I'll start by telling the tale of today. Or tailing the tell. Or taling....ok, I'll stop, but that was fun. **ahem**An unexpected delay turned into a surprise adventure.
As the way the story tends to go, in the last hour of my 10-hr journey home from Colorado, my car had a major malfunction. The surpentine belt's pulley came loose, thus killing the alternator, which begat (felt a Biblical urge here) a dying car. No, can't tell you exactly how to fix it, but do I get points for being able to spew that back on my blog? :)
So, the lovely VW spent the night in Weatherford, OK, which I spent 3 hours in while waiting for my OKC ride. This morning, my dad took me to pick it up....thank you to retired professors with lax schedules!
The traffic to get back, I-40 due east, was literally at a standstill for miles. "Well, Route 66 runs right along here," I said with relief.
See, I was actually glad to not get on the highway. After coming head to head with a semi-recent highway anxiety condition, I was quite glad to take the scenic route. (I see a future blog on the topic at hand coming up).
Though we traveled about 75 miles of it, I was inspired to perhaps someday make the grand Chicago-to-Santa Monica trip. So, here's a recap of some of the things I saw along this wide, unpainted slab of concrete that is legendary in U.S. History:
-An old Catholic mission with faded signs & a cross, and a young woman and child playing in the courtyard.
-2 Sid's Diners, and I believe one I saw on that "Diners & Dives" show, though not sure which one.
-Beautiful, luscious fields of crops. It was an overcast day and it was perfect.
-At least two "truly green" dwellers in the middle of nowhere....I recognized one funky house because I read about the man who lives off the land in his mud/undergound home in, I believe, Oklahoma Today magazine once. I kinda wanted to stop. :)
-Just outside of Hydro, crossed a large bridge that took at least 10 minutes while going 45 mph across a very dry Canadian River. Would be cool to walk, yet driving...a bit unnerving for me.
-A few signs that explained that this was the "paved" Rt. 66. They had arrows pointing to the "original" road, which I presume must be a dirt trail. Again, kinda wanted to explore, but my phone was dying & glad just to have Dad escort me home, didn't want to press him to do too much meandering.
-And on a not-so-romantic note, the route was definitely sprinkled with a few trailers/shacks that quite possibly are meth factories. Didn't want to stop there.
So there ya have it. Time is quite a luxury these days...despite all the devices that man has created to save it, doesn't it seem we have even less of it?
Take a little time out of your savings account, let the phone die (ok, keep it charged for emergencies), put the GPS aside, and get off the beaten path.
Even if I-40 is free and clear.
~That Curl Girl
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