Alright, so the rest of our trip was "an experience."
This?
VACATION.
Dude.
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Late night lights in Truth Or Consequences, NM
We needed this trip. So, so badly.
I knew it when we decided to drive out here, how good it would be for us to just spend time together, as a couple and as a family, in a way we haven't in a really, really long time. It's mostly the hours in the car that have done it: we talk, sing along to music, run around gas station convenience stores picking out terrible, horrible things to eat, and mostly just hang out together.
Truth Or Consequences
{ Dust & Glitter, Truth or Consequences Main Street }
Alright, alright, enough love and healing and bladebla bla; that post up there was a whole lot of emo for a Tuesday, I know.
Let me show you Truth Or Consequences, please, because it is basically perfect in its absolute oddness, and I need you to go. Below are just a few of the many reasons why.
The Thing
Mindful
The Great Fried Onion Burger
Ever since we hit Route 66 (or at least parts of it) I've been following the recommendations of my road trip book very nearly to the letter. Why a for-real, paper-pages book as opposed to a series of apps and Yelp reviews and road-tripping sites? Because something about driving the old road makes me feel like you need a book to hold in your hands. You need to turn down pages and have somewhere to tuck receipts and pamphlets you find along the way into, you know?
Anyway, one of the places that my book declared unmissable was El Reno, a.k.a. "Hamburger City."
Obviously I am stopping at a place with the nickname "Hamburger City."
There were three diners that came highly recommended, but we ended up at Sid's Diner because apparently it was featured in an episode of Man Vs. Food and I was all curious about why.
Ghost Town
The thing about "taking Route 66 across the country" is that you can't really do it, not anymore. When the massive I-40 Interstate was built in the '80s, it basically mirrored the Western part of Route 66 and essentially put the old road out of business, so nowadays if you want to see Route 66 you have to sort of pop on and pop off of the Interstate whenever you can. And ever since we hit Oklahoma City, where our route collided with Route 66, that's what we've been doing, because it is so worth the effort, if only to see how great America's car-traveling culture used to be.
It's also sad, though: in a lot of these towns you'll find one "famous Route 66 spot" that's still doing well, maybe two, but the majority of the other businesses just couldn't survive the Interstate bypass and subsequent drop in tourist traffic. They're still so beautiful, though, and so romantic: full of gorgeous neon signs and '50s-style motels and interesting architecture and people with stories to tell. So you take your time, you have a second cup of coffee, and you listen. And sometimes you get a little lost trying to make your way back to the Interstate and find an all-but-abandoned overpass that's become home to thousands of birds that come streaming out in a huge cloud when you drive by, and you stop and get out of your car and watch them fly.
Rainbow Collection
One of Kendrick's little -isms that I've always loved the most is his habit of collecting things that he finds wherever around his wrists, and then leaving them there until they fall off and get lost. Concert admission bands, those Lance Armstrong-style stamped bracelets, rubber bands, the colorful little bracelets I sometimes make him when I'm watching The Bachelorette (which sssssh nobody tell me what is happening please because I have some major binge-style catching-up to do when we finally land in California).
On this trip, I thought I'd start my own collection, and so we've been picking up wish bracelets (the kind that you make a wish on when you tie on) and beaded bracelets from roadside stands and cheesy rubber souvenir bracelets from Route 66 cafes. I love it.
And rainbow bracelets, generally.
At The Ranch
We've spent a lot of time on this trip discussing "what our children will remember." Goldie - well, nothing, obviously, but I still like to imagine that the things she's seeing and learning and doing during these weeks will ripple into her future.
The question of Indy's memories is a more complicated one. He's three and a half, almost four - I remember parts of my life from that period, but they're flashes: letting an ice pop drip into a garbage can in the playground, peeling sunburned skin from my babysitter's arm, a skinned knee, seeing my nursery school teacher walking down the street one day.
So I wonder: what will he remember? Will he remember getting to eat Cheetos? Only being allowed to buy one toy in the souvenir shop? Will he remember feeling nervous about not knowing what the place we're going to sleep in tonight looks like yet, or will he remember feeling excited about that not-knowing?
Roadside
One of my favorite stops so far: a roadside snack shop in Rich Mountain, Arkansas where we stopped for a quick ice cream, and ended up staying for well over an hour just because it was fun and the lady sitting in the dining room (who oh, did she mention? used to TRAIN WILD BEARS as a hobby) couldn't stop giving Goldie kisses and the cook put on a full-on magic show with something called a hokum (?) stick.
I cannot tell you how wonderful it's been, just meeting people. We've been staying in chain hotels and eating in chain restaurants only when we absolutely have to because it feels like such an opportunity, the chance to just be a part of the life of wherever it is that we're spending a few hours, and each and every time the decision to get away from the Hampton Inns and Waffle Houses (delicious though those grits might be) has turned out to be a good one. Not because we've necessarily been finding the "best" food or the "nicest" places to stay, but because doing this lets us see a small slice of what's going on, whatever that is.
But let's talk about grilled cheese for a second.
