Day 15 (Or: "This Machine Kills Fascists")

Ahoy, once again, from the Peabody in Little Rock, Arkansas. They totally gave away my room so guess what--upgrade city! 18th floor! Be quiet Barbara, I know, the fire ladders won't be able to reach me, but up here in the suite, I'll be waiting in the bathtub to be rescued, watching CNN on the flatscreen that's built into the mirror. Yeah, that's right.

So, OK, remember how I passed into Amarillo, stayed at that same hotel just to get my pillow? Which you saw me with in the photo two posts ago? To prove that I got it back? Well, I was so happy about it, that I totally went and drove off without it. Again. Luckily, this time, I wasn't a state and a half away when I remembered, just ten miles outside Amarillo, so I turned around and went back. The girl at the desk was like, "Didn't you do this two weeks ago?"

Oy. Then it was time to go back through Oklahoma. Yesterday was a terrible drive, just too long and winding, and too many miles. So today, I didn't make a room reservation, I just decided to wing it. Little Rock is about 600 miles from Amarillo, so I figured I wouldn't make it. I woke up late and ate a lazy breakfast so by the time I got on the road, it was about 11 am. I made amazing time and got into Little Rock around 8 pm local time.

Here's the thing about Oklahoma: a few people I know told me that it was full o' nothing and worth skipping altogether, if possible. So not the case! Granted, the panhandle smelled overwhelmingly of cow poop and fine dining in every town I passed through was Pizza Hut (I eventually surrended to hunger and got one of those teeny pizzas with veggies on it), but today, day 15, I got a wonderful look around. Last time I passed through, the whole state was shrouded with fog and then the sun went down and that was it. Today I got to see the farms and the rolling hills and the ACRES and ACRES of wind powered-turbines! Green! Energy! In the heartland!

So, I ask you: if Oklahoma is empty to you, what would you put in it? Big rocky mountains? Then it would be Colorado. Acres and acres of desert? That's Nevada. Buttes? Hello, New Mexico. Leave Oklahoma alone--it's beautiful. And you can get those awesome western print blankets absolutely everywhere. That's my kinda state. Plus, everybody I met was so nice.

**I have often had this dream where I'm wandering across a large green hill, more like a mountain, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of these turbines--so getting to see so many of them across the country on this trip, has been surreal. From Oklahoma to Nevada and California to Colorado, it's so encouraging to see how many turbine fields there really are.

Last time, I totally didn't get to see OK City (that's how they call it for shorthand--isn't that cute?); I wasn't even sure how close I-40 was to the city center. Um, it goes right through it. That was some HEAVY fog, let me tell you. I had no idea, none.

As for the listenin' today, I created a monster of a playlist called "Place Names" which, predictably, includes about 500 songs which feature the name of a place in it. For example:

1. Bob Dylan - Goin' to Acapulco
2. Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945
3. Sufjan Stevens - Pittsfield
4. The Grateful Dead - Panama Red
5. Arlo Guthrie - Coming Into Los Angeles

You get the idea. I also have a subset list which has specific places like The White Stripes' "Hotel Yorba," Elliott Smith's "Memory Lane," and Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2." When you're not really into books on tape, music selection is ESSENTIAL. Although, I listened to some terrific blues on the radio, for a change, while going through the Texas panhandle today.

Oh, and I had a vivid dream last night. I dreamt I was talking with someone familiar, but whom I could not identify, when the door to my left opened and Alan Alda walked in and said hello while passing us. My friend turned to me and said, "That guy again."

They say you have dozens of dreams during the course of a normal night of sleep. I can't imagine what my unconscious is going through for it to make that the dream worth remembering from last night.

Also, I might get the truck washed, which is weird for me, since I don't even do that with my own car (thanks, Pop). But when I'm driving at night, I can't tell if I need to turn on the defroster or if it's just the salt-crusted outside of the window. So far, Defroster: 0, Salt-Crusted Window: 7.

Anyway, here's a sample of today:

This bills itself as the "Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere," and the secularist in me doesn't think it probably has a lot of competition. Groom, Texas.
Wind power!
I don't think this properly gives an idea of how large these things actually are.
OK City!
That biker dude gave me a thumbs-up as he went by. He has a New Jersey license plate--can you imagine?! In the winter time!
Horses just hanging out in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Shawnee, Oklahoma. I love the writing under the name--thanks for clearing up the mystery.
I made another pilgrimage of the musical sort today. For whatever reason, I've spent most of the time on this blog focusing on either Robert Johnson or Bob Dylan, but there's one guy who, arguably, made Dylan into what he is even more than Johnson did, and I visited his hometown today, forty years after his death. Woody Guthrie's Okemah, Oklahoma.
This is another one of those towns, much like Clarksdale, that is caught in time, no matter what the modernizations (and on the main drag through Okemah, there aren't really many to speak of, except for maybe the gym--the town still has a five-and-dime). There's a little garden in the center of town with a display that is sponsored by lovers of Guthrie's music.

He wrote one of my favorite songs, "California Stars," and is without question the backbone of the folk music which came after him.
I'd totally be a folksinger if I could. And my first song would totally be "Passing Through Amarillo, to Pick Up My Pillow."

Day 15:
Amarillo, Texas - Little Rock, Arkanasas
Mileage: 631
Total Mileage: 6, 538*

* So, a sidenote: As many of you know, if I could go to one place anywhere in the world, I would go to Mongolia. If I started out driving from my house in Holbrook, NY, and drove straight across the globe (more or less), the distance to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia would be 6,322. In other words, I would have gotten there yesterday, Pacific Ocean notwithstanding. And it probably would have been cheaper to go that way than a $6,000 round-trip plane ticket from JFK.

***

California Stars
Woody Guthrie

I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight
On a bed of California stars
I’d like to lay my weary bones tonight
On a bed of California stars
I’d love to feel your hand touching mine
And tell me why I must keep working on
Yes, I’d give my life to lay my head tonight
On a bed of California stars

I’d like to dream my troubles all away
On a bed of California stars
Jump up from my starbed and make another day
Underneath my California stars
They hang like grapes on vines that shine
And warm the lovers glass like friendly wine
So, I’d give this world just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California stars

***

Tomorrow: Back to Mississippi! Staying in Greenwood! Mmmph! So excited!