Wednesday, October 30, 2013

3 States in 1 Day

Oklahoma City, OK to Albuquerque, NM
Day 3 of our Journey: Monday, Oct. 7th








Stop #6: Oklahoma City Zoo
(Listed as E on the map)


After rolling into the hotel around 1:00 am, we were up and ready by 8:30 am to head for the ZOO! I think we were both equally excited since we just missed going to the one in Little Rock, AK. :-( 



The OK City Zoo was amazing!!! Since we arrived right when they opened, plus it was a weekday, it felt like Ryan and I had the entire place to ourselves. We were able to take our time and really enjoy each animal...so much that we spent a little longer than planned. Whoops! 

We left the zoo around 11:00 am, filled up the tank and hit the road. 






State #6: Texas
2:00 pm Ryan drove us across the border and into our next state: Texas. 






Stop #7: Texas BBQ
 (Listed as F on the map)


Since we were crossing through the top "square" of Texas we didn't have any specific attraction to see. However, if you remember from a previous post about my only request to do during our trip: compare Tennessee BBQ to Texas BBQ. So we stopped half way through Texas in Amarillo for some grub. Now, the BBQ we had in Memphis was absolutely finger lickin' good. My hopes were high for my Texas style pulled pork sandwich. After we ate and were back in the truck, Ryan and I looked at each other with pure disgust on our faces. It was very bland, fatty, and seriously had no taste. They even got Ryan's order wrong. Let's just say we both had very upset tummies down the road. Overall, bad experience. 
Needless to say the BBQ Challenge Winner is: Memphis, Tennessee!!   

(Views of Texas from Mount Behemoth)

(More views of Texas and another welcome sign)

(Ryan in front of his first Chevron gas station! Eek!!)






State #8: New Mexico
(Ryan's attempts to snap a picture of the New Mexico Welcome sign)

I took over driving when we left Amarillo and took us into our 8th state: New Mexico! As I was driving, the sun set, and it was dark out. I mean no lights what-so-ever, pitch black dark! It felt as if we were climbing mountains and going down cliffs. Poor Behemoth (the truck) would try so hard to get up the hills. When we finally reached the top and started to go down, it felt like I had to put my entire body weight on the brakes to stop us from flying off into the night! It was crazy! I'm not sure how Ryan managed to take a nap during all of this. 

After a few hours of nothing but pure darkness and mountain climbing, out of nowhere the heavens parted and BOOM there was civilization! I thought Albuquerque was a mirage, I was just so thrilled. Ryan helped me navigate through the teeny, tiny streets of downtown ABQ to our hotel. It took the two of us and the hotel clerk to maneuver the Behemoth into the extra small parking lot that had tons of sculptures scattered around. Thankfully, there weren't any causalities and we were able to check in early- 12:00 pm! 

xoxo




License Plates

Oklahoma: 20 different states



Texas: 18 different states