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Published: July 11th 2013
The one about the Yellow Camaro and The Land of Enchantment
I slept with the windows open last night. Once the sun really went down it cooled off nicely. I put my oscillating fan on and slept until 5:50. Winston was looking out the windows, hopping from side to side of my bed, and he woke me up. Jerk. I took him for a big long walk, and he was happy because it was cool.
Lo and behold, what had pulled in overnight? A twin of my old Itasca Spirit RV, PICTURE. Same year, same model, same colors, a real twin. Funny thing was, his cable wire went thru the driver’s window, something I used to do because my hidden connector was broken. I saw the owner was up and hailed him to come out and ended up showing him where the connector was hidden in the electric cable compartment. Ken from the eastern mountains of TN and his wife, doing the Route 66 thing for 6 weeks. They have a large travel trailer, but wifey won’t drive it. He bought the Itasca 2 weeks ago, and took off a few days later. They love it, as they can
turn around easy in parking lots, something I always enjoyed.
I was on the road by 8, after a nice leisurely breakfast and another walk for Winston. Downtown Tucumcari is just as dead at 8 in the morning as it was at 6 in the evening. I could drive slowly and took some great pictures. Please remember, most of my pictures are taken thru the windshield. Those spots you see are bug splatter.
My plan for the day was I40 West to Albuquerque, getting off where I saw the Business 40/Route 66 signs at a few towns and checking them out. First stop was Santa Rosa, I had big hopes for finding a local joint for a second breakfast with a BIG parking lot, but no such luck. I had read that their big attraction, other than the Route 66 mementos, was Blue Hole, a natural swimming hole; I found it easily and took some pictures, and back to I40. Next stop was Flying C Ranch, it had its own exit!!! It’s a truck stop/gift shop/Dairy Queen. It’s the NM version of South of the Border. Next stop was Moriarty. It was now 11:00 and I really was
hungry, my body is still on EDT and I needed lunch. Better luck in Moriarty, Blake’s Lotaburger!! Blake’s is a NM only chain of burger joints, like Five Guys only having that Roadside America free standing building outside look) and, as I learned, their claim to fame is their green chili burger. I opted for the Lotta burger (quarter pounder) instead of the Itty burger (1/6 pound), lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, hold the pickle and green chilies, and onion rings, at the order taker’s suggestion. Fresh brewed Iced Tea, $6.49. The burger was great, but oh those onion rings were the best I have probably ever had. About 10, lightly battered, deep fried to a golden crisp that melted in my mouth. Then I started to look around. The place was filled with dusty cowboys in their hats, big belt buckles and boots, or camo hat and shirt and boots, or gentlemen cowboy, black pants, black boots, elegant buckle and even more elegant hat. That guy smiled at me and asked me how I was doing; local politician I suspect. Good looking, too.
The remains of Old Route 66 for the most part follows the west bound I40 road
bed. At some places it is newly paved; it looks like it was used as a staging road for the construction of I40. In other places it has gone to ruin, I put a few pictures of that. Again, there are these HUGE ranches/farms with their big gates, and miles and miles of barbed wire fence holding in only a few cows. Every now and then I would see a big farmhouse, but not too often.
Since I had great wifi last night, I updated all my apps, including Foursquare. - something happened to the direct link it had to Facebook. It’s gone, and no where do I see how to enable it again. GROWL. Maybe it’s time for me to go back to just checking in on Facebook. I gave that up a while ago when it got very clumsy, but they seem to have streamlined it recently.
The outside temperature always registered about 88 today. No road kill at all, and only a little blow out tire debris. Then I saw mile after mile of full black plastic garbage bags; someone has cleaned up recently, way to go NM!! Every other rest area is closed, though.
These are beautiful things, with nice picnic shelters, lots of garbage cans, lots of parking. I guess they closed them as a budgetary decision, and that’s fine, I don’t need one every 25 miles.
Keeping in theme with my suspected Camaro event: As I am travelling along a late model yellow Camaro all tricked out with black racing stripe, dark tinted glass, chrome gizmos raced by me going what I thought must have been 100mph. Shortly thereafter I saw him pulled over by 2 NM Stateys, (big hats, big sunglasses, big guns) and I was happy!!! His speed was a little excessive – my loyal readers might remember my episode of 100mph with Lou near the Bonneville Salt Flats, but we were on a totally empty road, no other cars, if I need justification). As I was sitting behind the wheel at Flying C Ranch plotting my course, he pulled in. I was crossing the road with Winston in tow to the grassy area, and I had to wait for him! He did not stop for me!!! Male Chauvinist Pig! I travelled on. The final encounter had him passing me once again, at a more reasonable speed, probably 80
or so (75mph speed limit, I was doing my usual 63). As he went by I was able to read his bumper sticker. “Real Men Love Jesus.” I have no smart remark for that. Bless his soul.
Just east of Albuquerque there is a very long slow uphill crawl, putting me to 7000 feet and I know that because my ears popped and my GPS app told me so. On the east side the dirt and rock are bright red, with lots of green trees. On the west side of this hill the terrain changed to true desert. No trees, tumbleweed growth, At the City limits the road barriers are adobe colored as are the overpasses which also have metal Native American sculpture artwork as guard rails. I40 thru Albuquerque was crowded with traffic at 2:30; well, more traffic than I have seen in a few days. Multiple lanes, lots of trucks. Garmina was working just fine, and I listened to her and drove along. I avoided the Route 66 option this time; I didn’t have my “let’s drive downtown” RV legs on, laugh.
I arrived at Camping World of Albuquerque to check to see if they had
an opening for the remainder of the day to change my oil, and they didn’t. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? My campground is right next door, and I found another gem.
Enchanted Trails RV Park and Trading Post is everything it sounds like. It is on the I40 frontage road, which at this point is Old 66. I40 is only 150 yards away. The office is an adobe structure painted very southwestern, it’s interior has trading post items for sale as well as a vintage pipe organ, several old radios similar to the one my dad gave me many years ago that son Jeff now has, and numerous die cast RVs. $15 for the night Passport America rate. Next to the office was a beautiful blue pool. My site, #3 was under a big tree!!! I am coming to the conclusion they put the P/A customers closer to the road, but that does not bother me in the least. Water, electric, sewer, picnic table in the shade, and a tree. A TREE!!! In front of me is another tree, similar to those I saw at Cactus RV. It’s more a big bush with multiple trunks. Its leaves remind me
of overgrown rosemary leaves, but they don’t have the aroma. It has pink trumpet shaped flowers. The best part, it is always full of hummingbirds. Hope I get a picture!
I only did a simple set up camp, electricity, step stool, matt. I need to be at Camping World at 8 tomorrow in hopes of getting done first so I can be on my way north. I went in the pool and it was awesomely cool. I sat in the sun for 20 minutes, had 2 dips, then walked back to my site to watch the hummingbirds in action, when I noticed that there are old/restored campers permanently placed in some of the campsites, interspersed throughout. I went back in to the office (yes, in my bathing suit) to ask what that was all about. The owner?/Manager? is President of the NM Route 66 Association and she sets up lots of events throughout the state. (I asked her if she knew if there was a Camaro event, she did not know of any) She fills up her park for some events, and over the years has bought and restored these old treasures. PICTURES. The man who was inside the
Santa Rossa
There was a foot of hail here last week. I heard it even made the news in NJ!!T Shirt (PICTURE) about HELL told me you can rent these vintage RVs for your stay here at Enchanted Trails.
Can you guess what I am watching on TV? “Carole-Ann, come back thru the mirror, come back to this side, sweetie”. For the life of me I cannot remember that actress’s name. Poltergeist III. The man next to me (pulling his vintage 20 foot Fifth wheel) is grilling steaks for dinner. Good thing my taste for beef has been satisfied for the day, or I would be drooling.
Some readers have asked how I remember all the stuff I see. I talk to Siri and she creates notes for me, and I go back thru my Foursquare check ins just to make sure I didn’t forget anything.
Dinner = Lean Cuisine and Oreos. I have to spend some time plotting my course north from here and find some campgrounds. Plenty of sites to ‘boondock’ (no utilities) at, but those with an electric pole to plug into are few and far between.
A storm is north of us. It has gotten very dark and lightening off in the distance, but I don’t think it will rain.
I think I have said goodbye to I40 for this portion of the trip. I head north tomorrow, leaving the interstate system until I get closer to Salt Lake City, or maybe I will even avoid it altogether. I am not sure how I will head back east in August yet, so this might be ‘so long for now, old friend.’
Kat out
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Linda
non-member comment
Thanks
Hi Kat, thanks for sharing all your interesting things about your trip. I'm enjoying it, be safe.