Day 11. Mile 2200. Guthrie, OK

During my daily morning routine of trying to recall who I am, where I am, how I got here and what the hell am I supposed to do now, I realized that I  am in Booneville, Arkansas, staying in a motel that I destroyed the night before with a rented truck. I went to to the reception and found the owner’s wife, aka “the tiny witch of the south”. I apologized again, and she seemed more placated. I checked out and got a terrible, southern-cooking-style brunch. The food down here is terrible - not only that it’s tasteless, it doesn’t even pretend to be nutritious. Every time I see a southern-American that looks past the age of 35 I feel like I’m witnessing a miracle.

I started driving, and after I crossed the border to Oklahoma, I stopped at a visitor’s center. They told me that the best activity for the time that I have is to visit Sequoyah’s Cabin.

Sequoyah was a fascinating character - a Cherokee Indian that invented  a transcription for the Cherokee language. They have his cabin intact, and they surrounded it, what do you know, by another cabin. So you go into this stone cabin, walk through the door, and inside, you’re looking at   wooden cabin. That’s where Sequoyah lived. There are some artifacts and explanations about his life and his work. I was particularly intrigued by this Cherokee typewriter:

I left and started driving towards Oklahoma City to pick Julia, who was about to join me for the weekend, from the airport. 

I saw a lot of dead animals on the road. In fact, I’ve been seeing a lot of run-over animals.  I saw dogs, cats, squirrels,  raccoon, and I think I even saw one deer. There are plenty others that I didn’t recognize. I was told that some might be prairie dogs, but I wouldn’t know, I’ve never seen one. I also saw several armadillos. armadillos are never run-over, though. they’re broken.

I got to Oklahoma city, but I had plenty of time, so I drove some more and got to El-Reno. I got dinner at Johnnie’s Grill.

OK, let’s not call it dinner, but I did have an onion-burger or something .

OK, let’s call it “something”.

I left, going back to Oklahoma City. I stopped at some Mexican restaurant to get a beer and try to forget what I just ate. I sat alone at a table. drinking a bottle of beer, surrounded by fat families eating tacos. I left and found a real bar right at the entrance to Oklahoma City. I got another beer, and when it was time, I drove to the airport and picked up Julia. We drove north, and stopped at Guthrie, OK, where we were very lucky to find a motel that had an open office around midnight.