I woke up in Memphis yesterday and drove a leisurely ten hours on I-40 West, cutting straight through Arkansas, Oklahoma and into the panhandle of Texas before stopping in Amarillo, TX for the night.
I spent the first part of my childhood in Oklahoma where I developed my earliest memories of being alive. A lot of those memories involved walking through creeks and catching frogs on the way to get ice cream at Braums with my sister McKayla. So after stopping for dinner in Elk City, OK tonight I went looking for a Braums and ended up finding one on none other than Route 66.
After getting my cookies and cream (in a waffle cone…) I put on “Route 66” by the Nat King Cole Trio and let it play on repeat for a while. I hadn’t heard this song in years, but needless to say it felt appropriate. The sun had just gone all the way down and I can safely say that the song works well while traveling on its namesake highway, headed west - the direction that the song suggests.
If you get hip to this kind of trip
And gon take that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
Despite all my touring, I still get a thrill, as if it were the first time, when I serendipitously find myself out amongst some great American iconography. Also despite all my traveling, driving out west never gets old. It’s one of the best feelings there is, really.
So anyways, in the spirit of driving west - and doing things on the nose, here’s a cover of Amarillo By Morning (below the pay wall), by George Strait - from my hotel room in downtown Amarillo.
I had to sing quietly as it was midnight and I was self conscious I may wake up the neighbors. So it’s kind of shitty, but you know, I like kind of shitty things. xxx
PS: Here’s my trucks new sound system - playing a Haliu Mergia tape as the sun sinks into Oklahoma. Hallelujah!