Great American Road Trip Part 8- Car Wreck

aaronburt (57)in #travel • 7 years ago

Finally we made it to the last of the "four corners" states, New Mexico. When we arrived at the state border everyone got out of the car and we took pictures at the sign before exploring the freight train behind it. The auto carrying train cars are much larger in person then one would expect. We then continued to cruise across the desert as the winds picked up. It was a clear day although the air was hazy due to the dust being kicked up by the wind. At times the car would shake or drift toward the edge of the road due to particularly strong gusts. As the gusts got more frequent my hands began to sweat and I gripped the steering wheel harder than before. I was afraid that we would blow right off the road. That surely couldn't happen. I told myself that there was no way a car could blow off the road. Just then, one did. A few hundred yards ahead of us we saw a a car swerve into the shoulder and roll over before coming to a stop. I instinctively pulled to the side of the road because first I didn't want to blow off the road myself, and second I wanted to help.

I jumped out of my car and began to jog up the road to the car. My friends grabbed water and a t shirt from the trunk of the car. When I got to the car, I saw a truck driver pull off the highway ahead of it. He jumped out of his car to help as well. I was scared to look in the car, afraid of what I would see. Of course we opened the door immediately however and saw an older man who seemed confused and beaten up, but breathing. He was able to get himself out of the car with some help, and my friend wrapped a bandage around his head where it was bleeding while the truck driver called 911 and I ran down the road to find a mile marker so that we could tell the 911 operator where we were. We reassured the man that he would be ok and that EMS was on the way. We asked him where he was headed and he said that he was going to Albuquerque to visit family. He also asked us to get him his wallet from the glove box which we did. Finally EMS got there and the ambulance technicians took over. Although he was shaken up and appeared to have some serious bruises when asked who the president was to test if he had a concussion, he was able to describe to us not only who the president was, but who each of the cabinet members are and where they're from.

The police thanked us and we headed on our way, much slower this time due to the fear of flying off the road in the wind storms.

Albuquerque was an interesting city, although we did not stop to do much. We considered visiting Walt White's house, from Breaking Bad, but we had read an article about how the owners were sick of people throwing pizza on their roof and re-creating scenes from the show and decided not to bother them. We pushed onward and finally reached the Texas Border. Our plan for Texas was to visit Cadillac Ranch, a modern art project consisting of a bunch of Cadillacs half buried in the ground, before eating at a Cracker Barrel in Amarillo. Our plans were in jeapordy however due to the expected heavy rains.

Before we made it to Cadillac Ranch we stopped to get gas and I noticed a "hobo" tag that I had seen on a freight train earlier.

After looking it up I learned that this tag can be found across the United States.

We finally made it to Cadillac Ranch before the rain did and we were able to walk around the paint covered Cadillacs and to take good pictures with my friends high quality camera. The Cadillac Ranch was a really cool and unique roadside attraction, well worth the stop.

After adding to the art ourselves we headed to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. As we left, the skies opened up and it began to rain. During our dinner, the rain came down in sheets and the wind whipped. After dinner, we continued on toward Oklahoma city where we planned to eat dinner.

"Oh Shit..." "Where's my camera lens?"
My friend Kyle had left the $200 lens we were shooting with back at Cadillac Ranch in Texas. We were now almost in Oklahoma and it was pouring rain to the extent that we could only drive 30 miles an hour on the interstate barely able to see 20 feet ahead of us. We decided to turn around to check for it though since it was only an hour or two away. When we got to the Cadillac Ranch field we gave Kyle rain gear and he raced away from the car toward the Cadillacs. Five minutes later we saw him racing back, completely soaked and empty handed. Someone had taken the camera, it was cold, our friend was soaked, we were hours from Oklahoma city and the rain was turning to hail.

A few miles down the road we were pulled over by a Texas Ranger. Luckily he let us go without any tickets. Apparently the out of sate plates seemed a little suspicious.

A few hours later we were back in Oklahoma. The storms were behind us and it was technically the next morning. We stopped at the first econo lodge we could find and and slept very well. The next day we were heading to Arkansas, a long drive so we rested up, exhausted from the rough night we had experienced.