Sunday, September 04, 2005
Disasterous Data Dump Delays Digital Details
A disaster has struck! While working on the blog Friday morning, we took a break for breakfast and came back to the blue screen of death! We are using the detestable hotel computers now, so future postings will be sporadic.
On Friday we continued to follow Route 66 on our way to Tulsa. Just outside of Tulsa, at Catoosa, the Blue Whale appears, looking cute as a button in its own swampy little pond! We pull off into a small treed picnic area beside it.
It looks just like it did in the pictures, bright blue with its concrete mouth open and smiling, awaiting any would-be swimmers.
These days, however, the ol’ swimming hole is closed. So
much for the good old days when you could open a fun spot like this without worrying about getting sued if someone fell off the dock the wrong way.The whale has many entrances and exits, and is great fun to visit, whether open for swimming or not.
You walk through the whale’s mouth on its big red tongue, and out onto the open back with the high-tail diving platform. There are ladders into the water on either side of the whale’s body and water slides on either side of the head. Inside the head a ladder goes up to the second floor where you can look out any one of several portholes.
We take several pictures, and then move on to downtown Tulsa and the Double Tree Hotel where we had a great view of the city and a fine dinner.
On Saturday, we traveled from Tulsa to Tucumcari. On the way, we ran across a giant cross sticking up out of the plains. It is the latest tourist attraction in the area, and is 19 stories high. Incredible! Also incredible are the life size figures of the Stations of the Cross at its base, the three crosses on the hill, a replica of the Shroud of Turin, and Christ’s tomb!
Ten miles west of Amarillo, we come to the Cadillac Ranch. They are ten Cadillacs buried at an angle in the ground. They are mostly pink with graffiti written all over them.
After this, we stopped for the night in Tucumcari on Route 66.
On Sunday, we left Tucumcari for Santa Fe and Los Alamos. We head North West on scenic highway 104. All of a sudden, Mark shouts “Tarantula!” We stop, and sure enough, a spider is crossing the road. As we continue driving, we see more tarantulas. They are all over the place!
Highway 104 continues northwest towards Las Vegas (New Mexico). About 20 miles from town, the land flattens out into pure, gently rolling grassland as far as the eye can see. The short, soft grass is gray-green with small patches of light blue here and there. Some areas are covered with yellow mustard. You wouldn't think that just grass could be so pretty, but Mark and I are amazed at how absolutely beautiful these grasslands are. The grasslands end at Las Vegas where the mountains begin again. As we are approaching the town, a badger crosses the road in front of us and disappears into the grass!
We arrived at Santa Fe which had a street art fair going on. It was very politically correct western art a la Ann Arbor. We found one artist whose colored pencil we bought. She was 11 years old and the best artist in town!
After that, we went to Los Alamos and saw the Manhattan Project Museum. The area around Santa Fe and Los Alamos is surrounded with unusual plateaus and mountains. We ended up in White Rock near Los Alamos.
That’s it for now, on to Holbrook, Arizona tomorrow. Next posting will be in about 5 days because we will not be staying in Hamptons. Mark will be very happy not to sit next to a computer!
We found out how to better post pictures, click for larger view.
# posted by Unknown @ 6:17 PM 
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Yo Mark!
Lookin' good. I just checked your site out for the first time since you left. How is the car holding up?
Great job on the site. Looking forward to more updates.
Watch that MPG - with $3.00 gas you'll need all you can get.
Joe Z
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Lookin' good. I just checked your site out for the first time since you left. How is the car holding up?
Great job on the site. Looking forward to more updates.
Watch that MPG - with $3.00 gas you'll need all you can get.
Joe Z
# posted by 
: 2:41 PM
: 2:41 PM << Home
