agreed steak was on the menu for dinner that night, and with that in mind, we were motivated to cover many miles that day. The last time we had been through Amarillo, we had dined at The Big Texan, a tourist trap with billboards dotting the roadside for hundreds of miles. The steak was very good, but we wanted to try out someplace else this time around. With suggestions from Facebook friends and Yelp, we decided on Hoffbrau Steaks, and were not disappointed.

Too tired to drive farther that evening, we drove to Palo Duro State Park, parked outside the gates, and settled in for the night. Or Leo did anyway. I had just dozed off when one car, then another and another and another drove out of the park. No clue at the time what was going on, but at a couple hundred cars left the park over the next half hour or so (Update: Leo said, "Oh, it wasn't a hundred cars" Um, yes it was - solid traffic for more than a half hour - Leo slept through it all!). Finally silence, bright stars overhead, and sleep. I awoke just before sunrise, located a handy bush, then took a few snapshots to record our stay.

The beautiful canyon was worth camping out for. Lovely canyons, winding roads, and I finally discovered the source of all the vehicles during the night - a huge amphitheater, nestled by the cliffs. Apparently it had been showtime the night before. 

After a quick (not as long as it deserved) through the canyon, we were back on the road, heading east, for a few miles anyway, before we located a spot for a great big, Texas-sized breakfast. Next, our goal, Graceland! With more than 700 miles to cover, it was a long day of driving. Our first real stop was in Oklahoma City to see the bombing memorial. As it was a Sunday, the town was deserted. Relatively speaking, there were quite a few people at the memorial and, not that we were expecting to be entertained, it was rather depressing. With nothing else apparently of interest going on, we didn't stay long.

Next up, Arkansas! Over the years, I have cris-crossed the US many times and somehow managed to miss Arkansas on each trip. I'd never particularly had a desired to go there, and couldn't think of any particular landmark there that might be of interest. What I had pictured in my mind as "Arkansas" was a blank slate, with maybe a few run-down buildings in the forefront. We were pleasantly surprised, however, to find beautiful rolling hills and great highways. Somewhere in the state we saw a sign for an Austrian restaurant, but it was quite a ways off our path - next time. At dinner time we found ourselves in Little Rock, at Gus' World Famous Fried Chicken. I doubt it's world-famous, but it was amazing fried chicken. 

Another two hours brought us to our destination... Memphis, where we stayed long enough to locate Graceland. Then we headed to a Walmart to get in a few hours sleep before heading back to Graceland to take advantage of the "free" opportunity to visit Elvis' grave site between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. "Um, why Walmart?", you might be thinking. It's generally quiet, safe (cameras all around), open 24/7, bathrooms, the ability to stock up on travel necessities, such as water and other incidentals, and it was fairly near Graceland (although, we found out the next morning, in Mississippi). We awoke early, but not quite early enough. By the time we arrived at Graceland, paid $10 for parking, walked about a quarter mile from the parking lot and crossed the street, it was already 8:30. Not wanting to pay the crazy prices to experience everything Elvis, we took a few pictures and headed out. I think our highlight of Memphis was finding an Aldi's, a German grocery store just down the road from Graceland.

And then on to Tupelo!