8/26/05

Sometime this morning after an all too vivid party dream my day began. I tossed and turned comfortably, showered at some point, and after the saddest "continental" breakfast I ever saw, I drifted off to sleep again as we left Gallup fading in our dusty side mirrors.

We crossed what remained of New Mexico, then entered the Texas panhandle. It was interesting to watch those round shrubs become more sparse; I still couldn't shake their animal-like presence. At some point in Texas we passed a sign indicating the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere was immanent; indeed it loomed before us and I pulled over to immortalize it on black & white film. I also stopped to photograph the enormous thunderheads north of us, from the storm that had dumped 9 inches of rain in 30 hours on Kansas. We were hoping to outrun it, and though we did Andy is concerned about our path and that of hurricane Katrina heading for Louisiana.

After flying through the panhandle and opting to bypass Amarillo (home of the 72 oz. steak you get for free if you can eat it under an hour)for an early arrival in Oklahoma, we arrived in Oklahoma City at 21h30. That was 10 1/2 hours of driving. Needless to say, once we arrived at Bison Witches (the bossest bar in OKC where my friend Emily works), embraced OK's cloudy humidity (an element I continue to love) and took that first sip of Shiner Bock, I felt like I had found Shangri-La Oky-style ($1.50 for great local microbrews? can anyone else hear the tune of "I Love this Bar" twanging in the distance?).

I should say something about Emily. In fact, I think I'll say lots about her, she's such a sweet pea. She and I met in Thonon, France as Rotary Youth Exchange students. We were the only Americans in our town, and after about three hours together we realized we were soul sisters destined to be friends until we died of laughter as old biddies in rocking chairs on a porch. We'll probably be smoking cigars at the time, too. Anyhow, she flew out to see me in California last year, a year after we had met, and our arrival fell around just a year after her visit. She had just finished a year in AmeriCorps, and we were on our third day of cross-country adventure, so we had a lot to celebrate in addition to our third year of loving life, laughing and friendship.

After a while the smoke started to get to our eyes-yes, I DID do double takes the first few times I saw people lighting up-and we made the rather complicated journey back to Emily's home in Norman, where we made jokes at the expense of the French-with much tenderness, of course-and plotted the next day's exploits: primarily eating at Sonic and hunting down boots and a cowboy hat.

Also, I shamelessly steal from, but simultaneously applaud the photos taken by journalist Rose Aguilar's photohgrapher, and her journey through the states. She spent some time in OK with Emily's mom, Lisa Prior, who ran for the OK senate seat last fall. This link will take you some pictures from her time in OKC, which I saw too, but can't post yet:

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