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| Blue skies, clear sailing |
What a difference a
year makes. Last year when we came through New Mexico we ran into a 10-inch
snowfall (in some places more) and it took us 8 hours to drive 44 miles along
I-44. Today one-year and two days later we breezed into New Mexico with clear
skies and dry roads.
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| Retro key |
We left Roland,
Oklahoma this morning and had an easy run through a very long state. In fact
today we drove through the longest section of Oklahoma followed by the shortest
section (panhandle) of Texas.
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| Retro "chic" |
In driving through
Oklahoma you are basically transiting through a variety of Native American
nations. During our transit of the Cherokee Nation the 60s radio station was
playing the old son “Mr. Custer” which was a goofy song in the 1960s about the
massacre of General Custer’s men at Little Big Horn. The lyrics are “Please Mr.
Custer, I don’t want to go….” Probably a song that due to political correctness
would not be made today.
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| Joan and her dinner "companion" |
Each nation seems
to have one or more casinos, which may explain the beautiful schools that we
saw while driving along the freeway.
The hotel we stayed
in last night was what Joan termed “retro chic.” I got the retro part, the “chic” part escapes
me. But we had an old-fashioned room key and while the décor is dated the room
was clean and comfortable and only $50.
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| My dinner friend |
The XM 60s station
was playing the top 600 hits from the 1960s and at one point they played Bobby
Vinton’s “Rose are Red.” Both of us agreed that the song reminded us of our
brother-in-law Denny who often starts his clever poems with “Roses are Red, violets
are blue….”
Every year we
travel through Oklahoma we see more and more windmills, which is very apt
because as I have pointed out before it is always blowing a gale there. Today,
not so much, but still a pretty healthy breeze.
Sadly we saw a
horrendous accident on the eastbound lanes (we were headed west) of I-40 just
inside the Texas border and again, as we witnessed in Ohio a couple months ago,
there was a helicopter standing by for an emergency evacuation.
As has become my
custom I stopped to top off my gas tank in Amarillo ($2.11 a gallon) because
once you get into New Mexico the gas stations are few and far between and the
cost goes way up. We’ll be good until after Albuquerque now.
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| It was called the Lizard lounge |
Thanks to the time
change to Mountain Standard Time we arrived in Tucumcari, New Mexico shortly
before 4 p.m. which gave us time to watch Navy pull out a victory over Kansas
State University before going to dinner at the Pow Wow Restaurant and Lizard
Lounge.
The booths included paintings of people that looked very real and like they were sitting with you. Actually kind of creepy.
They had a great
soup and salad bar. The green chili soup was not “chilly” at all but very, very
good. Joan had the salmon and I had a hamburger steak. Being that it was New
Year’s Eve we tried in Amarillo at the Wal Mart to find Joan’s pickled herring
(her family tradition is that you eat it at midnight for good luck for the next
year). No luck in Amarillo and no luck in Tucumcari finding the pickled
herring. So I guess it’s bad luck for us.
We had planned on
eating at the same restaurant we dined at two years ago when we stayed here,
but alas it has closed. I guess our visiting once every two years was not
enough business to keep it open.
Tomorrow we’ll
make the second to the last leg of our trip with our destination Flagstaff
where we’ll pick up our trailer Thursday morning and head to Tucson.
Thanks again for
joining us on our journey and I’ll write again when we land in Tucson.
Thought for the
day: Why is it that every time I “borrow” a pen from a hotel room, it doesn’t
work?”
Time out in Roland, Oklahoma: 8:06 a.m. (CST)
Mileage out: 33324
Time in Tucumcari, New Mexico: 3:47 p.m. (MST)
Mileage in: 33878
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