Michael T. Mondak speaks: 40 til 40 day 38

This is the antepenultimate entry in the 40 til 40 blog series leading to my 40th birthday on Thursday.  In this entry, I will take you on a journey along Interstate 40.

Our journey begins in Barstow via the 15 freeway (in California residents’ terms) and passes through the Mojave National Preserve before crossing the Colorado River into Arizona.  Parts of Historic U.S. Route 66 run parallel to Interstate 40 in Arizona.  We will ultimately get to Flagstaff and potentially take in the beauty of Grand Canyon National Park.  We could also take in the beauty in Petrified Forest National Park along the way.  

We will enter New Mexico and the Mountain Time Zone towards Defiance and Gallup.  The trip will then take us into Albuquerque where we could take in the International Balloon Fiesta.  (We need to make sure we take that left turn at Albuquerque!)  But Interstate 40 will lead us to Texas and into the Central Time Zone, which Interstate 40 passes through the panhandle.  For the first 16 miles, we will need to navigate through at-grade intersections because this portion lacks the frontage roads that Texas freeways typically have.  We will get into the city of Amarillo where we can visit the Cadillac Ranch where ten Cadillacs from 1949 to 1963 are buried in the ground nose first.  (No, they don’t park cars in the old pea patch there.  You won’t find a bar in the barn where the place stays packed, and the cows won’t come home there.)

But we will then enter Oklahoma heading towards Oklahoma City.  In Oklahoma City we can see the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder play at the Paycom Center.  We can also pay tribute to those souls whose lives were lost as a result of the infamous Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995.  We will cross the Arkansas River on the I-40 Bridge, which was the site of a fatal 2002 bridge collapse caused by a freight barge colliding with a support pier, killing 14 and injuring 11.

Entering Arkansas, we could shop at Central Mall in Fort Smith or visit the Chaffee Barbershop Museum where a young Elvis Presley received his G.I. buzz cut on his way to Texas for basic training.  In Fayetteville we can visit the Walton Arts Center, named for the founder of Walmart, Sam Walton.  In the state capital of Little Rock, we can visit Little Rock Central High School where one of the biggest events in the civil rights movement took place in the late 1950s following the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education held that the doctrine of “separate but equal” in public schools was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

We enter Tennessee on the Hernando de Soto Bridge over the MIssissippi River and while in Memphis, we can visit Graceland, the mansion of Elvis Presley, or visit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where billions of dollars have been raised to find cures for childhood diseases.  We could also take in the FedEx St. Jude Classic on the PGA Tour as part of the FedEx Cup Playoffs at TPC Southwind or take in a Memphis Grizzlies basketball game at FedEx Forum.  We can visit Jackson where game show host Wink Martindale was born.  Past Jackson, we cross the Tennessee River on the Jimmy Mann Evans Memorial Bridge.  Upon our arrival in Nashville, we can take in a Nashville Predators hockey game at Bridgestone Arena or a Tennessee Titans football game at Nissan Stadium.  However, we could visit The Hermitage, the home of former president Andrew Jackson.  After entering the Eastern Time Zone, in Knoxville we can attend the Tennessee Valley Fair or learn about the history of east Tennessee at the Museum of East Tennessee History.  We can also visit the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame there as well.

Entering North Carolina, we can take in MerleFest or a Tourists baseball game in Asheville.  We can also experience America’s Favorite Drive on the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway.  In Charlotte we can visit the NASCAR Hall of Fame and learn about the history of auto racing or take in a Carolina Panthers football game at Bank of America Stadium or a Charlotte Hornets basketball game at the Spectrum Center.  We can also attend a Charlotte Checkers hockey game at Bojangles Coliseum or the Truist Championship on the PGA Tour at Quail Hollow Club.  In Winston-Salem we can take in the Carolina Classic Fair at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds.  While in Greensboro we can attend a Greensboro Grasshoppers baseball game at First National Bank Field or learn about the civil rights movement at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.  In Raleigh we can take in a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game at Lenovo Center or try our hand at kubb, a hybrid of bowling and horseshoes.  In Wilmington, we can shop at Independence Mall and relax near the Atlantic Ocean in Carolina Beach.