Because we ended our drive yesterday at the Grand Canyon, this meant we had to push really far today to stay on schedule. Our plan was to eat in the car, rotate driving in 2 hour shifts and drive through 4 states. What a plan that was!!!
Our day started at 6 am when we checked out of our hotel in the Grand Canyon and proceeded to repack the roofbag. We thought the best idea was to unpack the roofbag every night to keep the contents safe, but didn’t realize how hard it would be in the morning. We went outside and found our biggest surprise yet, it was 24 degrees!!!! I have never been so unprepared, cold, and miserable in my life, but we did succeed (because we are Beauregard’s :) duhh!) and left on time at 6:30 am.
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| Everything that we unload/reload every night/morning for the roof bag! Ugh! |
Our trip was scheduled to take 13 hours and 45 minutes. We knew we had to be committed to driving so we decided to take quick stops at few interesting spots to keep the drive interesting.
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| Random Teepee off I-40 :) |
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| Shopping stop! Beautiful turquoise jewelry that we just couldn't resist! |
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| Sign said it was the world's largest petrified tree....I highly doubt that...but it was still a great photo op! |
And, finally we entered NEW MEXICO. It was quite a grand entrance! Lining I-40 was beautiful mountains, rock formations and stunning colors. New Mexico was a state that my mom was really looking forward to and it didn’t disappoint. Most of the drive consisted of the most stunning landscape we had seen yet.
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| Hello New Mexico! |
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| New Mexico scenery at State Line |
By the end of New Mexico, we were so sick of driving. Oklahoma City seemed farther than ever and we started rethinking our decision to drive this route. Eventually we made it to Texas and to our surprise we only saw 1 cop in NM! We competed to shave the most time off of our arrival time on GPS for each leg of the drive, with the running joke that you had to stay “in the red.” Referring to the GPS when you went over the speed limit your speed turned “red”. Who would of thought that my mom was telling me to speed :)
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| Texas baby! |
Because we were only driving through the north tip of Texas we knew this one leg was going to be very quick. With signs for Amarillo in the distance we kept to our routine of switching drivers and trying to stay entertained when we happened to stumble over my favorite picture spot thus far!
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| Cadillac Ranch |
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| Mother and Daughter |
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| Beautiful Sunset on the Cadillac's |
The Cadillacs were right off I-40 and were so impressive. We walked about 50 yards on a dirt path to see 10 spray painted Cadillacs, in the ground nose first. From the outside looking in this spot seems so trivial but it was something special and right then I realized how lucky I am. I am 24 years old and driving across country. I am able to see the country in a way I never thought I would be able to. It put a lot of things in my life into perspective. Every road I have taken, every decision I have made (whether bad or good), every person I have met has led me to where I am today and for that I am eternally grateful.
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| A Texas Sunset |
The rest of Texas was driven in the dark and went by at a blink of an eye. We entered Oklahoma at 9:04 pm and still had 2 more hours until we reached our hotel in Oklahoma City. What a day!
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| Last State of the Day! |
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