The drive east out of Guymon on U.S. 412 is the simplest tourist experience in the panhandle: just keep driving. The road is straight, the horizon is flat, the sky is enormous, and the only company is the occasional grain elevator and a passing pickup. Forty-five minutes will take you across the entire visible curvature of the earth.
The road is the eastern half of an old transcontinental route, and the small towns along it — Hooker, Adams, Tyrone — have a particular kind of survivor character: dwindling populations, surviving grain co-ops, a single open diner. Going west from Guymon, 412 connects to the New Mexico high plains and eventually to the Sangre de Cristos. Going east, it eventually carries you to Tulsa, then to Memphis. Either direction is a long drive worth taking once.