Day 13 (47): Cadillac Ranch & Gallup, NM

We got up and packed around 8 before enjoying the continental breakfast and hitting the road again. All day yesterday Devin had been complaining about feeling a little achy and stuffed up. Today it hit me. We had obviously been out in the cold and rain for days, so we figured it was the aftermath of that. Later that day Dustin texted us and said he got what Cassie had; our reply “Us too.” Outside of not feeling well the driving was really uneventful. 

Devin is a big fan of Man vs. Food, where the host takes on eating challenges across the country. We were coming up to Amarillo, home of the Big Texas 72oz steak challenge. You may be familiar with said challenge. This Big Texas is housed in Amarillo, TX, right where we were going through. After doing some research on Yelp and the MVF website, we decided against the restaurant with the challenge and instead went to the Stockyard Cafe. The Stockyard Cafe was featured on MVF and reviews on Yelp as “Best Chicken Fried Steak anywhere.” As you may have picked up in past blog posts, Devin LOVES chicken fried steak.

We followed the gps directions into a slightly questionable part of town and then into a stock yard. Right in the middle. This little cafe is attached to the stockyard management building. We had to sit in the smoking section (although no one was smoking) because the place was packed. We split cheese fries and he got the chicken fried steak and I the hamburger steak. Well, unfortunately neither was anything to write home about. His was good but he still thinks the one in Hill City, SD is the best. This place does give free dessert but we were so full we opted out. 

Just outside of Amarillo is also the Cadillac Ranch. Again, you may be familiar:

Can you find Mini-B?

Thanks to Angie for showing us RoadsideAmerica.com or we would have missed it! No road trip down I-40 is complete without a stop there, it’s iconic roadtrip!

Eventually we crossed through Texas and into New Mexico. I-40 follows old Rte 66, but much of the mother road is gone now. We passed through Albuquerque and were feeling good (as far as driving was concerned) and decided to keep going. We stopped in a small town past Albuquerque at a Wal-Mart and got Alka Seltzer Cold & some cough drops. We had our sights on Gallup, NM, right near the NM/AZ border. We finally arrived and stopped at a travel station just off the interstate for another one of those coupon books to make our hotel (which we’d picked out and gotten the coupon hint in online reviews) a lot cheaper. After checking in to the hotel we went to the truck stop at the exit and got their soup and salad bar. It was really delicious, especially after such a heavy lunch. By the time we made it back to the hotel we crashed out.

Today we traveled 708.8 miles across America for a total of 4,020.3 miles on leg 2 and a grand total of 14,545.0 miles across America.

Day 12 (part B) (46): Oklahoma City, OK

We’ve regrouped, repacked, and refreshed at home and are on our merry way again. After stopping in to say goodbye (well really hello & goodbye) we hit the road, still in the car. We hadn’t even gotten on the interstate when we saw our first interesting part in Marion, the Google StreetView Car:

Our trip consisted of driving. And driving. And driving. We had McD’s for lunch and had good weather the whole way. At one point Devin let me drive, which is a big deal because his car is a manual. He’s taught me before and I’ve driven his car before, but his car is touchy and something I’m not 100% confident in doing. I did good, and only killed it once when we were pulling off the interstate in Tulsa to eat. In my defense, oncoming traffic had a stop which I didn’t expect so I was startled when it was my turn to go. Anyway, we ate at Waffle House on the west side of Tulsa and it was by far the best one either of us had ever eaten at. Devin really wanted to get WH when we were out east but it just never worked out. The server was nice and the cook was awesome. We were sure to praise their reviews to the Waffle House website and to Yelp.

Devin had grabbed a coupon book at one of the gas stations and there was an ad for a cheap room in Oklahoma City. We chose to do that and are glad we did…it was a very nice room and clean. Thankfully setting out on our ‘part B’ of our second leg was uneventful.

Today we traveled 624.6 miles across America for a total of 3,311.5 miles on leg 2 (part b) and a grand total of 13,836.2 miles across America.

Day 11 (45): Pit Road & NASCAR

Last night was a little warmer than the night before. Buying those fleece blankets certainly helped. Now this is camping. Not like the camping we did in the first leg where we had access to bathrooms and showers. This is port-o-potty camping. Right outside the campground was a lady selling showers and after 2 days of baby wipes me, Devin, & Cassie went and took showers. For $5 it was the best shower ever. Hot water and no time limit. The lady running it was a disabled Marine too.

After our showers Cassie made scrambled eggs & sausage and we quickly packed up and headed to the race. We decided to pack up camp after the race since there was no point to rush off only to sit in traffic. We had Pit Road passes, allowing you to go down on the track and Pit Road just before the race. I was super excited. 

Here is me with Carl Edwards’ car:

And in the #99 pit box:

Dream-come-true. We saw some other drivers’ cars and pit boxes but none of them matter. 

Okay, okay, here is Devin with the #24:

Him & Dustin in the #24 pit box:

And Mini-B on the track (he was tired and wanted to lay down):

Mini-B on the wall:

When we got to our seat I was pleasantly surprised to find we were sitting directly in front of Carl’s pit box. See? I’m a big fan.

It was SUPER cold. Windy, drizzly, and cold:

Okay, so Carl hasn’t exactly had a stellar year, and it was only 16 laps in that he got wrecked. So I got to watch the many times he stopped to try and repair his car. And he was easy to spot on the track because he was so far behind the pack… 

The race was pretty average until the very last lap when, on turn four, the leader tried to block and a 25 car pile-up ensued. Few cars made it out and crossed the finish line. Some made it out but crossed the finish line on fire (we’re talking engulfed in flames). Jimmie Johnson had to hitch a ride back to the garage on Dale Jr’s car. The aftermath was just as entertaining as the wreck itself. 

We shuffled through the crowd back to our campsite with only one almost incident because some guy thought it necessary to attempt to run over the pedestrian girl in front of us because he wanted to cut in front of the 3 lanes of exiting traffic. I said a few choice words but he must’ve known better because he didn’t stop. He really ran up on this girl who was walking just a few feet ahead of us in the pedestrian lane. I was really aggravated. We came back to camp and quickly packed up, said our goodbyes to Dustin & Cassie, and thanked the others around us for a good first ‘Dega experience. They invited us to camp around them anytime we come back. Here’s us, all packed up:

And our camp area after most of it was torn down; more than half the people had already left:

Getting out wasn’t as bad as we had expected. We did hit some heavy traffic getting out of the Superspeedway area but the further we got on the interstate the more it broke up. By the time we went through Birmingham it was pretty sparse.

We decided to drive through the night to go home. We wanted to stop and sleep in our own bed, drop off a lot of things, do some laundry…ya know, the typical stuff…rather than trying to go straight out to the Grand Canyon (our next big stop).

When we finally did make it home we actually grabbed the mileage. For this part of leg two, eleven days, we went 2986.9 miles for a grand total of 13,211.6 miles across America.

Day 10 (44): Talladega, AL

We slept good last night, didn’t get too cold and the air mattress held. It was questionable since we hadn’t pulled it out of the trailer until we left on this leg again. It literally went from the bike trailer to the car (along with the tent and camping supplies). Cassie woke up not feeling well and they went to Wal-Mart for cold medicine. When they got back Dustin cooked an awesome eggs & sausage breakfast.

Before we went to the truck race Devin & I went down the road to the gas station to get ice & sunflower seeds & firewood. On our way out of the campground someone was selling wood for $20 for 20 sticks. Uh, no. There were tons of roadside people selling wood so we headed on to the gas station where we saw this sign inside.

Now adult illiteracy is a problem and I appreciate those who are willing to take on the challenge, but do you see a problem here? I guess friends or relatives could read the sign and send their loved ones to this place, but most times illiterate adults are able to hide their illiteracy from nearly everyone. Anyway…

We found a roadside firewood guy selling 20 sticks for $10 and stopped (at my urging because of his Carl Edwards #99 flag). He was a nice old man; said he’d been there since Tuesday (this was Saturday) selling wood.  After asking who our favorite driver was and being dismayed at Devin’s #24 response, I proudly said Carl and he told us about the time that Carl Edwards saw his flag, stopped, and took a picture and gave this guy his autograph (super cool). It was right before the famous Carl Edwards Talladega wreck in ’09 (YouTube it…one of the gnarliest wrecks in NASCAR).

The truck race started at 3pm, and it wasn’t long before we headed over there. The truck race was good, but nothing spectacular. The weather was really nice. I got lots of compliments on my sparkly NASCAR hat.

Mini-B enjoyed his first race. Hannah Montana lunchbox is another story…but she got to go too.

We came back to camp after the race and Dustin made cheeseburgers and mac & cheese while Cassie & I tried to start a fire. It was getting dark and a little misty. Eventually one of our camping neighbors came over and lit the fire with fluid. Devin was tired from the race and had fallen asleep in the chair so of course we had to take pictures

Here’s Dustin & Cassie

We ended up hanging out with our neighbors (the hecklers). They were all from Alabama and Pensacola and we had a good time with them. It rained pretty good though but the fire was helped fend off the cold. Eventually we went to bed, all bundled up again. Devin called it in a little earlier than the rest of us; here he is with the “why are you all still up” look:

We didn’t travel very many miles today. The trucks ran a 250 miles race though, and that counts for something right?

Day 9 (43): Talladega, AL

We slept in again today. We have about 300 miles to go to our next destination…Talladega, Alabama! For those of you who don’t know (but I’m sure you all do) Talladega is one of the great NASCAR races…one of the more famous ones. We were going to meet up with Dustin & Cassie there. We had planned to surprise Dustin (and in fact, had kept it a secret that we were going from him for over a month) but, alas, in the final 24 hours the secret came out. He was still super excited and surprised, and it probably worked out better for planning purposes anyway.

NASCAR is an amazing sport. Really, the physics involved for cars to go over 200 mph in a pack is really spectacular. NASCAR, with all its sponsors, is also really in tune with its fan base. They allow you to bring in coolers to the races, so you can pack drinks, food, or whatever and bring it in with you. We brought our hard cooler but not a soft cooler. On the way down we stopped at some Wal-Mart in South Carolina and got a few supplies. They didn’t have a cooler we liked so we went to Dollar General, and, although they sold wine and beer (in a DG!) they , too did not have a cooler. In a last ditch effort we went to another DG just down the way. We found a cooler but decided to go next door to Big Lots instead to see what they had. We found success in a $16 igloo cooler that came with a free mini-cooler. We picked up a couple extra fleece blankets too.

We made it into ‘Dega mid-afternoon and got our tickets from will-call. They have both reserved and free camping on track property so we decided on a campground. We drove all over the place looking for a good site, something big and relatively flat. Luckily it wasn’t very crowded. We picked an area and got some heckling from nearby campers as we looked for a spot. We found a spot right out in the middle and tried to find a spot that wasn’t inundated by fire ant hills. Eventually our hecklers came over and advised us to a different spot, offering to let us camp behind their camper. Apparently right out in the middle is where all the drunks like to take their trucks in the middle of the night. Our hecklers come to the race every year and we’re glad they told us to move. 

We set up our taj-mah-tent and unpacked the car. We decided to head into town (about 15 minutes away) to get a few last minute things at Wal-Mart. We found new drink coozies with our drivers on them. They had a Subway in Wal-Mart so I sent Devin to order subs while I checked out. Did they have meatballs? Yes, but they weren’t cooked and they were closing down. I mean, really? How hard is it to get a meatball sub on the eastern side of the US?

On our way out of town we stopped at the second Subway and two very nice young girls, who did have the makings for a meatball sandwich, made our dinner. We made it back to camp and enjoyed our meal by lantern light. 

Here’s the thing about ‘Dega and NASCAR: they like to party. They really get into it. These campsites are all done up; flags, tiki-torches, porch areas, people bring their full-size grills. Tables of booze. One place had a full-size tent awning…the kind you rent for big events. They go for days or the full week before time. And, even though not everyone roots for your favorite driver we all seem to get along. It’s really a fun atmosphere. 

We took a nap until Dustin & Cassie made it in, then Devin went to meet them with the tickets (which were required to get into the campground). They stayed up late chatting. It was a cold night and we were all bundled up.

Still no miles…but we are 2 more here in Talladega anyway, so that’s at least 4 Miles in AL!