I drove a lot today. Like, a lot lot lot. I intended to leave at 5am but didn’t quite make it; I think I pulled out of the driveway around 6 or 6:15. Not bad, considering, but I did collide with Tucson traffic so I stopped to have breakfast.
I ate at a restaurant called the Kettle a lot when I was a kid. There were at least two in Edmond, maybe more, and they were different but I always remembered liking them. I guess they were really just a modified Denny’s. Breakfast food all day, but also the usual American fare. For some reason I always really liked it, though.
The ones in Oklahoma were shut down eons ago and I had presumed they were completely history until I noticed a sign for one off the highway on my way through Tucson a while back. I was with friends and we were eager to get back to Phoenix so I didn’t bother trying to go, but today was my chance.
Okay, so, ew. It’s not a modified Denny’s, it’s a degenerate Shoney’s. I “treated” myself to the breakfast buffet. Eggs and chorizo weren’t on the menu in Oklahoma, but once I tried these, I wasn’t sure it was chorizo anymore. The french toast was flavorless. The hash browns were okay but I mean, they’re hash browns. Messing up hash browns would be like messing up ice water… there’s just not much to it. Of course we’re not talking haute cuisine here and I get the feeling that this place just got stuck in time. Not stuck in the timelessly-preserved-from-the-ravages-of-entropy way, just in the ravaged-by-entropy-but-still-somehow-legally-serving-food way.
Made it through New Mexico and into El Paso. Totally overate since I was starving and the gorditas from JJs are fucking amazing. My stomach hurt for at least an hour afterwards. Meandered through a couple of towns and then ended up stopping at Fort Stockton for some reason. Filled up on gas and then discovered an ancient model of Wal-Mart I haven’t seen since they shut down the old one in Edmond on Broadway. It had the exact same floorplan, the departments were all in the same place- absolutely creepy. Just like the Kettle, the shape was the same but time had been unkind to the place.
And I drove on a while from there, stubbornly refusing to stop. A big electrical storm kicked up so I pulled off at a picnic area- a pitch black one, mind you, thus taking my life into my own hands- and managed to capture a few shots I liked. Really lovely colors and thick splintering bolts of lightning.
But I finally succumbed to weariness. I’m camped out in the truck at a rest stop right now. It’s reasonably well lit and I found a place secluded enough but near enough to people that I don’t feel freaked out. It’s been storming like crazy; rain pelting the truck, wind shaking it back and forth kind of storming. I completely love it and it’s lulled me to sleep several times. Them a semi starts up its generator or drives past and my primate bits get all riled up and I can’t sleep again for 15 minutes.
Not sure when I’ll continue. I’ve got a few hours left from here to San Antonio, and from there it’s a few more to Houston. I wouldn’t mind getting into San Antonio as the sun’s coming up but before traffic makes things tough… there are bound to be some nice photo opportunities waiting for me. But for now I think I’ll rock myself to sleep once more… zzzz….
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