Bananas at Love's, Sixties music on the radio and snow in the mountains

More snow here than Michigan

Another long day on the road and apparently I didn’t smell quite as good as I did previously because there was no mention made of this morning.  Joan is now crediting the brand of shampoo provided by “Budget Lodging” for the good smell of yesterday. No such luck with the Governor’s Suites shampoo.

The day started out cold (window scraping required) and ended with clouds and a threat of rain in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Just outside Oklahoma City we were warned by a road sign that we had 61 miles of road construction ahead of us. After driving the 61 miles they were only about 60.5 miles off.

“Invisible construction” continued through parts of Texas and New Mexico, but I am not complaining about a lack of construction zones, no sirree.

Large cross near Amarillo

We spent the morning listening to our favorite XM disc jockey – Plash Phelps and then listened through the afternoon to the disc jockey who came after, Pat St. John. Both are very entertaining and make the miles roll by.

We love having fruit in the morning and Love’s Truck Stops seem to have the best bananas, so we partook of a couple. For the first time in several trips we were not plagued with the high winds blowing across the plains of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. There was wind, there always is, but not like we’ve had in the past.

My father, who did his basic training in the Army Air Corps in World War II, in Texas once told me that Texas is the only place where you can be up to your waist in mud and get sand blown in your face. I think he also told me the only thing in the panhandle that slows the wind is the barbed wire fences.

Only our Buffalo friends will get this reference: This was a
"Huuuuuuuuge" car.

There was plenty of evidence of last week’s blizzard in the Panhandle, but the road was clean and green and we had no traffic issues today at all.

Also in the Panhandle Joan was fascinated by giant flocks of small birds flying in formations and in such numbers that they looked like low moving black clouds. We’ve got to do a little research to find out just what the birds were, but they were pretty much throughout the Panhandle.

A forest of giant windmills grew up in the Panhandle as well, most since our last trip through. We can’t imagine how so many of them were constructed so quickly, but there they were. I can’t imagine a better place in the country to use the wind though. One of the sad effects of the windmills is they now dwarf the giant cross at a church just east of Amarillo.

Of course, we had the usual plethora of stops for Joan who admitted she has a bladder the size of a shot glass. (I think it is more the size of a syringe).

Hello New Mexico!

There’s a tourist trap in New Mexico along I-40 called “Cline’s Corners.” The advertisements for it stretch for many, many miles and all seem to be directed at luring young children into pestering their parents to make a stop there. “Snake Stuff” was my favorite sign, but there were many other signs advertising Indian curious and other souvenir type stuff.

I remember as a boy traveling with my parents seeing these same kinds of places on our many travels. One lasting memory is the famous “Mystery Spot” which is advertised as the only place in the world that water flows uphill. Actually the only thing at those places the flows in any direction is the money from the tourists into the pockets of the owners.

Up near "Cline's Corners" in New Mexico

In my travels I have now come across several “Mystery Spots” that advertise they are the only place in the world were water flows uphill. The only mystery to me is how they stay in business.

As we moved across New Mexico the sun hid behind a growing number of clouds and as we climbed up the temperatures fell to 33. (We started the day at 29 in Oklahoma City) and ended it at 44 at our stop at the Route 66 Casino and Hotel outside Albuquerque.

As I write this Joan is enjoying a few minutes in the casino and I’ll join her for dinner later. We will turn in early and rise early for the final leg of our trip. We pick up the trailer and then head south to Tucson.

Not sure I will have time to post after our arrival, but I’ll catch up on Wednesday.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Mileage out: 34962

Mileage in: 35522

Time out: 8:06 a.m. (CST)

Time in: 3:20 p.m. (MST)