Oklahoma

So here I am spending the night in Oklahoma. I had been hoping to push on into Arkansas but I didn't go to bed until almost 2:30 last night so there's no reason to have another late night. I got severely lost outside of Santa Fe yesterday and ended up nearly out of gas, in the pitch black, with no one around, and a mysterious spaghetti jumble of roads all around me, none of which were on my inset map. When I finally found a gas station and a hotel I was so happy I didn't care that it was the Hilton and paid without batting an eye.

Today I stopped for dinner in Elk City, OK. I thought I'd go to a restaurant full of locals, since the locals pretty much know what they're doing when they choose the place where they want to eat. This was a dandy plan except that when I got into Lupe's Restaurant I discovered that it was all Mexican food, which is a kind of food I know practically nothing about. Ordering was interesting. The food was great, though, and I have plenty of leftovers here in the fridge in my hotel room.

I have gone precisely 1001.0 miles from Moab to here. I figure this means I'm nearly halfway home and perhaps tomorrow I can stop driving so aggressively and start seeing sights again. But part of me wants to hurry home so that I have plenty of time to do laundry and grocery shopping etc. on Friday and then Saturday I get my girls. I miss them so much after three weeks! It will be great to spend time with them again.