Take It Easy, Don't Let The Sound Of Your Own Wheels Drive You Crazy

More observations.

We make a family pact not to eat at fast food restaurants. So Ruby Tuesday's it is.

Jen can talk on the phone for long periods of time.

Driving through the night and hearing Melissa's rendition of O Holy Night sorta unglued me.

But I pulled it together just in time to

See a man pushing a shopping cart down the side of the expressway in the middle of the night.

Another overwhelmingly sad sight to me is an adult bookstore/whatever at the end of a forlorn expressway exit.

But not to long after I see a huge lit cross...it was almost bigger than the church it stood beside...hope in the night.

At a breakfast diner just inside Texas all the cars are trucks.

I'm a mother on the mother road.

We've gone a long way already, and we have a long way to go.

Amarillo by morning.

So Ben puts in a 10 hour shift and every stop we make seems to take a good hour. We all gather round the map and decide to alter some of the plans. We are coming in from the south on Rt. 66 and our campsite is on the north rim. We decide to stay south for a day and 1/2 and then after GC we'll head into Las Vegas so Jen and Melissa can see the strip. Reservations revised and a few new ones made, we start the long trek through New Mexico. They paint their overpasses orange and turquoise with Indian markings and signs. We should do that in every state...like Michigan could have trout and evergreens, etc. Ben talks to Annie and Bill S. and Jen talks to Tony and then me! If nothing but the timing in their relationship was taken into consideration it would be an awesome story. We stop at a Navajo travel store where Ben feels the need to apologize for stealing their land. Another gorgeous sunset and the first leg of trip becomes history. We park at the lovely KOA campground in Holbrook, Arizona, and Mark "happens" upon a wireless hot spot. Of course Ben and Jennifer find secluded spots to call and say goodnight to their spouses. Melissa gets a little quieter towards dark...I hope this campchair holds both of us. And the morning and the evening were the 2nd day.