Santa Fe NM to Elk City OK

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

We were up early and left The Sage Inn by 8:00, plugging “Home” into the GPS to see how it would get us to I 40.  We headed south on I 25 and then a New Mexico highway about 70 miles to Clines Corner where we turned east on I 40.  The mileage was 1,430 on I 40.   Early on the sun was bright and a bit of a pain and then suddenly we ran into clouds and the sun was gone for most of the day.

There were a couple things of interest on I 40 but mostly this was a day of covering miles.  The landscape gradually changed from mesas to rolling hills with scrub bushes to farmland.  The miles clipped by as we passed numerous very small towns in New Mexico – Tucumcari is one of the last before we entered Texas.  

The first 50 + miles into TX was a continual view of numerous wind turbines to the north of I 40.  They stopped as we went through Amarillo and started up again and continued off and on almost to the Oklahoma border. Quite a concentration of them for sure – as with most things Texas does it BIG!  I was not expecting the cotton – it along with corn and wheat seemed to be a major agricultural crop here in the north TX panhandle.

When we stopped at the Visitor Center in Amarillo for a map and to eat lunch it was 48 – brrr needed to break out the fleece jacket – it had been nearly 70 when we left Santa Fe.  Lunch was not at a picnic table that’s for sure.  The bread from the farmer’s market, cheese, ham, and some butter made a great quick lunch.

At TX Visitor Center

We continued on across TX – again many small towns – and crossed into Oklahoma.  We lost an hour and pulled into our planned hotel in Elk City OK about 4:30 central time.  We had gotten out and walked a few times but the 437 mile day was tiring. We had come down in elevation 7,000 feet at Santa Fe to 1,900 here in Elk City. 

We read about the #1 Restaurant in Elk City – Prairie Fire and decided our Chinese in the refrigerator could wait one more night to be leftovers.  Prairie Fire was in the old train depot in Elk City.  We split a chicken fried steak with baked potato and fried green tomatoes with raspberry sauce.  The fried green tomatoes hooked me from reading the menu and to get them as a side instead of ordering as an appetizer was great.  Also got a salad.  Why have we never done this sharing of meals before – gives us just what we want and need instead of wasting so much food.  Ben was thrilled that they had pecan cobbler with ice cream for desert so he got it “to go”. 

Prairie Fire

A bit of TV and seeing if the blog will post will fill the evening.