Lucky Thirteen

Greetings from Tucumcari, N.M., where we're laying low for the evening. We pulled in after a race across the Texas panhandle this afternoon, riding through sunshowers, lightning, cows, and tumbleweeds. If that's not an indication of our arrive in the American West, I'm not sure what is.




This morning, we visited the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in OKC, OK, a wonderful, clean museum with a recreated Western outpost, Prosperity Junction. ;-)




It was a fun stop along the highway, filled with rodeo photographs, belt buckles, painted vistas, and turquiose jewlery. We've also become a bit of a novelty; when docents ask where we're from, we get surprised looks and excited antedoctes about visits to the Cape or daughters who went to college in Boston. Haven't seen a New England or Midatlantic liscence plate in a few days, either.

Some further highlights of the day included cherry limeade from a Braum's Dairy Story in Nowhereville, OK.



And, of course, the Western Hempshere's largest cross along the highway in Texas.



We speed right through the panhandle, stopping only in Amarillo for dinner in the hip downtown neighborhood. It was onward toward the Land of Enchantment, and we're staying along a stretch of historic Rt. 66, an outcropping of hotels and gas stations surrounded by the grassy transition from plains to desert.

Tomorrow, we'll visit Ben's old stomping grounds in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Friday, we arrive at our first major destination of the Great Sonoran Adventure: Oro Valley, est. 1997. [Edited to add: 2082 miles down since Plainsboro; 700 more to go. Easy peasy.]

More soon and hope everyone else is well.