1st day of drive to New Orleans

10/8/11

Today was a driving day. We had free continental breakfast at the motel and then headed to the Toyota dealer in Flagstaff as the car was due for a tire rotation. We hit the open road at about 9:30, destination unknown but in the direction of New Orleans.

The scenery for most of the trip looked like a western movie. Desert, mesas, sand dunes and buttes. We stopped somewhere in New Mexico for lunch at a place that claimed to have some Native America cuisine, Virgies. It was mostly southwestern food, but they did have a Navajo taco on the menu that we sampled. It was basically a taco that had a fried bread tortilla.

We then passed through Albequrque which brought fond memories to Paul of a trip he had made there as a child to visit his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Bill. We were then on a collision course with Texas, the lone star state. As we made it into Texas, we were surrounded by flat plains. The sun was setting behind us and we were treated to a beautiful sky. We had lost two hours by driving East into the Central Time Zone that day. When we pulled over for some Texas barbecue in Armarillo at Tyler's Barbecue, the place was actually closing. Fortunately they had some chopped beef left and the servers were more than happy to serve us a couple plates. It was delicious. One of the workers sat down with us and told us about the restaurant, Tyler the owner, and Texas. Apparently, Texas is a pretty large state. He said we could make it to Wichita Falls by midnight and find accommodation there for the night. We were thankful to the kind folks at Tyler's Barbecue and continued on our way.  Rain slowed us down for the rest of the night and we pulled into a motel at Wichita Falls around 12:30, ready for a good night sleep.