We kicked off daylight in Oklahoma City with a sobering visit to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The design included a large wall at both entrances with a peaceful message of remembrance facing the street and the time stamp of the detonation on the inside; a shallow, dark reflecting pool between the two entrances, a wall to one side with the names of survivors and empty chairs with the names of those perished. What got me was the little chairs for all of the kids who attended the daycare in the building. It was already very hot. While Clay walked about freely, I moved from shady spot to shady spot.
From there we visited the home of the Oklahoma City Thunder where Clay issued a personal challenge to Kevin Durant.
With all the construction around the city our GPS was rendered practically useless and we ended up trying to navigate manually old-school style without a large map. Fun! It looked something like this:
"Oh that exit back there?"
"Yeah?"
"I think we were supposed to take that. Our locator is moving further away from where we should be not closer."
After Oklahoma City we headed west on I-40 with the air conditioning on full blast...past Garth Brooks Blvd...
and past sprawling ranches dotted with cattle and rolled bales of hay under wide open blue skies. Along the way we snacked on the nectarines, cherries, strawberries and baby carrots we packed into our cooler in Minden, Louisiana. Aside from those, we hadn't seen many non-smothered, non-fried fruit and vegetable options on menus so we were super glad to have them. 
In Amarillo we drove around for a while looking for a restaurant recommended online. It had since closed. We found ourselves on the historic route 66 (which has since been replaced by I-40) where we dined at The Golden Light Cafe, the oldest restaurant in Amarillo. It opened in 1946, has only had 5 owners since then, and has been designated as a national historic landmark. Oh and the food was delicious!! No vegetables though. So between Amarillo and Tucumcari, New Mexico between us we killed nearly a pound of baby carrots.
The land further west gave way to rockier bluffs and craigs and we saw lots of wind turbines (as well as a ton more Wal-Marts and Sonic Drive-Ins).
We marveled at the technology that allowed us to be flexible and adaptable on the road. Since we left Louisiana late we got into Oklahoma late and slept in late which means it would be difficult to push through to Albuquerque.
So we adapted and decided to cut today's road trip short a few hours by staying in Tucumcari instead. We booked the hotel online through our phone - during one of the moments where we had service - and pulled into town with reservations taken care of and not feeling the pressure to push on through the night because we had a reservation waiting for us hours away.
When we crossed into New Mexico a huge arch notified us of the transition to Mountain time and we were thrilled to gain some time.
My grandmother was excited to talk to me for the first time since I left her sister's place. She wanted an update on our road trip and the conversation went a bit like this:
Gma: "Where are you now?"
Me: "New Mexico."
Gma: "Mexico? What city in Mexico?"
Me: "Not Mexico, Grandma. NEW Mexico. The state."
Gma: "Oh what city in New Mexico?"
Me: "Tucumcari."
Gma: "What was that?"
Me: "Tucumcari."
Gma: "Hmm...I've never heard of that."
Me: "I hadn't either. That's why I just said New Mexico."
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