OKC to SF (that's Santa Fe, not San Francisco)

(K) Hi everyone! We're writing after another loooong day, but fortunately it's the last day we had to drive 7+ hours. Mostly our drive was boring, but there were some high points. We left Oklahoma City around 10:30 am and headed west to Amarillo, TX. There, we had lunch at the Golden Light Cafe, which is apparently the oldest restaurant in Amarillo. If I've learned one thing about America on this trip, it's that stores and restaurants everywhere like to claim to be the world's largest, the oldest, the best, etc. The Golden Light Cafe was VERY local, very authentic. I had a Frito Pie, which is basically chili poured over Fritos corn chips, smothered in melted cheddar cheese. Delicious. I also drank half of what was the largest soda I've ever been served. It's true-- everything is bigger in Texas. We traveled a bit along Rt. 66, which has mostly been replaced with the modern I-40. We checked out the Barbed Wire museum in McLean, TX. Seriously, it's a huge building dedicated to barbed wire collections. Totally random. Also random was Cadillac Ranch (see pic). It's basically a series of cars half buried in the ground on the side of the road. I managed to find a left-behind can of spray paint so now R and I are immortalized, until someone else sprays over us. We made it into Santa Fe around 7pm (thanks to driving through yet another time zone...I LOVE time zones). Usually we try to time the driving so I avoid the "cities" but this time I drove into Santa Fe while Rob blabbed to Jay on the phone (Jay, I love you, but your phone call timing was not good for my stick shift driving). I think I sweated through my shirt but I made it to our hotel, which is very nice (very Santa Fe looking). We had southwestern (think Mexican) food for dinner at a very cute, sort of upscale restaurant called Maria's. I had awesome tamales with green sauce and a deadly margarita. I'm pretty impressed with my high level typing in spite of that drink. THEN we went to "dowtown" Santa Fe, which is like, 3 blocks of cute trying-to-be trendy stores/bars/restaurants and checked out a place called Cowgirl Grill. It was ok, but I was grumpy b/c I thought the bouncer was being rude to me. He asked to see ID and the Connecticut license prints the Date of Birth in the color red, which is very difficult to read, SO I thought I'd be nice and I said "it's printed in red" when I handed him my license and he replied by informing me that we're not in Mexico and he can read English. So clearly, he was a jerk, but the bar was kind of cool.

Oh, I should point out that we are SO close to seeing all 50 license plates. We only need Deleware (fat chance), Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota and Utah.

(R) What can I say, another amazing day. Started off of course in OK city, went throught OK into Texas and finally into New Mexico. It is true what they say, everything IS bigger in Texas. We went into the Golden Light Cafe, the oldest establishment in Amarillo, TX. I ordered the green chile burrito. Super tasty, very large (Texas). Also, K and I started off by ordering a root beer. They came in a HUGE plastic cup (Texas). I mean huge (Texas). You could bathe in that cup....at least wash your hair in it, maybe even get baptized. The locals were in the house at the bar which consisted of like about 6 stools. In fact, on the menu, the owner, who is the 5th owner of the place, talked about how big a part the restaurant played in her life. She went there as a kid, was a server, met her husband, and of course is the owner. She gives a shout out to the 2 pm local crowd...which is when we were there. Pretty cool place. On the way out of Texas played MASH...I ended up married to the server (she was younger and had a 1 year old kid but has never been married and never wants to get married...we heard this as she was talking to the local 2 pm crowd), 2 kids (I would already be half way there with this girl), live in SF, and be a scientist. I think I was also poor but this comes with being a scientist anyway. We stopped by the Cadillac Ranch on the way out...it consists of random cars half burried in the ground at an angle all spray painted up with graffiti. It's in the middle of a huge (Texas) field on the outskirts of Amarilllo. We (mostly K) looked everywhere for a spray paint can (they were scattered around) that we could use to contribute to the art (See pics). K found one and we sprayed our initials...forever there. Jay, someone had sprayed ENGLAND on one of them, I got a shot of that for you right before we covered it up. I took a tons of pics and they all turned out really nice if I do say so myself. After Armarillo, we went on and took a short diversion to McLean, TX on Route 66. Pretty interesting town. The barb wire museum was the highlight...there is like literally 100s of types of barb wire, who would have ever guessed. It was run by some local cotton heads (older ladies-was that not PC?) and smelled just plain old. The town itself used to be a booming tourist town on Route 66...I think tourism really was a huge part of the economy. Now with the new interstate, it is not doing so well. Many of the buildings have been abandoned and are competely decaying. Probably half of the structures are like this. There is about a half a block of main street with a general store, etc. Overall, kinda sad. I could just tell that it used to be bustling back in the day. We entered Santa Fe with K driving. She has lost her confidence and as I just read on her portion of the blog was annoyed at me for chatting Jay up. Hey, we have to make plans for Vegas and the Grand Canyon. It's just simple business. She did alright and got us to the motel no problem (rest easy Jay). The scenery is spectacular and the architecture is unique to this region. Many flat roofs, square stuctures, kinda adobe style (I don't know if I know what that means). Houses were scattered over the dessert on different levels of the landscape. Pretty amazing. Our hotel is like this (see pics). After checking in, we went to Maria's for dinner, as recommended by my buddy Paul, and another local dude in the hotel lounge. It was mm mm good. I had the blue corn enchiladas, super flavorful. And a margarita, it tasted like drunk. The margaritas at Maria's were voted the best margaritas in Santa Fe AND New Mexico. Our server was very nice and another girl there, Margot, was super friendly. Cute 19 year old girl, pointed us in the right direction for the late(r) night hours. New Haven, New York, and California folks need to appreciate that establshments are open late. Over the last couple days places close SO early. It's really unbelievable. I think K explained the Cowgirl...it did have a nice country western band playing. I feel like we really stick out. Maybe it's the lack of cowboy hats.

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