Forest Gump: Sometimes the only thing to watch on TV is Forest Gump. I believe it was that way when we took our short Wisconsin trip last spring. The first night we spent the night in Hudson, WI. Forest Gump was on TV. And this Monday in Lebanon, MO, that was the ONLY thing on TV (other than veddy veddy bad network TV). Forest Gump. How weird is that? Because I was a basketcase that night because we'd been up since 4:30 am that morning, and I was dead tired and couldn't even function to read maps anymore and was having plenty of stupid moments, Stan said it fit my frame of mind (Yeah, thanks, Stan :-P). But I wasn't so stupid that I didn't realize the connection between Forest Gump and Route 66. Gary Sinese plays Hank's buddy, the amputee Vietnam vet. Sinese was in the movie "Of Mice and Men", the book written by John Steinbeck who also wrote "The Grapes of Wrath," which features "The Mother Road" which the Joads travel out on from Oklahoma to California. Somehow, it made sense.

Car Trouble: It was about 5 pm or so on Tuesday when we pulled into a Walmart (yes, I went into a Walmart in Oklahoma...please don't laugh) because we had to use the facilities really badly. Sometimes when interstate restrooms aren't aplenty (as it has been in Oklahoma, very much unlike the generous facilities along I-80 which I am used to), one has to make due with McDonald's or large discount department stores. Those I prefer to places like gas stations which I will only use it's life or death. Since we needed some Coke anyway, we decided to stop at the first place we saw where we knew would be restrooms: Walmart. (I know, Walmart. But we were desparate) Before Stan got back in the car, he noticed his tire was getting flat and that there was a nail in it. We quickly tried to find a place to take care of us, but it was a small town and daytime was running out. We stopped at a car dealership, but they didn't fix tires. They gave us directions to another place that we couldn't find, but in searching for that place we found an autoparts store about 10 minutes before they closed. We asked there if they knew anyone. The owner gave a call to a mom'n'pop traveling tire repair business, and within half an hour, they were there to fix our tire! It was fortuitous beyond belief. That's why we got into Oklahoma City so late. That, and trying to find the right "hotel row" off the interstate.

Musical Motel Rooms. Strangely, the last time I was in a Super 8 motel before this was in Winterset Iowa (Madison County) when we went to see the covered bridges last April. They had internet access, but in the room they put us in, I could not get it. So they moved us to another room. Dejavu. The same thing happened last night. At a Super 8. Weird.

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This morning I woke up at 5, but my blind eyes couldn't see the motel alarm clock too well, and I thought it said 6. So I've been up since way early again. I felt dead as a dog traveling through the remainder of Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, and eastern New Mexico. But we did manage to stop at the famous "Cadillac Ranch" and "Bug Ranch." Actually, Bug Ranch is sort of a "time to unpimp zee auto*" parody of Cadillac Ranch. Most of Route 66 is on the frontage road in these western states, so much of the way we didn't even bother and just stayed on the interstate. Yes, we took pictures. I still have to unload zee camera.

*VW ad from last year featuring Peter Stormare (Fargo fame) playing a German car engineer. Very funny ad.

We got our motel room (Super 8 again) early tonight in Santa Rosa, NM so we could shower tonight and be hunkered down in time for LOST. I've not eaten much but Denny's salads lately where the service is always lousy, but dependably lousy.

Labels: LOST, Route-66-Part1, Vacation