The Road to Tulsa

We left Tucumcari, New Mexico, at 9:30 this morning, and just 30 minutes later we had crossed the Texas border and another time zone, making it 11:00 instead of 10:00. (Back home in Arizona it was just 9:00.)

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Texas is definitely a land of big sky and land spreading as far as the eye can see. We passed windmills--old-fashioned and modern alike--and cattle and crops and silos all along the way. Most of the area we crossed was flat, but an hour before we reached Oklahoma the terrain became greener with rolling hills and real trees instead of brush.
We also saw this humongous cross, which was visible for miles before we reached it. See how it dwarfs the church building!
I remember driving through Oklahoma in 1995 and being amazed at the rich red color of the earth there. I'm still amazed! This picture doesn't begin to capture the beautiful red shade of the newly tilled earth we passed along the way.
For much of the drive I was essentially alone in the car while my children slept. I tried not to crash the car while I snapped these photos! For the one below, I just held up the camera facing the back seat and pressed the button, hoping for the best. I got lucky! (Sarah hates this picture, but I told her none of us look beautiful when we sleep in a car.)

We got to Amarillo, TX, right around noon. Sarah's duty is to clean the windshield while the gas tank is filled. Jacob and Dylan switch off on filling the tank and recording the purchase in my little gas booklet.

After the car was taken care of, we had lunch in the deli of Flying J, where we filled up. I'd meant to have sandwiches for lunch, but we'd fled so suddenly from our distasteful motel this morning that I forgot to make and pack the sandwiches. Instead, we had deli burritos, except for Dylan, who selected the creative combination of a corndog and a meatball-ka-bob!

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At 1pm we started the longest segment of our drive, from Amarillo to Oklahoma City. We drove nonstop for over 3 hours, reaching Oklahoma City at 4:15. From there, we should have arrived at our hotel in Tulsa, OK, by 6:15--except we got lost in the wrong part of town!

With the help of a friendly convenience store clerk and the GPS in Jacob's cell phone, we arrived safely here at Crestwood Suites at 6:45. And what a pleasant surprise it is!

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I've stayed at places called "suites" before, but they've always been basically a bedroom attached to a mini-kitchen. Our room here is an actual one-bedroom suite of rooms! Above is the living area, complete with a fireplace.

Here we have the kitchen. Tonight we made hamburgers and baked potatoes from the boxes of food I packed, so we didn't have to go out and spend money on dinner.

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Even the bathroom is very nice, with the shower and toilet separate from the vanity. There's also a huge walk-in closet and more storage space than in my whole house!

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Such a welcome improvement over the dive where we stayed last night. The astounding thing is that this suite of rooms cost me $10 LESS than last night's motel!

And here's the bedroom with its king-size bed, which Sarah and I will share. The couch makes out into a bed for the boys, so no one will be on the floor tonight! There is a second TV in the bedroom, on which Sarah has been watching animal shows.

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We had a very brief mishap last night when Dylan turned on the TV in our motel room and an HBO commercial featuring a nude woman flashed us! The TV stayed off for the rest of the night. No such distateful images tonight in this suite!
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After dinner, the kids went down to the pool while I worked on my blog. Now things are winding down and the kids are in bed. Jacob is already asleep.

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I think tonight we will sleep very well. And tomorrow the adventure continues.