Thelma and Louise in Wichita, KS

We are driving long days and I didn’t get a chance to blog from Tucumcari, NM last night. I thought I’d better write from Kansas before I forget what all happened, and believe me, a lot has happened!

Yesterday, we left Lordsburg, NM, and we were still seeing some pretty remarkable scenery.

Not too long after we left Lordsburg, we came to a checkpoint where we were stopped to make sure we didn’t have any illegal immigrants with us or anything. Mark went through first, and when we rolled up, the woman stopped us and said, “The man in the RV said that the people in the car behind him were troublemakers!” Kader and I laughed after she let us through and I said, “That sounds like something Mark would do!” When we got to a gas station and pulled up for gas, Kader and I confronted Mark and said, “That was a dirty trick you pulled on us back there.” He looked perplexed and said, “What trick?” Kader explained to him that the guard had told us he told her that we were troublemakers, and he started laughing and said, “The trick is on me. All I said to her was that the car behind me was with me!” Kader and I laughed even harder when we learned that she had just said that on her own!

We stopped at a rest stop so that Mark could let Tucson out.
It was already hot when we arrived at the rest stop. This is overlooking Las Cruces, NM.
This sculpture at the rest stop is apparently famous. It’s called “Recycled Roadrunner”.
Kader drove all day and she got a little bit sunburned.
After we left Las Cruces, we turned north and the weather became so windy that the straps on Mark’s motorcycle loosened up and he was afraid the bike was going to fall over, so he stopped and tightened everything up.
This was a selfie Kader took.

We got to Tucumcari around 7:00. This time we rented a room for Kader and me at the Motel 6 and there was room in the parking lot for the RV. This morning, Kader got up earlier than me and took a shower. Then I took one and we were ready to get back on the road. I asked to drive the first shift this morning because my neck was hurting a little from always looking left to talk to her. It was cool enough for me to put on a long-sleeved shirt and take my shawl with me.

Right before lunch, we hit Dalhart, TX.
Mark pulled over next to a park to let Tucson out, and then he came and got Kader and me and said he had found a picture he wanted us to take. This was it!

We drove from the park to a little travel center that had a sandwich shop and had lunch. Kader and I were cracking insider jokes from our conversation in the car and laughing like school girls. Mark looked at us like we were crazy!

At our next stop, the wind was blowing so hard that I could barely stand up against it and it took 2 people to keep the door from banging the side of the RV when Mark opened it for me!

When we were about 40 minutes away from our hotel for tonight, I saw Mark pulling over, and then Kader told me that there was a police car behind us with its lights on and she asked me what she should do. I told her that we should pull over. When she pulled over into the right lane, I saw the police car pull over behind us and I thought, “Oh-oh! What have we done?” When we got stopped on the side of the highway, he came up to Kader’s window and asked for her ID. She showed it to him and he said that he had pulled us over because the tags on my license plate were expired. I told him that the car was mine and said he might want to take my ID too. I explained to him that we are trying to move the car to Wisconsin where I plan to get the car registered. He took our IDs back to his car, and while he was there, I called Mark (who was pulled over in front of us because he had seen the lights before we did) and told him what was going on. When the officer came back with Kader’s and my IDs, he said he wasn’t going to give us a ticket, but he warned us that we might be stopped again before we get to Wisconsin. I thanked him and he let us go. It was Kader’s first time being pulled over and it wasn’t her fault. It was a good way to teach her, though, what to do when a police car has its lights on behind you.

After we pulled back out on the road, Kader and I were talking about how nice the officer was to us and she said, “We really are troublemakers!” I told her about the movie Thelma and Louise and said we are like those two women and we laughed again to think of ourselves as troublemakers!

Around 7:00, we arrived in Wichita and Kader was happy to be in a city again.
Mark got us some dessert, which we ate in the room Kader and I are sharing at Days Inn tonight. She took a funny picture of me with a phone app she has!
After dessert, Mark and I sat on the floor and were looking at the route ahead of us when Kader snuck this picture of us.

I am so happy that Kader and I are having this opportunity to spend more time with each other than we ever have. I haven’t had so much fun with a young woman in a very long time!

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