West Into Nothingness

We woke up early and headed over to Sayre, Oklahoma, to see a colony of prairie dogs. We saw a bunch of dirt mounds from the road, but couldn't really see much... until we took out the binoculars and saw ten to twenty little prairie dogs scampering around! I saw a few standing on their hind legs (probably standing guard for their homes), which was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Unfortunately, they were a few hundred feet from the road, so we couldn't get any pictures on my camera.





We then headed west through the Texas panhandle, where there was literally NOTHING. I don't think I've ever been on a highway where there weren't any exits, restaurants, gas stations, etc, for over a hundred miles. After living in highly populated areas for my whole life, it was bizarre to pass through such a desolate landscape.









We did stop at a Welcome Center that was built right into the side of a hill. Besides looking incredibly neat, I couldn't help but marvel at the intelligence of the architecture. The grassy hill provides natural insulation from the heat and shelter from bad weather, while large glass windows allow enough natural light into the building to minimize the use of electricity (which seems to be powered by a windmill and solar panels anyway). Dany insisted on birdwatching, even though signs indicated danger from tornadoes and poisonous snakes.



We stopped in Groom to view a cross billed as the "largest cross in the Western Hemisphere" standing at 190 feet tall. Further investigation shows that it's actually the SECOND largest cross in the Western Hemisphere, as a cross erected in Illinois stands 198 feet tall.

Here are some facts about the cross from the Cross Ministries' website:
-- The cross can be seen from 20 miles away.
-- One thousand people stop by the 19 story cross each day.
-- It took eight months to complete the 2.5 million ton monument.
-- Rest rooms are available at the gift shop 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
-- "Truly, all things are possible for those we believe."







Around the foot of the cross, there were 12 statutes representing the stations of the cross. The statutes seemed fairly graphic, not to mention oddly Catholic for this section of the country. I originally thought that the Romans killed Jesus, but upon seeing the feather headdress on one of the statutes I started to think that maybe Native Americans were involved somehow.







We hit New Mexico next, which seemed like a much cooler state than Texas from the get go. At the state's Welcome Center, there was a bronze cast of a brontosaurus bone with teeth marks from a predator dinosaur which was soooo cool. The eastern half of New Mexico was surprisingly wooded, mountainous, and beautiful.





We ended the day in Sandia Crest, which was a woodland park in the mountains outside of Albuquerque. We thought about camping there for the night, but decided to stay at a hotel since 1) camping was not actually allowed in the park, 2) we didn't have any water or food with us in the car, and 3) I needed to use the internet to help me decide whether to attend USC or UCLA for law school after getting accepted off of the waitlist at UCLA earlier that night.