Advertisement
New Mexico
Scenic byway Wednesday May 6th Woke up to the news of a Tornado in Alabama, which is where we were about this time last year and everyone living east of Alabama are being warned to stay indoors preferably in their basements. We left the lovely Santa Fe for a scenic drive to Taos we passed through several pueblos and we visited one of the co-operatives selling local crafts. We were expecting Taos to be much like Santa Fe and we were not disappointed it is very similar and it also has a ski resort. Check into the Don Fernandez Hotel which is a lovely local hotel, we relax for a while, have a swim and enjoy the 90f temperature. In 1969 "Easy Rider" was filmed partly in Taos and it sparked a hippie invasion with at least 6 communes springing up in the area. They are celebrating the 40th anniversary with a "Summer of Love" and have lots of things planned including a parade in June, everyone is digging out their purple loon pants and beads. We eat a supermarket salad at 'home' and then head for the Rio Grande Gorge where we watch the sun go down, drive back 'home' and finish
New Mexico
On the road from Santa Fe to Taos NM the bottle of wine.
Thursday 7th Taos is really lovely and George was very keen to stay another day but as time is getting on and we really want to be in Dallas by Sunday we reluctantly decide to get a couple of hundred miles nearer to Texas.
The TV news is very dramatic, fires are being reported in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, which is where we were on Monday 27th April; "California is burning" with many multi-million dollar homes evacuated in Santa Barbara and the other side of the country floods are causing havoc all points east of Texas. We are keeping one step ahead of the bad weather as we always seem to do in the US.
Another scenic drive leads us out of Taos; New Mexico has spectacular scenery and we really are enchanted by "The Land of Enchantment", Taos stands 7600 feet above sea level and we continue to climb to about 8000 feet before we start to descend. To put the altitude into perspective Ben Nevis stands around 4400 feet at it's peak. There is a beautiful blue sky again today and the temperature gradually rises to 96 degrees. Travel through Las Vegas
New Mexico
The scenic route to Taos NM (the New Mexico Version no casinos) and we stop for a full American brunch in Santa Rosa, eggs, bacon, sausages, french toast, fluffy buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup and of course lashings of coffee!! Around 2pm we check into a motel in Tucumcari on Route 66, it is very hot and we spend a while relaxing. We go out at 6.15pm and the temperature is 100 degrees, we do without supper as we are still full of brunch.
Friday 8th We were planning to go to Amarillo and across the Texas panhandle into Oklahoma but once again we changed our plans after watching the TV weather news. This is essential viewing, severe weather warnings are issued for Dallas and East Texas so we decide to stay in New mexico for another night and forgo the dubious delights of a 72oz steak in Amarillo, (free if you can finish it)!!
It is a beautiful morning as we leave Tucumcari and as we are spending another day in New Mexico we decide to go to Fort Sumner and visit William "Billy the Kid" Bonney's grave. We have a look in the museum and see his rifle, chaps and spurs
together with original wanted posters. He is New Mexico's most notorious outlaw and known all over the world but it is not exactly clear why he has become such a legend. He was finally shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett in July 1881, he was 21years old, 5' 6" and 125lbs. Crowds visit his grave each year and his tombstone has been stolen so many times that it is now in iron shackles.
We stay in a really good Comfort Inn in the east New Mexico town of Clovis with very helpful staff and end an interesting day in the hotel's hot tub.
Saturday When we arrived in Clovis yesterday the temperature was 96f and this morning as we leave at 9.45 it is 40 degrees lower, but as we travel towards Lubbock in Texas the temperature gradually climbs to 76f . Enter Texas and move the clock on one hour, we have seen a lot of freight trains in New Mexico and Texas and I've counted up to 124 freight-cars with four engines at the front and two at the back. We drive past pecan orchards, cotton fields, wind turbines and
miles of oil fields, Texas is not as scenic as New Mexico. We arrive in Lubbock to visit the Buddy Holly Center, it is brilliantly presented as usual here in the US and we start off with a very interesting biographical video. We see his Fender Stratocaster Guitar, photos, letters and the glasses he was wearing at the time of his death. No photos are allowed although some people seem to be ignoring this. Charles Hardin Holley was born on 7th September 1936 in Lubbock, Texas and was given the nickname 'Buddy', the 'e' from Holley was accidentally dropped in his first recording contract and the mistake was never corrected. After an unsuccessful recording contract with Decca Records in Nashville he found his way to a small recording studio in Clovis, New Mexico, (which is where we stayed last night), and that's where he recorded "That'll be the day". He was married in August 1958 and died with Richie Valens and The Big Bopper when the plane he had chartered crashed in Iowa in February 1959. The line 'the day the music died' in the song "American Pie" of course refers to Buddy Holly's death and last year in my
Taos
Typical adobe buildings blog I referred to the same song but a different line when I said 'we took the Chevy to the levy' in New Orleans.
Travel to the cattle town of Abilene and we eat at Chilli's which is another of our favourites they are always very lively and they do wonderful margaritas!! Nearly all the men, young and not so young are wearing cowboy hats and they all keep them on in the restaurant, I suppose if they took them off they could lose them, or sit on them...
There is absolutely no doubt we are in Texas.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.182s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 6; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0523s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Amy
non-member comment
Glasses
I really think those glasses suit you Dad. Might be a touch on the big side but I don't think anyone will notice. Just printed this off to take to Nan in an hour. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Love, Amy and Sparky xxx