Yesterday I spent the day in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Weird, right?... to say that I spent the day in four different states? Being able to say that, however, makes me realize how easy it is to traverse time, space and distance if only we make the decision to do so. Some people travel all the time and surely get a sense of that if flying. I met some people tonight from California who flew to Memphis and it took them 3-1/2 hours. Not bad. But when you are driving... or walking (I wonder what that might be like...), you really get a sense of the land you are traveling across and the people who inhabit it.
So, yesterday (Day 5 of my journey to Liberty), I left Tucumcari, New Mexico
Tucumcari is the Historic Route 66 Motel--Mike and Kathy, transplants from Philadelphia who sold their belongings in PA and moved to NM, bought this motel, renovated it, and now spend their days tending to it like a child: waking up everyday to clean and make sure its visitors have enjoyed 
their stay, paid, are safe, know what they need to know to go on their way, then have maybe a few hours to themselves before the next round of needy travelers park themselves at their spot and ask them where they should go or what they should do; Tucumcari is also a windswept, dusty town--time stands still, it is bygone days of 50s Chevrolets passing through, 60s Plymouths and 70s Fords, neon signs and pretty, leather-faced waitresses, slow cowboys, and bright mornings. I left the Land of Enchantment and embarked to my final destination for that day: Fort Smith, Arkansas. I swept through New Mexico, entered Texas and was immediately struck by the change in landscape . The flat lands and plateaus of red mesas gave way to flatter plains and open vistas--save for God. God was resplendent in Texas and he showed himself, plainly, to me there, almost as soon as I entered the state.
I was full of fear and warning for the tornadoes and hail storms that were forecasted for the weekend. According to CNN and the Weather Channel, this would be the worst storm to hit the Southeast this year... and I was on alert. Indeed, Mother Nature hit the Southeast with a gailstorm of weather--terrible tornadoes and unforgiving weather on Saturday (and I lie prostrate to those who suffered because of the terrible storm that hit on Saturday--those, especially, in Mississippi and Alabama--I hope you are okay and that you will overcome...). Then I managed to drive through Texas with nary a bad sign from Mother Nature and entered into Oklahoma. I didn't mean to stop there because I was looking forward to having pho in Fort Smith--at a place that I had read about on Yelp, but my daylight hours were dwindling and I knew that I would probably be hungry by dinnertime because the last time I had eaten that day was a scrappy meal I put together before I left: Trader Joe's instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal and yogurt. By the time I got to Fort Smith--the longest hours I'd clocked in yewt driving (8 hrs straight), I was famished. I stopped in Oklahoma City at Pho Lien Hoa, yet another place I read about on Yelp. I was not disappointed,
Actually (and how crazy is this?), I think it was the best pho I've ever had(!!): clear, rich beef broth. Most of the time I order seafood pho, occasionally beef with rare steak and "beef balls", but I had had too much beef recently and was needing something different to mix it up. Not only did I get the best "crab" (which I usually don't eat because the imitiation crab is too watery and bland for my tastebuds), but they gave me real, authentic fresh mussels in my pho,! Fresh mussels, shrimp, flavorful "imitation crab' (just fishstuff for anyone who doesn't know), and fish balls (like "beef balls"... you don't know exactly what it is, but it just tastes good!). The clientele was a decent mix of White natives, Asian immigrants or natives, and one black man! I almost took a picture of him, but I didn't want to offend his normalcy. I was stopped twice during my excursion to Pho Lien Hoa: both because of the book I carried--Anne LaMott's "Bird by Bird." The first time from an older White man who simply acknowledged, "That's a good book." The second time by another younger White man who asked, "Are you into ornithology?'
I managed to capture a mesmerizing sunset as I traversed the Oklahoma/Arkansas state line and found my way to my final destination: Fort Smith, but was then waylaid by a glitch in my reservation. I had booked it online and the motelkeeper wasn't able to access my reservation. It took a half and hour to figure the whole mess out and even though I was tired and feeling ornery as fuck my threshold must be way lower than most because I had to endure the irritating come-ons from this toothless fuck from Wisconsin who had moved to Fort Smith because the "girl he took care of" (what the eff does that mean??) was born there. He was a mess. Unable to figure out the computer system his motel had, answering the hotel line on one ear while the other ear waited for the Experian representative to get on the line, apologizing to me and asking me where I was from, getting mad and angry at the Experian people on my behalf (although I calmly managed to get a $100 voucher and $25 refund to my credit card for the inconvenience), and trying to flirt with me here and there. I wasn't having it. I was tired and irritated and he made me feel unsafe and uncomfortable. I had to go back to the front desk after he finally checked me in because the room he checked me into smelled like cat piss. He glibly said, "Ah, you're back! I was hoping you'd come back to see me...". Then he called me after I settled into the new room he gave me and said, "Is everything okay? Please come see me if you ever come back into town...". All right. I had just enough of this guy. I complained to my mother about it and she advised me to bar the door, which I did before I slept. The, I talked to Indigo Boy for an unsettling and finally settling hour before I could go to sleep...
I awoke fine the next day... (although intermittently throughout the night and then finally at 5:30am that morning). I managed to get a little more sleep and then got myself and my stuff together to leave by check-out. Got on the road finally by 11:45am (had to get gas, make sure my car was good for the next leg of the trip) and was highwaybound for Little Rock and the Clinton Presidential Library...I hope I have more time to write tomorrow, although it's going to be another busy day. I'm going to the Civil Rights Museum and then have a 5 hour trek ahead of me to Liberty. I'm bummed, though, because I wasn't able to write about my night tonight in Memphis on Beale Street and the friends I made tonight (two guys from Cali who asked to sit at my table... one very cute from Marin, the other from LA--both finance brokers enjoying a boys excursion to NASCAR in Talladega)... I don't know if my thoughts will ever catch up to the time I have to write... xo
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