Day 16: That Left Turn

Wednesday, May 11

A good friend of ours from college made a nearly three hour round trip to meet us in Albuquerque for breakfast. We sat and visited for a while, and Sweetling took a photo of the Jedi and I with our friend (which Toa somehow squeezed himself into. You can get away with a lot when you are cute.) I'm trying to make Facebook hand over its copy of this photo, but Facebook isn't listening to me. Apparently, Facebook doesn't find me cute or attractive. I think I've been insulted.

When we left Albuquerque at 9:55, it was 55 degrees and sunny, with an expected high in the mid 60s.

Today, the plan was, eat up the miles. And so we did. I gave each of the kids a pack of 100 fuzzy craft wires (also known as pipe-cleaners), and let them have at.

Which means our drive was full of this...

...and this (which is, I'm told, the same creature except he got mad so all his arms are going GRRRR.....)

And Trogdor...

....and, is this Strong Sad?

And lots of Pokemon. One of each "type", in fact.

The Pokemon with their Trainer.

We did a drive through lunch and ate in the van. We stopped by the Mid-Point Cafe for a picture, but it was too close to dinner to eat here.

Instead, we had dinner at the Red River Steakhouse.

Check out the cattle brands and the Harley parking only sign on its exterior.

Loved the old west murals too.

The interior was just as awesome, with corrugated steel ceilings, blue bandana napkins, rodeo photos and license plates and deer and buffalo heads on the walls.

There was a pass through to the kitchen, where scrumptious, scrumptious, scrumptious steak was prepared. Oh my goodness, the scrumptiousness of the steak.

The waitresses all had a sweet Southern accent. And I realize I really miss hearing people say "y'all" up in Cincy. (Of course, for the past day or so of the trip, I've been struggling unsuccessfully against sliding into a southern accent myself. At one point, we had pulled over to get gas, and across the little intersection with the gas station was what looked like a freshly plowed cotton field. There was still tufts of fluffy white cotton fibers stuck in the fence. I told the Jedi I wanted to "hop out an get me some of that". The Jedi cracked up and said, "Will you listen to yourself?")

As delicious, oh so delicious, as our steak dinner was, at the end of the meal, I experienced a major, heartbreakingly dissappointing moment. All dinners came with a free piece of cobbler. Today's choices were apple or peach. The Jedi and the kids all went for the apple. I went for the peach. I took a bite, and I about cried. It was by far, the most delicious peach cobbler I have ever in my life tasted. It was, and here is the heart-break, it was better than Mammaw's. I made sure to tell them how unfair that was when I filled out a comment card at the end of the meal.

At the far end of the parking lot away from the restaurant was a pen of Texas long-horn steer. We couldn't be in Texas and not go see the long horns. The long horns were happily munching on their hay, so we quietly walked towards them.

The long horns immediately stopped munching on their hay, and fixed us with the most piercing stare I have ever encountered on an animal. Doberman pinchers ain't got nothing on long horns when it comes to a fierce looking stare. I can see why some native tribes nicknamed the long horns the "devil cows."

Needless to say, we stopped walking over to see the longhorns. I used the telephoto lens on the camera to zoom in, and we stayed well way from them. Herbivores my butt. I bet they get fed the raw trimmings from the restaurants kitchen. (The camera doesn't have a setting for "evil", so the complete fear factor doesn't really translate into a picture.)

There was a warning sign for the stupid. I have to say, if you are that stupid that you need a sign to not mess with these animals, you are probably also to stupid to read and pay attention to a sign.

We reached our hotel in Oklahoma City at 10:03. I didn't have any nightmares about the devil steers.

Read from Day One
Back to Day 15
On to Day 17