Vegas to Kansas Roadtrip 2010
Got up and noticed frost on the car. Yes, 6,400' of elevation meant it gets cold in November, especially in the desert.
Wandered a few miles east to "downtown" Gallup, where we found a ridiculously nice McDonalds-- that has a security guard inside, even at 9am (!)-- and more than a few little groups of people walking around, like they were walking out from the reservation, didn't have a car, and hence were walking the mile or two to McDonalds at 9am. That's-- to be blunt-- poor.
Found an old school Pep Boys to buy some octane booster, as the Saab 9-2x is tuned for 91+ octane only, and then hit the road. We saw some amazing red bluffs, but every time we pulled off the road we'd see signs saying "Indian land - NO TRESPASSING" and would turn around. We went a tad further once, just to see-- and saw a second sign saying "RELIGIOUS CEREMONY - NON-INDIANS NOT ALLOWED" outside of a little village that was completely devoid of people. Kinda scary!
We ended up going south instead of north off one of the exits, didn't find any red bluffs, but found one decent canyon to take pictures at, saw a freight train drive by, and even a guy with an old Airstream trailer. And then we just kept driving east on Route 66, figuring we'd hit Albuquerque eventually. We didn't, but we saw some more signs (the other way) saying "No Trespassing" (OOPS!) and then smacked into I-25N in Los Lunas, which took us back to Albquerque and I-40.
Pushing onward, we hit Amarillo, Texas just before sunset. We stopped by Cadillac Ranch to take pictures of the 8 old Cadillacs buried in the field there, randomly encountered a bunch of little kids having the time of their life attacking the Cadillacs with spraypaint, and three girls celebrating a 24th birthday. A few miles further east into Amarillo proper is the Big Texan Steakhouse, home of the 72oz steak challenge. We didn't do that, but I had the 24oz ribeye and Justin had the 9oz filet. Pretty tasty for cheap, affordable steak (and they know how to cook it!).
Leaving about 9pm, we hit Oklahoma City just after midnight, unloaded the car at Justin's friend Mike's place, and zonked out... well after cleaning Justin's luggage, 'cause Andy (Mike's dog) peed on it. Bad dog!