Destination Driving

We did not do any touristy stuff on the way to Arizona.  Just gas, potty break, and hotel stops along with way as our goal was to get there.  Destination driving! 

 We left snow and cold temperatures behind the day we headed for Arizona and did not need our winter coats again until we came full circle back to Iowa 23 days later!  Heading south into Missouri we passed by a town called Bethany that bragged about it's famous restaurant, "Toot Toot"!  (giggle). Bethany is the name of our oldest daughter so we had to text her about our find! 

We arrived in Wichita in the dark, but when we left the next morning what we noticed in the city was how BIG the churches were!  As we headed south through Oklahoma and into Texas, we stopped for lunch at a small, old McDonalds where I visited briefly with a woman who was about my age.  Her husband sat like a stone across from her.  They had a conversation-less meal before he got up and left with her following behind.  Sad.  I must say I could not help but give thanks for Joel.....one more time.....Anyway, this woman's accent fascinated me....quite a twang and somewhat hard to grasp for this northerner.  I turned to Joel after they left and said, "We are not in Iowa anymore!"  Later when we were in southern Texas we expected to hear the same accent, but did not.  Interesting.  (I always wonder what people think of our accent when we travel!)

Driving along the interstate, what I remember about Oklahoma mostly was that it was rugged and flat with a lot of brush...The bright blue sky was vast and the land seemed endless with no ranches visible, only a few oil wells.  We took more of a back road down through southwestern Texas, but when we were only twenty miles into the state we saw cactus!  We drove past cotton fields, and many, many small towns that looked desolate.  Once in awhile we saw beautiful ranch homes scattered few and far between on the landscape we viewed.   Our BIL Lanny, says we missed the most beautiful part of Texas (a place he has called home) and saw more of the not so nice part of that vast state.  We stayed in Sweetwater TX for the night.  Later we discovered it was famous for being the rattlesnake capital of the country.  Okey dokey....

Cactus in southern Texas

Texas oil well

 

Tuesday was our longest day on the road.  As we left Sweetwater we saw the largest wind turbine farm in America off to our right.  It seemed like we drove for hours through SW Texas, with oil wells dotting the landscape everywhere.  Eventually we crossed southern New Mexico, and spent the night in Wilcox AZ. New Mexico has it's own beauty, and being there again took us back to 1970 when we lived in Albuquerque for nine months.

Southern NM or AZ.......

 

On Wednesday morning we drove to Tucson, found a Whole Foods Market where we ate lunch and shopped before heading farther north to visit Marie and Lyn in their RV park.  I shared before that Marie and I have talked on the phone and emailed for years when we both battled Lyme, but this was our first "in person" visit.   They live most of the year in the bush of Ontario Canada, far from Iowa.  We went for a long walk, looking around the area where they lived, and enjoying a nice visit at their place before heading to Phoenix. We even were able to hear Lyn play banjo for us.   How wonderful to see them!

Lyn, Marie, Renee and Joel

Our destination drive brought us to my sister Jan and brother-in-law Lanny's Gold Canyon home late that afternoon.  We were so excited to be there!

 

Lanny, Jan, Renee and Joel