August 1993

Well, here we are again, on Route 66. I didn’t think we’d be here again this soon, but it sure is nice. We’re on our way from Bend, OR to Boone, NC. Although we don’t get to travel the whole length again, we do get to travel it for a while. Unfortunately, we don’t get to take as much time. We seem to travel the old road in extremes, we did it in December and January, the dead of winter, and now it’s the height of summer. One of these days we will get to do it at our convenience, during ideal weather. It is quite amazing how green everything is, considering how many states have had droughts. We made our way from Oregon to Utah and then headed south to New Mexico. We needed to check out Farmington, we’re hopeful of getting a job there. Not a bad place and very accessible to Route 66. And yes, once again we are traveling by motor home.

We stayed in Gallup at the KOA. The KOA store has the most extensive supply of Route 66 souvenirs than any place in the town. We explored Gallup a bit, went to the El Rancho Motel. What a beautiful place! Had a beer in the bar, accompanied by salsa and chips, great salsa I might add. I asked the waitress if the food was as good as the salsa, she said it wasn’t the best, Pedro’s was. We did a bit more exploring and then went to Pedro’s for dinner. If you like bland, greasy Mexican food, this is your place. In our opinion it was gross! It makes Taco Bell look great. We later read that Virgie’s is the place to go. We picked up a great book at the Chamber of Commerce, 66 Sights on Route 66 by Sally Noe. It is very informational and contains a lot of history facts about the western 66 miles of Route 66 in New Mexico. We understand she has another book also, Greetings from Gallup; Six Decades of Route 66, don’t know how to get it, but plan to. She is a New Mexico history teacher at the University of New Mexico - Gallup Campus. We hope to stop at Red Rocks State Park on our next trip. We want to do some exploring around this area; it seems to have quite a lot of history here.

Next day found us in Albuquerque. We went for lunch at the 66 Diner. College was in progress so it was packed; great food still. While there we found out that the New Mexico Association has undergone some changes, namely new officers. I bring this up because in the year that we were members of this association we received one newsletter. When we were in Albuquerque last time we tried several times to get in touch with someone, the phone would ring and you couldn’t leave a message, you only received the tone to send a facsimile. I wrote a letter and informed them of this problem, still no response. There is a new president and he is planning on improving all aspects of the association. We will probably join again; always need to give a second chance. If anyone else has had problems, this may be great news!

We then got on Interstate 25 and took it to Pecos, the second exit. Went for a tour of the Pecos Monument, very interesting. We took the Mother Road through town and then rejoined the interstate until exit 294, where we followed the old road into Santa Fe. Here is a town that for all we could see doesn’t care that it used to be along Route 66, they get enough tourists as it is. It is quite a pretty town, and has an old feel to it. There are still lots of the old motels around if you seek them out, especially on Cerrillos Road. In fact there are some really beautiful ones. After a cruise through Santa Fe, we had to jump back on the interstate and go back to camp.

It was Wednesday and we got a special treat! We got to watch 48 Hours on Route 66 while staying on Route 66. Thought they did a really good job. But thought they could have left out the Jesus Christ Superstar portion (it really didn’t have anything to do with the Mother Road). We later found out that they spent two hours at the McLean, Texas museum and could have used footage from the interviews there. The local news had a piece on the El Vado Motel, which included an interview with Tom Teague. It was quite informative.

Traveling east was sure strange; there were no Fat Man signs. Kind of made one feel lonely. We never got to go to the Club Cafe, but we always saw those signs. Next stop found us in Tucumcari Tonite! I must say that I am surprised that Bob never mentioned the Frontier Museum at exit 284. What a treat! Definitely a leftover from the heyday of 66. It looked like an old western town, probably sold a bunch of tourist junk; you know moccasins, rattlesnakes and kachinas. There is also an abandoned gas station; the last gas sold for $0.98 cents a gallon. We explored Tucumcari quite extensively when we did our last trip, so this is mostly a rest stop, and just the chance to say we stayed here. We did drive into town for groceries, and things were just as we remembered. We wished that we would be in town when the lights for all the businesses came on; there are a lot of neon lights. I felt as if I had skipped visiting an old relative by not stopping in to say “HI!” to Miss Lillian at the Blue Swallow Motel.

It was back to the business of heading east. We stopped in Glenrio. What a sad affair. Although the town looks dead there are still a few inhabitants. There was a friendly dog that let us know we were not alone. Earl stood with one foot in Texas and one in New Mexico. Pretty neat little town. Took lots of photos. The residents that drove by, and saw us, waved. At least we know they’re friendly. Next stop was McLean, Texas and the Devils Rope/Route 66 Museum. Ruth and Delbert Trew were not in today. But we had a quick look around and bought some souvenirs. Sorry that we missed you Bob (it’s the 27th and you’re scheduled to be there the 31st). It would’ve been great to meet you in person, but we’re looking for you along the road. We camped at the Elk City/Clinton KOA, Oklahoma, our usual stopping place, we even spent Christmas here. Right on Route 66. We learned of the new museum in Clinton after we had gone by, there’s always next time. At Oklahoma City we had to catch Interstate 40 for the rest of our trip, so we must say adios to the Mother Road, until next time. Getting our kicks whenever we can!

 

 

We toured every state on Route 66 several times. There are hundreds of small towns not listed that we explored over the years. Several friends had offered to show us the last stretch not explored - San Bernardino to Santa Monica, California.