Holy Crosses, Batman!

I left Missouri about an hour earlier than planned. I forgot to set my alarm clock back an hour when I entered the Midwest, so I woke up at about 3 am instead of 4. Or was it 4 instead of 5? And who needs a shower anyway? Getting on the road is so much more important.

I drove through a bunch of downpours and lightning storms. Pretty cool, because you can see it pretty well with all the flat land all around. So I drove diagonal across Missouri into Oklahoma, where I had to pay $7.00 in tolls on two sections of the interstate. Something I don't understand and should look up. I thought the interstates were a federal thing. Isn't that where our tax dollars go? Oklahoma is actually pretty nice to look at. I was expecting the dust bowl, but mostly saw lots of pastures and trees and just plain greenness. There were signs every here and there stating DO NOT DRIVE INTO SMOKE. Guess they have lots of brush fires or something.

The northern part of Texas, that little handle thing up top, is a pretty barren place. Lots of brown earth with scarce bushes. I drove from the eastern border, which connects to Oklahoma along I-40 (major East/West thouroghfare) along to Amarillo. They have these things out west, called Business Loops or something like that. The signs will often be in different colors than the red, white and blue interstate signs. And it will be called something like Business 40. It will often run near and perhaps reconnect with the interstate proper on the other end of the city. Well, the hotel I stayed at was along this other road that ran along I-40 itself and not Business 40. So that took me about an extra hour to navigate. I had seen the Red Roof coming into Amarillo and was excited I got there about an hour earlier than expected. Eventually I found my way to it only to find out I could have gotten the room for less had I not booked online. Good to know for next time. I had to wait behind these slow people before being checked in. First thing I did was hit the pool for about an hour or so. It was so refreshing. There I met this wonderful couple from the San Fransisco area. We talked about politics and their kids and what kind of jobs their kids were getting and liking or not liking. I talked to them for a good hour or more. They had come up from somewhere further south in Texas, Houston or wherever they have trees in Texas. They were on their way up to Colorado because someone had passed away while they were vacationing in Texas.

That night I ate well at Johhny Corrino's. Some western Italian chain. It wasn't bad Italian for Texas, I suppose.

I talked to Tyrel, my friend in Arizona, for the second time. I met him on eBay about 4 years ago, when he bought some comics from me, and then some time later, I had happen to come across some I was looking for and oddly enough, he was the seller. I think that's when we started emailing. Hopefully he's not some backwater gun-toting psycho.

The Western Hemisphere's biggest cross.

I had about twelve hours of driving to do today, so I didn't feel like stopping. It would have been eleven if I had not gotten lost due to mapquest directions, once I got to Amarillo, Texas. We don't really have business loops in the northeast, so it threw me off...