Road Trip USA 2006, Part 5

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I suppose I ought to be realistic and accept that the way ahead is not going to be terribly smooth. I have to be honest to accept that there will, as sure as night follows day, be disappointments. If I prepare NOW for the worst, then when it does happen, it may not be quite so bad.

So, what has gone wrong so far? Surprisingly little, but what has is more of a niggle than anything else.

The main one, of course, is the fact that I shall not be away for as long as I’d originally hoped, and the second one is that there are so many places that I want to see, but have to eliminate early on, just by pressure of time. I think that I’m going to be planning a return trip before I’ve even done the first. I’ve read a journal of somebody who’d visited the US, and as I don’t seem to be able to contact him to get his permission to quote, his basic thought was to over-plan the places to see, and be prepared to miss something out, rather than to under-plan, and end up wondering how to fill in the extra time. Fat chance of that, I’d thought!

I was also rather disappointed with the reaction of a car rental company. I’ve already written that I’ll be picking up in Oklahoma and dropping off in Albuquerque. So far, so good. I’ll want to leave the car at the drop-off point of five nearest the Amtrak station. “Fair enough,” I thought. “I’ll ask the rental company”. The utterly useless reply: “give us the zip code of Amtrak, and we’ll tell you which is nearest. Thank you for choosing Rentals”. My reply was along the lines of “how the is a UK resident likely to find such information, when all YOU need to do is look in your branch directory”. And they say that Americans are helpful: this idiot has just lost a sale. I only hope the opposition has a better idea. Memo to self: perhaps I’ll become a “mystery shopper”, putting idiot questions to various services providers to see how well they handle them

I’d also made a couple of enquiries of people about tornado or weather or even earthquake museums. One reply was “don’t know”, and the other hasn’t had the courtesy to say even that. Disappointing. Still I knew the trip would never necessarily be easy, and if this is all that goes adrift then I can hardly complain. One reason for doing it myself, is that there’s only one person to blame when things don’t go to plan. Yep: the buck stops with me.

So what if things do go wrong? When all else fails, use common sense, if any.

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Comments

[Joe]

some thoughts
I live in Oklahoma, and I have traveled to Albuq. often. So, a few suggestions. (1) Perhaps you have learned this already, but we don't have tornados in October (thank god!). They are concentrated in the spring (May-July). They are scary and we prefer to not think about them, so you won't find many venues glorifying them. I didn't know about the museum in Wakita, but given the very small size of the town, the museum is probably tiny. A better alternative is the National Severe Storms Lab, the preimmenent lab studying thunderstoms and tornados. It is in Norman, just south of Ok. City (requires car). See this page for info on how to visit: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/faq/tours.shtml. Note tours must be arranged in advance, and there are special requirements for international visitors. Also in Norman is an excellent natural history museum with outstanding collections related to native americans. (2) It is a long drive from OKC to Alb (~11 hr?), and the scenery is poor. There are NO significant remnants of route 66 on that trip. Consider flying. To get a feel for route 66, you could drive east from OKC toward Tulsa, up through Chandler, for example. But it really is gone, I'm sorry to say. My preference would be to explore Central Ave in Alb, which is the old eastern entrance to the city and has a few old motels and neon signs that remain from the heyday of route 66. (3) If you do drive OKC to Alb, consider stopping for the night in Tucumcari, NM. There are some neat old motels there that would satisfy your desire for a roadside accomodation. No need to make a reservation. Just drive around and pick one you like. (4) US Airways is fine. (5) In NM, drive north from ALb to Santa Fe, then to Pojoaque, Cuba, and back to Alb. Stunning scenery. Along the way, stop at Bandelier Nat. Monument and see the native american ruins in a beautiful valley, and if it interests you, the museum at Los Alamos documenting the developement of the A bomb. (You can make this loop in one long day.) (6) The reason you had trouble finding out the car rental outlet closest to the train station is probably that you contacted a national information center. Try to contact a local Alb office, or use Google maps or an equivalent and figure it out by yourself. Have a great trip!