The War of the Flies
Would you pay $20 to see a giant hole in the ground?That was the decision Austin and I found ourselves facing early on Day 4, after making an impromptu 5-mile detour to follow the signs advertising “Meteor Crater - the best preserved meteorite crater on Earth!”
The decision? Austin would take one for the team and sit out in the car while I climbed a million steps to see what the hype was all about. Still questioning whether it was actually me that took one for the team, but I’ll give it to him anyway. Regardless, Meteor Crater was actually pretty impressive. At one mile across and 500 ft deep, you can’t help but be glad that you weren’t in Arizona 50,000 years ago.
After my 20 minutes spent at the Crater (10 min of which were spent in line at their Subway) we headed off to our destination - Albuquerque, New Mexico. Albuquerque is a quirky town (see what I did there?) with gorgeous Spanish style architecture. Unfortunately our time there was mostly spent eating (shout out to The Artichoke Cafe), sleeping, and trying to fit Frank into small parking spaces. Still, we managed to sneak some time in the morning to walk around the Historic Old Town Plaza.
By Day 5 we were Pros at the road. During trip planning, the goal of Day 5 had been to get as far as possible in Oklahoma. Instead we buckled down and made it all the way from New Mexico to Arkansas - a whopping 4 states in one day. Needless to say, Route 66 and us were one.
Despite the distance traveled, we also managed to sneak in two fun pit stops along the way. The first was the ever classic Cadillac Ranch right off of I-40 in Texas.
I’m pretty sure Austin completely forgot about my existence for the 20 minutes that he spent running around trying to find a spray can with paint still in it. I only forgive him because he deals with that exact same thing every time I see a dog. Eventually he discovered one that had probably a teaspoon of paint left in it. I have never seen him happier.
The second “pit-stop” was the even more classic Lucille’s Service Station. Lucille’s is one of only two upper-story, out-thrust porch style stations left on Route 66.
Frank felt very old-fashioned.
We made it to Arkansas by midnight and hunkered down in a Comfort Inn in the town of Van Buren. This was especially fitting given my descendance from the one and only Martin Van Buren.
See any resemblance?
By Day 6 we were dying to be in Nashville, so instead of stopping as planned in Little Rock we headed straight for Tennessee, making it back to school a whole 24 hours faster than we originally planned.
In total the trip took us 6 days, 6 states, and 2700 miles.
It was such a fun way to see the country and add 3 more states to my visited list. Shout out to Oklahoma for having the cheapest gas at $3.05 per gallon, and to my parents for paying for all of it! You guys are the best.
Now that Frank has finally made it to Nashville, he will be spending a lot more time exploring the great state of Tennessee. Stay tuned for more adventures to come!
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