DAY 20

Mostly Driving, but at least it included Texas...

After our exciting late-afternoon filled with margaritas and tortilla chips, Nic and I left Old Town and headed to downtown Albuquerque; we were planning on having a few drinks and checking out some local bands that were playing at a nearby venue. Alas, it only took a few sips of whisky to realize that 9pm was way past our bedtime, so we decided to called it a night. We did have a good eight hours of driving ahead of us anyhow..

We may have skipped out on a night on the town,but we did enter a hotel and crash a wedding before bed (if only for the free food).

That was fun.

We woke up the next morning geared for a long day of driving. Our plan was to make it to Little Rock, AK in two days to stay with our friend Knipper. Oklahoma City is about halfway between Albuquerque and Little Rock, so we decided to drive there and spend the night.

So, in order to get to Oklahoma from New Mexico, you have to drive through Texas. We only got out in TX once, and it was in Bushland, of all places. Even better, Bushland has the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere, pictured below. (The cross is actually quite large, despite how it may appear in the photo).

We made it to Oklahoma City by the evening, and camped at Thunderbird state park, which is about 20 miles southeast of the capital. We luckily made it to OK a few days after several tornados plowed through, but the damage was still visible:

At least our campsite was pretty (and unharmed):

With that in mind, I must say that the bathroom on site was awful, and this is coming from a girl who can deal with most things disgusting. We walked in and it was like A Bug's Life suddenly turned on. Out of nowhere several little bugs crawled out of who knows where, buzzing and flying into light bulbs and doing whatever else bugs do. I tried to wash my face but the soap fell into the sink and two seconds later was covered with centipedes. The bathrooms even had showers--usually a gold mine for us--but I swear if you took one you'd end up dirtier than before. I even peed right outside the bathroom. If that is not a paradox I do not know what is.

But I mean, we didn't pay to stay at Thunderbird (we couldn't find the box to put our money in...woops). And we were only there for 12 hours. Early to bed, early to rise, and off to the hometown of President Bill Clinton...