DAY 5

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - AMARILLO, TX - TUCUMCARI, NM

429.6 miles. Left Oklahoma City: 1:16pm, Arrived Tucumcari: 11:30pm

This morning, after getting a much needed night of sleep, we drove into downtown Oklahoma City. Our first stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial which was obviously very sad, but created beautifully. The memorial is on the site where the Alfred Murrah building stood, and is very powerful because remnants of the building still surround the memorial site.

After leaving there, we decided to do a little tour of downtown OKC which is really charming. The people here are so nice and friendly, and it just really seems like people are doing what they can to make a living, and enjoying their lives. We stopped by a Goodwill Mega Store, where the clothing was $1.39 per pound, which I really enjoyed, and it was nice to see so many people donating to help out their fellow Oklahomans. We then drove to eat at Nic's Grill - a tiiiny little place where the chef asks what you want as he's cooking it. The burgers were AMAZING. 

From here, we started to drive out of the city along historic Route-66, which might I add, is nearly impossible to follow. The markers are not clear or consistent at all, and it makes random turns all over the place onto unmarked roads.

 We were on it for a while through farmland of Oklahoma, when Kenny noticed how strange the trees looked. We realized it had been where a tornado had touched down back in June. It was crazy and sad to see, the trees were almost sideways with large limbs missing, the houses had holes through their roofs, and businesses were completely missing walls. The area only looked like this for about two minutes driving, and really made me realize the impact and severity of the tornadoes. 

We stopped at an intersection to get some gas, when I noticed an Indian Trading Post, where I got new moccasins to replace the pair I have been wearing for 6 years with holes in the bottom, and then tried to get back on Route 66!

 The problem was, we had no idea where to find it again. We retraced our steps and tried to follow some online directions, but with no luck. We drove up and down the same road 6 times trying to find a marker of where to turn but saw nothing. We asked two different gas station attendants, who gave us directions 
like "turn left at the barn" and "go until you see a bridge, then keep left," rather than the name of the street to turn on. We eventually found it, but Route 66 proved even more to be very tricky. 

I eventually gave up on trying to read the directions, and we got back up on I40. 

We drove for a while and marveled about how incredibly flat Texas is, and finally reached Amarillo, TX where we ate dinner at the Big Texan Steak and Ranch. The flashy yellow building on the side of the road boasts "FREE 72oz STEAKS! (if you can eat it in 1 hour)" and the entire place is an attraction. We had a lot of fun here, ate great steak (only about 10oz each), and watched people try and fail to eat the big one. 

From here, we continued on our trek to New Mexico, and finally made it around 10:45pm. We stopped in Tucumcari at 11:30 at a Super 8, and went to sleep.