Georgia to Texas

I’d like to begin this post by saying that I considered making a photo album entitled: Bathrooms in Which I Can Easily See a Murder Taking Place. Between a steady diet of diet coke and coffee and my own naturally tiny bladder, I had plenty of potential sites for photo shoots, however, this would have required me to spend more than the absolute minimum time necessary in each of these said restrooms. So be thankful that's not the title of this post. Maybe that will be a project for the drive back.

There are two main ways to get from Atlanta, GA to Los Angeles, CA. One is I-10 and the other is I-40. I picked I-40 because it seemed the most direct and parts of it follow the old Route 66.  

Day one took me from Sandy Springs, GA to Little Rock, AR. Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi were fairly uneventful so I was pretty pumped to finally make it to Arkansas. Did you know that Little Rock is named after a little rock? I didn’t! Apparently back when people were using the Arkansas River as a means of transportation, a rock outcropping served as a navigational landmark and river crossing and that's what Little Rock grew out of. Who knew??

Day two took me from Little Rock to Amarillo, TX. It still amazes me that I could easily get from Georgia to Texas in two days of driving. I mean, I know it makes logical sense and all, but having never been to Texas before, I was still impressed.

Texas had two highlights. The first was dinner at Outback Steakhouse when I arrived on Tuesday night. And no, I am not being sarcastic. At Outback I over came my fear of dining alone and sat myself down at the bar and ordered wine and a salad because I am one classy grown up. I was perusing my roadmap and enjoying that yummy brown bread when the attractive young gentleman next to me struck up a conversation. It turns out he was originally from coastal South Carolina but had been living in Houston and was currently en route to a new job in Colorado. He was driving up I-87 as I drove across I-40 and our paths had crossed here in Amarillo. I kid you not, if he had been moving out to California too I think we would have gotten married, if only for one epic story of how we met. Outback could have catered our wedding. Sadly though, it was not meant to be. We finished dinners and went our separate ways.

The second highlight in Texas was definitely Cadillac Ranch. This is an art installation just outside Amarillo. You drive right by it on I-40 but you would never see it unless you were really paying attention, mostly because the speed limit on I-40 is 75mph but also because it is so completely random and out of nowhere. Literally it is just several Cadillac turned on their ends and stuck in the ground but set in a random field in Texas with very few people around, it is magic. If you ever go, it's BYO spray paint so don't forget yours like I did.

Oooh, and I also really enjoyed seeing this leaning water tower in Groom, TX. Because after 1,070 miles of driving alone, you too would be willing to make a special detour to see a leaning water tower and take a picture of it.

The water tower was actually something I found using my Route66 iPhone app. Now, before the trip I was very excited about seeing what was left of Route 66. The internet painted it as a lovely drive through times gone by. The only problem, however, is that the times have, in fact, gone by. Route 66 used to be the main route down from Chicago and across the western half of America. When I-40 was built, however, 66 was no longer necessary and the thriving hotels, restaurants, and roadside attractions had no one to attract. Multiple times I got off of I-40 to find something along what was left of 66 and couldn’t even find it because the neon sign was no longer neon or it was too dilapidated to even notice. Once I pulled over to take a picture of something and didn't even get out of the car because the area looked so sketchy and there were several large dogs around. And Route 66 itself was so barren that even with a 65mph speed limit, on more than one occasion, I missed my turn to go see something, stopped in the middle of the road, backed up, and made my turn.

Now, that said, there are still some cool things to see (including Cadillac Ranch, among others!) and there are some museums to explore, but I do not feel the need to do the entire route from Chicago to California any time soon.

Stay tuned for Texas to California! (My internet is not very fast so uploading photos is a process. Thank you for your patience.)