The Big Road Trip – Day 19

Ah, Amarillo, Texas. I remember passing through it in 1969 while I was stationed at Lackland AFB (that stands for Air Force Base for the uninitiated) in San Antonio, Texas when I was sent TDY (temporary duty for those readers who’ve never been in the military) to Lowry AFB in Denver, Colorado. I was the TV production guy and one of the TV engineers was assigned with me and we were directed to drive there in his car with a very expensive video recorder in the back seat of his 1965 Mustang. The route took us through Amarillo, then through a small corner of northeastern New Mexico to reach I-25 and then straight to Denver. I remember being very unimpressed with Amarillo back then and my experience this time has not changed my initial impression.

The place I stayed at was definitely overpriced. I’ve found that America’s Best Value motel chain is very iffy from property to property. Since they are individually owned and are part of the franchise, the quality of the property and the management and their policies varies from property to property – pretty widely. They all offer free breakfasts – I would have to say that the Amarillo property I stayed at (near the airport) was by far the worst condition motel – very old and needed a LOT of work and provided the sorriest breakfast – I wouldn’t even call it a breakfast and the service was so mediocre, well, let’s just say, if I ever HAVE to go through Amarillo again, I won’t be staying there, even if they have the only room left (and they had plenty of rooms left last night.

Another experience I have to relate is about extremely tight, revealing – maybe I should say OVER REVEALING clothing for plus size people, in this case, women. Now, I’m no skinny Minnie and so I can’t be too critical of other people who have too much protoplasm on this earth. I’ve been working at reducing my “footprint” and have more to go, but I’m getting there. But, when you serve a free (supposed) breakfast and then have some very plus size younger woman sweeping up while you’re eating, not attending to keeping the food supplied on the buffet and wearing skin tight pants that revealed every crevice and dimple she had below the waist and a top that was cut WAY TOO LOW revealing two huge breasts that were each larger then her head – with a push up bra that emphasized the point even more – that tops it all. Now, I’m no prude. As a matter of fact, I’ve earned the right at 65 to be a “dirty old man” and enjoy the beauty of young, shapely women who want to reveal lots of skin. But, even if I had an appetite for this breakfast, I would have lost it, especially when she came almost up to the table I sat at and bent over to sweep something up in the dustpan. I have seen a lot of plus size women who have learned how to dress very attractively and be very sexy. Believe me when I tell you, this young woman was NOT one of them.

All in all, I rated this experience as a D – I would have given it an F, but the bed was comfortable and it was pretty quiet and I did get a good night’s sleep – although, at a premium price for the overall experience.

So, back to the road. I headed out on I-40 and, basically, drove through the rest of the northern Texas panhandle, then through Oklahoma and into Arkansas. That’s the trip folks. That was pretty much the some total of Day 19.

Actually, I did enjoy watching us continue to lose elevation, from around 2000 feet plus, above sea level to around 530 feet above sea level here in Russellville, Arkansas. The landscape from Amarillo became more like the open ranges and farming country and as I progressed through Oklahoma everything became more green and lush, very much like the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia that I’ve called home for the past 26 years (this month, as a matter of fact). Oklahoma City was not as attractive as Albuquerque and there was a lot more traffic and congestion. I stopped and gassed up at $2.39.9 per gallon, just about the least expensive I’ve seen on the trip. But, I still needed to find a Walmart to purchase some synthetic blend oil for the ole Caddy RV. I checked the places I gassed up at on several occasions and none of them stocked it and their plain old oil was considerably more expensive then the better synthetic blend. So, I finally spotted a Walmart sign among the visual pollution along the interstate in Oklahoma City, made my way to the place got some oil, put a couple quarts in the Caddy and then took off. Well, that was after I had a phone conversation with my grand old grad school buddy and proud father of an up and coming entertainer. Dudley called just as I had parked in the Walmart parking lot to ask about what to do about fulfilling and promoting the new CD Kelly (his mega talented daughter – who one day I’ll get to say, “I knew her when . . .”) was producing, with a bit of my advice and connections. It’s always great collaborating with friends like Dudley – we’re older and wiser now then we were when we were brash young kids and thought we knew it all.

I made another stop for some food (Subway sandwich) a little later and visited the Cherokee Trading Post. Yes, a tourist trap along the interstate a ways before I got to the Arkansas border. Actually, I didn’t see anyone who resembled a Cherokee in the place – except for maybe, me, since I have some Cherokee blood mixed in my Heinz 57 heritage. Everyone in the place seemed to be of the Caucasian race. Of course, they could have mixed blood like me. I didn’t inquire. They had a lot of really nice stuff and most of it very pricey. But, I did manage to buy a Rt. 66 hat as a memento of this trip and spending so much time on and off the old, original Rt. 66. I also took a short lesson in Indian flute playing (like Carlos Nakai plays) that was offered. Interesting! With a little practice, I could become a virtuoso Indian flute player. It’s also interesting that these simple but very pure sounding instruments could be really cool in a jazz environment.

Well, the rest of the trip was uneventful. I targeted reaching Little Rock, Arkansas, but decided I wanted to be off the road between 8 and 8:30 PM and about 500 miles. So, at 8:15 PM I was off the road, found a place to stay (another America’s Best Value – I’ll tell you in the next post if that was a mistake or not) and had logged 515 miles in exactly 9 hours – including stops.

I went to a Wendy’s and bought a small fries and Frosty, took them back to the room and settled in for the night. Answered a few e-mails, spoke with Carolyn (who was at work at the VA Hospital in Martinsburg, WV), calculated my course for Day 19 – and went to bed for a solid rest period.

Day 19, coming up . . .

Enthusiastically,
Ed