smashed pennies: April 2010

Back from our escapade to Oklahoma. We went to Erik's Grandmother and his cousin Kristy"s funeral. It was wonderful to see everyone but sad at the same time. Erik's Aunt Janet did a wonderful job on arranging the service. Burying a loved one is very difficult and it always seems the one most emotionally involved is responsible for the service. Kudos to you Aunt Janet .

We decided to drive there as flying to Oklahoma is very expensive. Why i don't know . I guess it costs more to go to places where people don't want to be. Took the 40 allllll the way there. Surprisingly the drive was very enjoyable. We have taken the 10 to New Mexico and Texas many many times. Loooooong drive with nothing. Actually near the Arizona border is a dead Indian mummy but that's it. Oh and the Ostrich farm. I do recommend that as a stop. The 40 however is filled with Route 66 Kitsch. Sure there is lots of nothing between the towns but at each small burgh there are original Route 66 Main drags. We did not see all of them as we were on a deadline but there definitely plans to redo the 40. If there's anything us Dages love its our 50's Kitsch.

A great odometer moment!!!! Caught at 60,000. We bought her at 40,0000 about 4 years ago so as Erik says we are getting use out of her.

Eriks Bunny Buddy he read about in the travel book. I tried to get him up there but he said it was too fragile. He was very happy !!!!

This is for Erin. She loves taking pictures of water towers. This one is special!!!

More smashed pennies. There was a woman behind me who decided she too wanted to collect smashed pennies. Maybe i will start a penny cult. One convert at a time.................

The Big Texan in Texas. Eat a 72 oz steak with all the fixins and its free!!! ( 50 dollars if you throw it up!!!)

That's me!!!! No I had the brisket. Great brisket is only found in Texas and Oklahoma. I guess the rest of the world does not have 10 hours to cook meat.

Believe it or not I have never seen a bull head. Only in Texas.

Erik with the big Steer.

Cadillac Ranch.

More Indian souvenir shacks than you can shake a stick at. They sell china made turquoise, armadillo statues, knives and even roadkill clothing. We did not stop at that one but plan to in the future.

An abandoned restaurant . Tons of these types of buildings.

There are dinosaur wars in Arizona along the freeway. This was the best.

Erik being an Indian figure. Yes I married this man......

Teepees galore!!!!!! Arizona loves their souvenirs, dinosaurs and teepees.

Haven't blogged much. Have alot to say but the timing of inspiration and time to blog has not gelled well. Lots of traveling lately. We went on a Mexico cruise last week and Erik's Grandmother died at the age of 95 so we are now taking the journey to Kingfisher Oklahoma in the RV. Were driving down highway 40 in New Mexico as I speak, or write as the case may be. Trying out the Verizon Internet that is slaved through my blackberry into my laptop. Not necessarily cheap but we didn't have to close down the stores. We can work and travel at the same time . Very cool. We hope to go on record buying jaunts when Erik retires.

I'm going to blog out of sequence but last nights experience deserves a stand alone blog. We left Albuquerque at sunset prepared to stop in the town of Santa Rosa. As my husband drove ,full of cheap Mexican food eaten at Anita's Restaurant in Albuquerque, don't eat there by the way, he realized 2 more hours of driving was just not there. ( That run-on sentence was for my daughter Erin, queen of the run-on sentences) . No one lives on the East side of Albuquerque. Very dark and desolate. I jumped on the crackberry and looked up rv parks in the only little town close by and found one in Edgmont, 9 miles away. It was this or drive another 2 hours to Santa Rosa.

I should of realized when the Garmin Nuvie Gps we so aptly call Gertie could not find the location there was an issue. She does however have her own set of issues as I did get the cheap model. Gerty regularly has fits of panic where she will say turn right, turn left, turn right , turn left in quick succession. She also likes to take us down non existent or dirt roads. I called the proprietor's and they gave me the following directions. Get off the Highway at 157 we are on old route 66. Simple enough.

We got off the freeway in pitch dark. Found old 66 and turned into more pitch darkness. By now Eriks panicking. We literally can see nothing. I catch the entrance as we drive by it. No lights out front. Actually almost nothing out front. We turn around and find the driveway. As we drive in the first thing we see is a sign that says "wrong way" along with a sign that says "Office" pointed down the "wrong way". We decided not to go the "wrong way" and continued down the next road. We see the office and as I drive up I see a figure scuttle, yes I said scuttle , across the road. A woman around 40 but looking 60 meets me at the door. Her thinning dandruff laden hair is in a 2 week old ponytail and she is wearing an old pilled purple cable knit sweater. There is a distant somewhat vacant look in her eye.

I follow her into the cluttered dusty office, more like a garage. On one side is an aged pinball machine. I'm guessing this is the recreation center. She proceeds to tell me the rate is $20 . Her voice and mannerisms are just like Norman Bates , creepy as hell. She then tells me there are no bathrooms and showers and there is water but it might freeze overnight. At this point I don't care. I just want some electricity to plug into. She offers the reduced rate of 15 dollars because I think shes afraid I'm going to leave. Next comes the decision of where to put me. Trust me this park is beyond empty. She roots around and finally finds the park map. I don't think they have used one in many moons.

As we follow the map I notice we are still in pitch dark. We pass a few RVs but this park is empty. creeped out but too tired to care we plug in . Doesn't work of course. We steal the next spots plug. Thank god that worked . I didn't think we could take much more. We huddled in our locked RV hoping for some good sleep. We awoke alive although I had a bad dream in the middle of the night that some guy stuck his head through the front drivers side window. I guess I woke Erik u with my whimpering and proceeded to freak him out too. We eventually fell back asleep .In the morning I finally got a peak of where we were. It was probably a good thing there were no lights last night!!!