On the Road - Day 4 -- Ken throws caution to the wind

Happy St. Patrick's Day. 

There is a little coffee shop about a half-mile away from the motel that I walk to in the mornings when I'm here. Today was a beautiful morning and the coffee shop was a little busy. I got my coffee and an orange scone and sat outside and read the local free paper. I'm guessing that this must be spring break for the local schools because there are kids roaming around all day and one of the Barista/Owners had her son working the cash register...he did a fine job.



Black Volcano from JA Volcano

 I decided to take up where I left off and headed back over to the volcanoes for a nice hike and some photography. No park rangers this morning but the water company was having some kind of problem and the water truck was blocking the parking lot. I think he was just lost because he drove in and then drove out again....maybe his GPS was messed up. The three notable volcanoes (actually there are five) are very old and mostly worn down to little nubbins of lava and solidified ash but they are perched high up on the western mesa and have a commanding view of Albuquerque and the surrounding area.  Apparently this section of the Rio Grande Valley is a rift valley that is still somewhat active. The Sandia Mountains are still rising and the valley is still sinking because the western edge if the rift is pulling away to the west....that's what the sign said anyway. At any rate there have been some massive geologic forces at work here for a very long time. Apparently a large crack opened up about 150,000 years ago and the five volcanoes all erupted at once.

There was no one around when I started my hike toward the first volcano and at over 5,500 feet elevation I was huffing a little when I got started. The trails are well traveled and since you can see for about fifty miles you can't get lost.  I guess the only hazard would be falling off the rocks, getting snake bit or being blown away by the wind. Today it was so windy that it almost blew my glasses off. There is nothing to break the wind once you get on the trail until you can get behind the volcano and take shelter in the rocks. Did I say it was windy?  I think it might have been close to 40 mph sustained wind up on the exposed parts of the volcano.

The view is pretty spectacular although there was a lot of dust in the air that tended to obscure details of downtown Albuquerque. I know some of the mountain ranges in the area but I saw several more that I didn't know about.  The first (southern-most) volcano is named JA Volcano and it is a pretty steep climb to a fairly small conical and rocky top. The second is Black Volcano and it covers a larger area and has a flatter top of about an acre or so.  I didn't try to go to the third one which looks like a much steeper climb. I was pretty well wind blown and had already walked a good distance.

After my wind-blown hike I drove up to Bernalillo and then checked up on my little ranchette-ette that is sitting waiting for me to build a house on it. It is still there although the road is almost gone. I took some time and walked around a little....somebody has been spray painting the utility boxes...nothing else to do. I guess. I found a piece of an Indian arrowhead back among the trees....from what I found it must have been a pretty big blade of some sort.

This being St. Patrick's Day I decided to get a little cleaned up and go out for a Guinness and some Irish food. I ended up at O'Neill's Pub on Central Avenue and just sat at the bar and watched the activity. I met Patty (from Michigan) and Shawn (from Wisconsin) who were doing the very same thing. I'm beginning to think that no one is actually from here. I was hungry so I had a bowl of lamb stew that was very tasty. Patty had the full treatment with corned beef and cabbage that looked really good. The Guinness was OK but the bartenders were having to use little plastic cups so the experience wasn't quite as I had expected. I ended up drinking a couple of Deschutes Brewery porters as we talked and watched the very crowded pub. Lots of green and some crazy hats and even a few kilts. After a while we were serenaded by a bunch of bagpipers who came in and played some sort of Scottish tune to rousing cheers.  Go figure.  I guess this as close as they could get to Irish music. Another guy at the bar had been to Ireland and was giving me tips on what to see and do in Kerry and Dingle....but he was pretty far gone so I'm not sure about his advice.

I ended the evening at the Sandia Casino...probably the largest of the several Indian casinos in the area. I usually go to the Santa Ana Casino up in Bernalillo so this was my first time at Sandia --- the results were the same. Nothing exciting to report.

Erin go Bragh!

On the Road - Day 3 -- Rubber Tomahawks, anyone?

Tucumcari is barely two hours away from Albuquerque and I wonder why I stop there except that things have a way of coming undone occasionally and I (usually) don't like pressing my luck. Things were going well and I could have made it all the way to Albuquerque very easily last night but I also like to ramble around a little and get off the interstate and away from the trucks so I spread it out.

That's what I did today, too. Breakfast wasn't much at the motel...in fact I could have gotten more nutrition out of sniffing an empty box of shredded wheat.  But they had coffee and orange juice and something sealed up in plastic that resembled a mutant donut.  Bon Appetit!

Tucumcari was still sleeping - I think - when I left town and joined up with the trucks on the interstate again. I considered going to see the local dinosaur museum until I learned that it was actually made up of bronze versions of reconstructed dinosaur bones. I'll save that for some other time.   West of Tucumcari the highway goes through some relatively interesting areas -- compared to Texas.  I pulled into a truck stop in Santa Rosa and got some coffee and chocolate chip cookies to sustain me on my journey.

I drove on a short stretch of Route 66 again but headed back on the highway and continued to the Flying C Ranch about an hour or so west of Tucumcari. This is just one more of the huge number of truck stop tourist traps but they have a real flair for advertising.  They seem to pull out all of the stops in coaxing people off the interstate including several miles of billboards that obscure the horizon on both sides of the highway. They have one that shows a chubby little kid...seemingly a little bit retro like a 1950s kid in modern clothes...holding an ice cream cone and saying  "git yerself some!" What parent could resist?   Once inside you are exposed to a vast array of stuff including cowboy boot wine racks and coiled rattle snake wine racks, sheet metal armadillos, 'indian pottery' and 'indian weaving', hillbilly figurines...just in case you didn't get any in Missouri, moccasins of all styles, t-shirts, hats and....rubber tomahawks. The rubber tomahawk is the one standard thing that I use to gauge this type of place.  If it has no rubber tomahawks it is judged wanting. They sell bunches of fireworks in spite of the fact that the surrounding county is a tinderbox just waiting for someone to toss out a cigarette. This place also had a real stuffed buffalo and a real stuffed Kodiak bear (please do not touch) and a huge plush bear standing up in full attack mode that you could touch and hug if you so desired. They were trying to sell a very large cement indoor/outdoor fountain -- 25% off!  This place also had the only public toilets and the only pay phone for miles around (for some reason all of the highway rest stops were closed in this part of the state). Gas prices were the highest I'd seen so far.

Well, not to be outdone....the next major intersection, maybe 20 miles ahead, was Cline's Corners....a tourist trap that has been roping passing tourists for generations. I can remember seeing Cline's Corners when I was a little kid....probably saw my first rubber tomahawk there.  I had to do some comparison shopping. Gas prices were even higher than at the Flying C Ranch. They had just about all the same stuff but maybe more of the higher quality tourist junk than the Flying C. Cline's Corners did not disappoint....they had rubber tomahawks!!!  I did not see any huge examples of taxidermy nor did I see fireworks.  Cline's Corners also has not spent huge amounts on advertising.....they don't need to since generations of kids have memories of the place and can't wait to drag their Goth sons and preppy daughters into the place. For the sake of full disclosure, I must admit that I bought Jill a set of wax teeth on one of my earlier visits that have probably melted into the upholstery of her back seat.

Moving on...I finally reached Albuquerque just after noon and went to the old town plaza to get lunch and kill some time before I could check in at the motel. I have been to this place four of five time but I have the feeling that there must be more than I'm seeing. I stopped at the tourist information shop and they gave ma a map that showed a lot of stuff that I hadn't realized was there. I wandered around a while looking at a photography gallery and a few other shops and finally got lunch at one of the plaza restaurants.....a beef-stuffed sopaipilla with rice and beans and green chile sauce and a beer. It was good but filling....no big supper tonight. 

The old church on the plaza is San Felipe de Neri which dates back to the early 1700s. The present church was built in 1793. I had never gone into the church on previous visits but it was open for viewing. The interior is simple and quite pretty and clearly very old. Apparently it was built for a small community of about 40 families that moved down from Bernalillo around 1706.

The exterior of the church looks like it might have been modernized back in the 1800s to reflect a more "American" style.

The motel was the same as always...even the same guy at the desk. It is an extended stay motel with a kitchen that is pretty cheap and conveniently located. I checked in and got my stuff moved into the room and rested for a few minutes and then decided to head out for some walking up at the volcanoes across the river. By the time I got there it was 5 PM and the park rangers were closing it down....pretty stupid to close it down so early if you ask me (Nobody wanted my opinion, however). I headed back into town and eventually back to the motel for the evening.

On the Road - Day 2 -- Everything's OK in Oklahoma (Texas - not so much)

What a difference a day makes...and a good night's sleep. Today I head west on I-40 to Tucumcari. I've made this trip about a half-dozen times by now so I can almost drive it with my eyes closed...they have those rumble strips on the side of the highway if I start to stray off the pavement.

It was still cold in Oklahoma City but it was a pretty day. I made good time and there was only one place on the highway where construction slowed down the traffic. I made my usual stop at Lucile's near Hydro and at Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch is still wildly popular. There are people parking along the interstate - not bothering to go to the outer road. When I arrived there was already a crowd of probably ten cars and over twenty people. It is funny to see the parents taking their young kids to see a bunch of barely recognizable cars half buried in the dirt in a cow pasture and then encouraging them to spray paint something on top of what somebody else already  did. The smaller kids aren't sure what to do. There was a photographer there with a tripod all set up wanting to take some pictures but as soon as someone left another car full would arrive. Unfortunately, people have started carting away parts of the old Caddys at Cadillac Ranch.

Western Oklahoma and Texas are seething with fundamentalist Christians. Not much else is on the radio although I found a station broadcasting a program from the Netherlands National Radio that was interesting.  There was a radio spot I heard advertising Regent Law School --"Training Christian Lawyers to Change the World". Scary. I found out this is Pat Robertson's law school back in Virginia. I guess they are recruiting in Oklahoma.  In Groom Texas they have that huge sheet-metal cross surrounded by bronze statues of various crucifixion scenes.



Tower Station and U-Drop Inn



I think you can tell when you cross into Texas even if they didn't put up a sign. Everything is bleak and looks like it is about to fall over. There are a few exceptions but not many. In Shamrock Texas they are gearing up for St. Patrick's day. I decided to stop for fast food at a McDonald's and the line was all the way to the door. Must be a big hit.  Many of these towns have decided to try to preserve some of the Mother Road/Route 66 stuff that they have laying all around them. That is what Lucile's is back in Hydro, Oklahoma. In Shamrock they have restored this impressive relic at the main intersection in town....at the stoplight. The Tower Station is well preserved and apparently it is lit up at night with some of the original neon lights. I was actually impressed with what a good job they did.  

Shamrock is the first sizable town you hit in Texas. I should have bought gas since I was running a little low but I figured I had enough to get to McClean...the next town that probably had gas. So I left McDonald's and headed down the highway...watching my gas gauge a little. When I got off the highway at McClean I couldn't find any gas (even though the highway sign said there was gas). Bummer. What to do. What to do. I decided to risk it and keep going to the next town of Alanreed.  Alanreed was another disappointment but as I was getting back on the highway wondering how far I could go I spied a Conoco station across the highway that I couldn't get to....it figures.  So I limped along going west hoping for a turn-around and eventually found one and got back to Alanreed to fill up on  some very high-priced gas.



Adrian - Last little hell hole in Texas

The rest of the way through Texas was fairly uneventful. I stopped off at Cadillac Ranch but didn't spend any time in Amarillo or any place else. 

The Texas Panhandle has almost nothing to look at except for some interesting geology west of Alanreed and then again , finally, at the extreme western edge about ten miles east of the New Mexico state line.  The hills and escarpments begin to look a little like what one would expect.  I have to admit that the highway was in better condition in Texas than in Oklahoma but they insist on designing those goofy entrance ramps that shoot over from the outer access road. I suspect that Texans are used to it but it seems very odd and even dangerous for people not familiar with it.

New Mexico greeted me with it's usual enthusiasm. I stopped at the welcome center just across the border and the lady was knocking herself out trying to be helpful to everyone who came in. If she could have, I think she would have liked to escort everyone around the state to see various attractions. I was early anyway and also gained an hour when I crossed into mountain time at the border so I was looking for something to do. She gave me a bunch of stuff and told me to stop at the next exit to see the free antique car museum.

Turns out the car museum was inside a truck stop but it was free and they had about two-dozen restored cars. There were two or three really old ones but most were from the 1950s and 1960s. The cars were behind a railing so you couldn't actually get too close but they were very nicely restored and well worth the cost of admission. Most of them had the hood open so you could see the engine. They were not the usual run-of-the-mill cars...these were pretty fancy.



The road less travelled

After leaving the antique cars I looked at the map and decided to take a long way to my final destination of the day. Tucumcari was only about thirty minutes away but I managed to drag it out by taking a couple back roads and then connecting up with US Highway 54 that heads south and west into Tucumcari. This is the same highway that goes through Jefferson City so I could just drive west on Hwy 54 all the way when I come to New Mexico. I was sort of sure I knew where I was going. The road headed out into some cactus and sagebrush plains and eventually curved west (as I hoped). There were a few ranches but nothing looked too prosperous. The cattle were standing out in the sagebrush looking at me like maybe I had some food. There were a few horses way out in the middle of nowhere just standing around and trying to graze on what little there was. The road finally ran along the south fork of the Canadian River and there were a few deep ravines and a very high railroad bridge coming across the river at one point. I finally ran into Highway 54 and then followed it back into Tucumcari and found my motel.

It was another EconoLodge and, once again there was an Indian family running the hotel. They were sure that I had stayed there before (what??) and told me all about their trip to Hannibal Missouri...they just got back yesterday. The family owns hotels in Hannibal and Lake Ozark as well as Tucumcari (and who knows where else?) The manager said his brother runs the one in Hannibal and his sister has the one at the lake. They always drive US 54 the entire way and he says it takes him only 19 hours to get all the way to Hannibal. Highway 54 isn't crowded in Kansas and you can make good time. I guess I'll have to try it.

Since it was still daylight I drove around Tucumcari a little. I'm not sure this town has a pulse. When the Interstate came through most of the town dried up since it relied so heavily on Route 66 traffic. No one wanted to make the half-mile drive into town from the interstate so the town started moving toward the highway. There was a Denny's restaurant next door to the motel that shut down and moved to be part of a truck stop. Most of the businesses along the old Route 66 are closed.  They are trying to preserve some of the old motels and neon lighting but there is just too much of it and not enough Mother Road tourists to justify spending much more than they have.   I went and found the new Denny's and had a good supper except that I bad to eat it with Bill O'Riley. He was blithering about the Japanese earthquake and the nuclear power plant problem so he had guests and it wasn't just him.

Crazy monkey at the car museum

On the Road - Day 1 ---Yuk

Yuk -- I woke up to about 4 inches of new snow. I was planning on getting an early start but they didn't come to clear the street until 9:30 so it was almost 10 AM before I got out of the driveway.  The snow was coming down fairly heavy. I went out and shoveled the sidewalk about 8:30 and almost had a hernia trying to lift the snow shovel full of snow....great snowball snow but it was hell to shovel. I decided to just load up the car and try to bully my way out of the driveway and that worked so I was on my way.

It was slow going. There wasn't much traffic and once I got to the highway it was pretty clear. The worst part was at Lake of the Ozarks because almost no one had been on the new highway that bypasses the old US 54 so it had a lot of snow and slippery spots. By the time I got past Mack's Creek and on toward Buffalo it was beginning to thin out and there was only a dusting of snow. Almost nothing at Springfield and Joplin was pretty clear. I stopped for lunch at Joplin and then headed on to Oklahoma. They need to do some repairs on the turnpike and they charge $4.00 per car now which I think is a little more than a year ago. I made my obligatory stop at the world's largest McDonald's and took care of some business for Jill. I managed not to get lost in Tulsa -- like I usually do. I finally reached Oklahoma City around 5 PM with a little bit of sunlight....a welcome sight on such a dreary day. I got checked in at the motel and was glad to be out of the car.

I've made this trip so often that I know the motels and have favorite bars and restaurants. In Oklahoma City I stay fairly close to Bricktown in a little antiquated EconoLodge. The price is right and the location is convenient and the same little Indian (east-Indian) guy works the desk. I decided to go to the Tap Werks in Bricktown for a beer and maybe supper. Plan B was to go to the IHOP next to the ballpark for supper but when I got into Tap Werks they were having 1/2 price appetizers because the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA game was on TV-- playing the Washington Wizards. I don't follow NBA and I forget that OKC has a team but I watched the 2nd half and the Thunder walloped the Wizards. I had a Fullers ESB and an Artichoke Dip appetizer with flat bread and then a Tallgrass IPA (a Kansas-brewed beer but still OK). Tap Werks has over 100 beers on tap so it will take me a whole bunch of trips to Oklahoma City to sample them all.  I keep telling myself I need to come down here and spend a few days....maybe this summer.   After the game they had live acoustic music....some guys doing Grateful Dead and Tracy Chapman songs. Go figure...sounded OK.   Went back to my room and watched some TV before bed.

Leaving for NM Tomorrow Morning

......and it's snowing tonight. I'm hoping this is the last snow we see.....big slushy gobs of half snow and half rain. Supposedly there will be only about an inch and it is still above freezing. Looks like rain and maybe some snow tomorrow until I get to around Joplin. Plan to be in Oklahoma City tomorrow night.

I hope to find spring around Tulsa.

Got the Bug

It's March and I caught the bug ---- road trip bug. This has been a horrendous Winter with lots of snow and cold weather. We had a white Christmas which was nice for a change but the snow kept coming. In February we had our first real blizzard in probably 50 years followed by sub-zero temps and then abnormally warm weather all the way up into the 70s followed by mud and floods.

So I need to get out of here for a while. I'll be heading off to New Mexico again.Why again? Because I want to find Spring and I know where it is and because New Mexico is my future home and I want to check up on my humble mini-mini-ranchette that is sitting vacant waiting for me to build my new home. I admit that the Land of Enchantment has its problems but it also seems to have me in its spell. 

I have a few things I need to do before I can get on the road.  The car was needing brakes so I got that taken care of today. Gas prices are heading up - supposedly because of the fighting in Libya (wink wink) - so this is possibly going to be a little more expensive than the last trip. I also have a case of sinusitis that I'm fighting so I think I'll wait a few days for that to clear up. Watson will go live with Jill and Iris for the time I'm gone....he doesn't know that yet.

Fall 2010

I usually try to get away for a couple days in the fall but I haven't been able to do that this year. I'm not sure why...I guess I'm just not motivated enough and I travelled more than usual this summer.

I took an afternoon walk on the Katy Trail about a week ago in late October -- just before it turned cold and windy. The Katy Trail is a hiking and bike trail that runs about 270 miles from St. Charles to Sedalia, mostly along the Missouri River. It was once the right of way for the Katy Railroad but not it is a state park and is very popular - both for people making long distance rides to day hikers and people out for a little exercise.

I've been walking pretty much since I got back from Italy but lately I've been slacking off so I decided to take a short walk, maybe 20 minutes, on the Katy Trail. I ended up walking about 90 minutes and was willing to walk farther but it was getting late in the afternoon --- Katy Trail is a little seductive this time of year. These are a few of the pictures I took on my walk....not in any particular order.















Missouri Capitol Building in the far distance across the river - the turf farm is in the near distance...spraying the fields.




















There are patches of 'Scouring Rushes' along the trail. These were used as an abrasive by the pioneers and are still used like sandpaper in Japan.
















These are very primitive plants.




















Some wildflowers blooming among the rushes.




















Some ferns





















Missouri River bluffs run alongside the trail.



















A very pleasant and peaceful walk













A few flowers hanging on in late October.




















Trees and the rock bluff. We didn't have much of a colorful fall this year in spite of all the rain we had earlier. It got very windy the day after I took these pictures and the few colorful leaves we had blew away.















Queen Anne's Lace -- still blooming up along the river bluff --- must be a micro-climate there. This is one of my favorite wildflowers.




















This is about the brightest colored tree I found along the trail.


















Hay bales and river bluffs.





















Old railroad bridge over Turkey Creek. There are only a few reminders that this was once a busy railroad track.