Dave had a bad night last night. We are both subject to acid attacks. I take Prilosec which pretty much put an end to mine. Dave’s doctor prescribed Previcid which pretty much put an end to his. Then our insurance decided Previcid is too expensive so Dave should take Prilosec. It sometimes works for him but he is now having attacks every week or two. When he has one he gets up, takes a Rolaid, eats some crackers, and hopes it goes away so he can go back to bed. Last night he didn’t get to go back to bed. Which meant I didn’t get as much sleep as I would like either. So today we are both having to help each other think.
The five day weather forecast says we can go to Albuquerque before we have to reevaluate whether or not to head south. So we headed out driving along between the freeway and the railroad tracks. Sort of. The tracks themselves are long gone but the right of way is still visible.
Vega, Texas, is a small town but they have a lot of Route 66 stuff still there. These pictures are the Vega Motel, Roark Hardware (doing business since before Route 66 was established), Magnolia station, the courthouse, and Dot’s Mini Museum-mini is right.
I know I’ve titled this Day 26 but you probably realize by now I am only counting travel days. The days we stay parked to visit family or friends or do laundry and research are not included in that count. So we’ve actually been on this trip for five and a half weeks. Today we reached Adrian, Texas, the halfway point.
We saw the Bent Door Trading Post but it is closed. The rumor is this structure was taken from a military observation tower which is why the door and windows on the left side are bent. Unfortunately, the angle of our photo doesn’t show that bend as well as I would have liked. It’s pretty dramatic in person.
And we had lunch at the Midpoint Cafe, a route 66 tradition.
That white car belongs to Herb. Herb has been traveling parts of Route 66 for six years with his postcard sized travel guide, collecting signatures of business owners at the stops along the way. He’s still working at gathering signatures between Los Angeles and Springfield, Missouri. He hasn’t even started on the section between Springfield and Chicago. So, those of you who think we are traveling slowly, think about Herb. He was happy to have us confirm that places he plans to stop someday are still there, though.
Dave said Route 66 would end six miles west of Adrian. And he was right. But it wasn’t long after that that it came back. So all that work I did to get my mind ready for freeway travel was wasted.
The town of Glenrio straddles the Texas/New Mexico border. That caused a lot of confusion over the years. I don’t think it does any more because I don’t think anyone lives there now. Glenrio’s claim to fame is a motel. On one side the sign said, “Last Motel in Texas.” On the other side it said, “First Motel in Texas.” The owners wanted you to think their place was your only choice and I think it worked for a long time.
The two lane through San Jon, New Mexico, was so freshly oiled it was still black. It was old enough to not still be throwing up oily rocks, though. Still, Dave slowed down for each of the three vehicles we met on that road so that, if they were throwing rocks, we wouldn’t hit them so fast.
We are now in Tucumcari, New Mexico, at the Kiva Aok RV Park. The current owner only bought this place a couple of months ago and he promptly installed a wireless network. I’m glad he did because his network is a lot faster than our Sprint aircard. And I have no bars on my T-Mobile phone. So if you don’t hear from me for a couple of days, it’s because we may not get any signal between here and Albuquerque.
TTYL,
Linda