Driving Across the United States - part 1

It was a Saturday in December. Steve and Bridgett woke up early so that they could get a big part of the drive out of the way today. Their goal was to drive from their home in Rio Rancho, NM to a friend's in Kansas City, MO on the first day. Unfortunately, they weren't quite prepared yet. They both waited until the last minute to finish packing and making sure their house would still be there when they returned. So as Bridgett packed her suitcase, Steve ran around making sure the blinds were all closed, windows locked, timer set on the living room lamp, garbage taken out, dishes washed, etc. Down the checklist they went until three hours had passed and they finally set out. After double checking and triple checking to make sure they hadn't left a faucet running or a light on or anything plugged in that might start a fire, they decided they were finally ready to drive.

The first stretch of the drive wasn't too bad - Steve drove for a few hours until he got tired and needed to recharge. Eager to get a picture of the giant cross in Texas, he asked Bridgett to only wake him up if: she was getting tired and needed to switch out, they were going to stop, or if they drove past the big cross...otherwise he wanted to get as much sleep as possible because he knew there was a lot of driving ahead of him. If only he knew then just how much more there would be than expected.

It wasn't too long before Bridgett woke Steve up and he got his picture of that gigantic cross outside Amarillo, TX. It was about this time that they were getting hungry for lunch, so they decided to stop and grab a bite to eat at the Amarillo DQ...bad decision. After getting out of the car, stretching, refilling their water bottles, and enjoying some fresh air, the two wandered unwittingly into the worst DQ in America. As they stood in line, waiting patiently for someone to come to the counter and take their order, they witnessed a young man (probably in high school) walk slowly from behind the counter to the area by the soda machine and fill up the straws, which weren't running all that low in the first place. As he meandered back, a worker from the kitchen looked out and saw the line of hungry people growing and shouted out for all to hear "Do I have to cook and take orders too?!" To which the young man replied, "if you want." WOW....seriously? They eventually got their food, which wasn't cooked all that well and were glad to be leaving this town.

(To be Continued in part 2)