Day 2: The Voyage Begins

Indiana: boring.

Illinois: Communist Bastards... and boring.

Missouri: St. Louis looked neat. The rest was a bunch of hills. Lots of hills. Big freakin' hills. Each one taller and steeper than the one before. This is a problem when your truck has a 2.0 Liter, 4 cylinder engine, and a bed full of tools and luggage. I literally had to downshift to 4th gear, and floor it just to maintain 45mph up some of these damned hills! Next time I'm fixing the Suburban.

Oh, and there was two accidents just outside of St. Louis. Don't ask me how this one happened. I just know that it backed up traffic on I55 for miles!

Oklahoma: Less hills than Missouri. More red dirt than Missouri. But such a freakin' attitude! It's the only state that I've been through so far that had 10 signs as you enter that outline all their freakin' laws and no tolerence for this, and don't to that, and pay toll ahead, and have a nice freakin' day.

On a lighter note, I did manage to use my new cell phone to my advantage. I acutally dialed into my internet service provider long distance from Tulsa, Oklahoma and checked my email. The incredible thing about it was that I was still driving through Tulsa when I did it! Ain't technology grand!

Day 2 comes to an end when I decide that I'm sick of driving. The thought of stopping for another hit and run re-fueling and then driving for another 3 hours just doesn't sound appealing anymore. Fuck it - I'm on vacation. It's midnight, and it's time to pull over and get a room for the night. I made it a ways past Oklahoma City. That's good enough for one day.

Day 3: The Voyage Continues

Onward through the rest of Okie-land. Then on through Northern Texas. I've discovered that high winds are just as effective as the mini-mountains of Missouri when it comes to inhibiting high speed travel in my poor little Ford. I think I've had the accellerator stomped to the floor for the entire trip so far. My gas milage isn't quite what I expected it to be thus far. $12 gets me about 180 miles at best. Usually only about 160 miles. Then it's time to pull over and fill up again. I hate small gas tanks. Next time I'm taking the Suburban.

The weather has been beautiful so far. As a result, my left arm has turned chameleon on me, and is now blending quite well with the red door of my truck. My jeans were a bit to warm, so I used one of my many knives and turned them into shorts. I'm now wearing one of the severed pant legs over my arm to keep it from spontaneously combusting while I'm driving. That won't be a problem for long. As soon as I hit Norther Texas, I got rained on. Even worse yet, when I made my way to New Mexico, it started to hail! Not what I expected for a desert. And to top it all off, the winds out here are stronger than any other part I've ben through so far. The little Ford isn't fareing well against the raging winds. Next time I'm taking the Suburban.

Northern Texas: Not very impressive. Shitty weather. Nothing much to see. I hope Southern Texas is better than this. Judging by what Joel has told me of Southern Texas, I'll bet the people there make fun of Northern Texas. It just doesn't seem like "real" Texas.

New Mexico: Not what I expected. It was described to me as the most boring stretch of highway I'd ever see. Straight, flat, and stretching on forever. That description couldn't be more wrong! It was beautiful! By far the most entertaining scenery I'd seen so far. The first half was interesting, but grueling. It was cold, raining, and hailing. The whole thing was all one big uphill and windy as hell! Next time I'm taking the Suburban.

See that white stuff in this picture? It's ice. Not what I expected to see in New Mexico!

Ahead in the distance, I saw mountains. They're just awesome. Huge black masses rising out of the horizon. I thought they were just scenery. I figured they were so far off that I'd just be looking at their silhouette for the entire trip. I was elated when I realized that I'd actually be driving through them! The mountains ended up being some little town in New Mexico... perhaps you've heard of it: Albuquerque. (Many thanks to Microsoft Spell Check for that one!)

At Albuquerque, I made a left, and headed South through the desert. Now comes the fun part. It's all downhill from Albuquerque, and there's little wind at all. Finally, I can cruise at an acceptable speed! After the sun set behind the mountains, and there was no more scenery to look at, I put my foot down, and made some good time all rest of the way to Tucson, Arizona. I arrived at Joe and Laura's place at about 3:30am Wednesday Central Daylight time. (It was about 1:30am Local Arizona time). Just in time to crash. There's more fun to be had tomorrow!

Arizona: It was to dark to see. I'll have to reserve judgement for tomorrow.

Continue to Day 4