Confederate Camels?

As you can see, Mom and I are getting pretty good at taking pictures of ourselves--this one is from Chillicothe, Texas. I'm a little late getting to the blog this evening, so as far as I am concerned, it is still April 27 (Grandpa Taylor's birthday!), but my computer says it's April 28. Today as we drove across the extremely large and flat state of Texas, we saw the usual cows, horses, sheep, some Texas longhorns, and even some buffalo, which all seemed pretty much like what you would see while driving across Texas . . . until we saw the camels! Yes, camels. We did a double-take as we drove by, and sure enough--there was this herd of camels out in someone's field. There was even a cute little baby camel! We were trying to figure out how camels would have gotten to Texas, and we decided that they must be descendants from the ones Jefferson Davis brought over to the U. S. back in the day. You see, before the Civil War when Jeff Davis became the President of the Confederate States of America, he served as the U. S. Secretary of War to President Franklin Pierce. He had this bright idea to bring camels over here to use for military transportation--since they could go for so long without water. Well, the idea didn't catch on very well, but maybe the camels we saw today are the great, great grandchildren of Jeff Davis's camels? Anyway, it has been a really long driving day. As Mom and I drove through places like Denton, Texas, where they had severe flooding just the night before last, and had to pull people out of cars that were getting washed away in flash floods, we were again reminded how grateful we are to have missed the bad weather by a couple of days. The weather was great today, and Stryder worked perfectly, so it was all good until we got to Dallas during rush-hour. We weren't even actually in Dallas--just on the outskirts--but it still took us a few hours to make our way around the city. Tonight we stopped in Longview, Texas, and are planning to make the last leg of the drive across Louisiana and to Mississippi tomorrow. Internet access in Natchez is questionable at best, so I don't think I'll be able to post any more entries until I start work next Tuesday (I have a haunch that Miss Betty doesn't have wireless internet at Routhland!), but I will write more as soon as an internet connection is available. It feels good to be this close to our destination--even though we're still two states away!

Here We Are on Route 66

Hallelujah! Mom, Stryder, and I were able to leave the Land of Entrapment today! The car people in Denver shipped Stryder's radiator cap hose connector thing to Albuquerque this morning, then the car people in Moriarty went and picked it up, then they installed it, and finally at about 3:00 this afternoon the Taylor Trio was on the road again. I guess that some antifreeze had eaten away at Stryder's radiator cap connector, and the resulting antifreeze explosion had fried the thermostat, but now that it's all fixed, he should be good for 500 billion miles. The guys at the car place kept wanting Mom and me to take the old radiator part and the thermostat with us so that we can show them to Dad, so I guess we'll find a place in Mom's suitcase for them--they are pretty unusual souvenirs. It's a good thing that they finished the car when they did, because Mom and I were getting a little tired of Moriarty. We had eaten at least once at every restaurant in town. It felt good to get on the road again, and Stryder is working wonderfully. Mom and I stopped for dinner in the funny little Route 66 town of Tucumcari, New Mexico. We had awesome hamburgers with cheese and spicy chilis on them at this place called Ken's Ice Cream Sandwiches. Mom had read online that anyone traveling through Tucumcari MUST stay at the Blue Swallow Motel just for the experience. So we were kind of wishing that things had worked out for us to make it to Tucumcari the other day . . . until we saw the Blue Swallow in real life. We decided that it will be all right if we never stay at the Blue Swallow Motel. We then drove through tornado country--including Vega, Texas, where a tornado touched down on Tuesday. As we drove through the totally flat terrain, we were grateful for the nice, sunny weather. Maybe getting stalled in Moriarty was a good thing after all. I don't think that we ever want to live in (or even visit for any length of time) Wildorado, Texas. The unpleasant aromas emanating from the cattle lots were bad enough just driving by! We decided to call it a day in Amarillo, and will try to get an early start tomorrow so that we can make it at least to central Louisiana. As we drove into town this evening, even though the $25.99/night Camelot Motel looked fun (just kidding), we opted for Hampton Inn. Mom told the guy at the front desk that there would be two adults staying in the room, but then he looked at me and said he would only charge us for one--hey, wait a minute!

Land of Entrapment

New Mexico's nickname is "Land of Enchantment," but if you ask Mom, Stryder, and me, it's the "Land of Entrapment!" Yes, it's true--we are marooned in Moriarty, New Mexico for at least another day. The car people called this morning, and though Stryder's problem is easy to fix, none of the surprisingly numerous auto shops in the Moriarty area have the part we need--so they are getting it from Denver. Supposedly the missing part will arrive tomorrow, and we can be on our way by the afternoon. Our original plans had us arriving in Natchez tomorrow, but now we'll be lucky if we get there by Saturday. But, if we were on our original schedule, we would again be driving into tornado country--so at least now we'll have some good distance between us and the weather that has been causing big problems in Texas. It's actually really nice and sunny here in Moriarty today (though it's a little on the windy side). Unfortunately, we heard that today's tornado warnings also include Mississippi, so we'll hope that all of our ranger friends there are safe. What do you do with a whole day in the booming metropolis of Moriarty, you may ask? It's actually a pretty cool Route 66 town, though there isn't a whole lot going on here. Mom and I walked to one end of town, then back, took some pictures, and now we feel like we've pretty much "done" Moriarty. We did find a funny little BBQ place called Shorty's where we had an awesome BBQ pork sandwich for lunch. We also saw some local landmarks like Pete's Bar, Blackie's Lounge, Jim's Tires, Nacho's Mexican Food, and the Lariat Motel (scary). Good times in Moriarty!

A Blessing in Disguise

Well, today turned out a little differently, to say the least, than Mom and I had expected (isn't that how it always goes when you try to plan a trip!). Instead of ending up in Amarillo this evening, we are marooned in Moriarty, New Mexico. The day started out fine--we had a good time going along Route 66, enjoying the ambiance of it all. We stopped at places like the Continental Divide even though it was FREEZING outside. We ate lunch at this rustic Route 66 joint in Moriarty, then took off for Texas. About 20 miles outside of Moriarty, my car (named "Stryder") started acting really weird. I couldn't believe it because Stryder is seriously so dependable. Well, the engine started to overheat, so we pulled off at this funny place called Clines Corners--which, even though it is a little tiny place in the middle of nowhere, has very posh-sounding street names like "Yacht Club Drive" and "Country Club Drive." Thank heavens for AAA--and for the GPS so we knew where we were! We made some phone calls (surprisingly we got cell phone reception out there), and the AAA people sent someone from Moriarty to help us out. He tried checking some things, but the engine was still pretty hot, so we loaded Stryder up on the tow truck, Mom and I piled in, and we took off back to Moriarty. By this time it was about 4:30 in the afternoon--too late for the auto mechanics to look at Stryder today, so we are stuck only 176 miles from where we started this morning! At first we were kind of upset--especially because Stryder is usually such a trusty car--but then when we heard the day's weather report, we realized that maybe this was all a blessing in disguise. There have been tornadoes all over Texas today, and had we made it as far as we planned, we would have driven right into all of it. The car people were really nice, and staying along Route 66 is cool anyway, so it's all good. We decided that we won't make any plans for tomorrow--we'll just hope that Stryder is okay and we'll see how far we make it. The best trips are the ones that don't turn out like you planned anyway, right?

Snow and Pirate Ships

Day #1 of the Orem to Natchez road trip was quite crazy! Life was good when Mom and I started out this morning. It was nice and sunny, and we hoped that the rain showers that were predicted for the day had decided not to materialize. Well, rain ended up being the least of our worries--it was the SNOW and the road construction that caused problems! It was pretty snowy heading towards Price, and then we kept running into these stretches where the highway was only one lane, so we spent quite a bit of time waiting while traffic coming the opposite direction was let through the construction zone. We encountered some pretty good cloudbursts near Moab, but then from Monticello, Utah to Cortez, Colorado, we ran into a regular blizzard! But, despite the nasty weather we still had a fun day. We stopped at Arches National Park, which was very cool, and this evening we had a nice drive through reservation country--the sun even came out for a little while. We drove past Shiprock in New Mexico which is a very neat landmark to see out in the desert. Mom and I decided to rename it Pirate Shiprock because with the low-hanging storm clouds surrounding it, we were reminded of the Black Pearl on "Pirates of the Caribbean." We decided to call it a day when we arrived here in Gallup, New Mexico. It is FREEZING here! Tomorrow we are headed to the Texas Panhandle, but are a little nervous about the weather. We heard that yesterday there were several tornadoes in Vega, Texas, which is right on the way to Amarillo where we will be staying tomorrow night. Hopefully they've had their quota of tornadoes there for the week. April is a crazy weather month!

An Affectionate Farewell

Well, the time has come to leave town. Mom and I will be heading out in the morning for a little 1,700 mile drive across the country. I will be back at the end of May for a couple of days to attend the Mormon History Association conference in Salt Lake, but I guess that besides that little visit, this is good-bye for quite a while. In August I'll have just a few days between when I finish work and when I need to be to Illinois for school, so unfortunately I won't be able to squeeze in a trip home at that time. I hope to stay in touch with everyone though, and I am excited for the adventures ahead. I figured that since in the fall I'll be going off to the "Land of Lincoln," it would be appropriate to take my farewell message from an address Abraham Lincoln gave in Springfield, Illinois before going off to Washington. I echo everything he said:

"My Friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. . . . Without the assistance of that Divine Being . . . I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."