Thoughts I had While Driving 1000 Miles from Houston to New Mexico

If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way take, the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.

Well it winds from Chicago to LA
Over two-thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.

Now you go through St. Louie, Joplin, Missouri
And Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty.
You'll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff Arizona, don't forget Winona,
Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernadino

Won't you get hip to this kindly tip
When you make that California trip.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six

Nat King Cole - Route 66

Okay, driving 1000 miles sucks ass. It sucks even more when you're by yourself. Needless to say, I had a lot of time to think. And once again, thank you to whoever invented the ipod. I would have gone absolutely insane without it.

- You know you always see those shows where the family's driving down the highway and bugs splatter on their windshield? Well, that really does happen in real life. And let me just say that splattered bugs are an utter bitch to get off your windshield.

- So what's the deal with ordering Starbucks coffee in Italian or whatever the hell it is? It's small, medium and large, NOT tall, grande and venti. That's bullshit. I refuse to EVER use those terms ordering. Your company's from Seattle you damn pretentious bastards!

- New Mexico is gorgeous and is fun to drive in... for the first hour or so. But then you keep going for three to four more hours and it's flat land and Indian casinos for miles and miles and you just want to get the hell out of your damn car. Quite deceiving.

- Evidently all the cacti are in Arizona.

- I need a fucking GPS thing for my car. I get lost too damn often. It sucks

- Texas is too damned big. You can drive for 10 hours and not get all the way across the street. What the hell? Why should any state be that big?

- So I'm staying on route 66. I guess I had some sort of romanticized notion of the highway in my mind. In reality it's a complete shit-hole full of flea-bag hotels and cheap hotels that runs through the shitty parts of town.

- So I'm in Gallup, New Mexico, evidently the "Indian capital of the world". It's kind of depressing. The poverty is staggering and it's sad to see what has happened to the Native American tribes. Alcoholism is exceedingly prevalent among them. Those that want work often have to resort to casinos or to selling jewelery and artifacts to tourists. The economy of this entire region is solely based on cultural tourism. The problem with this kind of tourism is that the indigenous people of the region always get fucked over. Sad state of affairs.

- Lastly, I started watching Friday Night Lights. Good show (well, at least the first season is good, haven't seen any of the second season). The shows are all online. Watch