sandcastle – The Sandcastle

Day 1 Southern States

We tried to drive away from camp this morning while still plugged in to their electricity. Fortunately Dave noticed before we did any damage. We really need to make a checklist and start using it.

We bought propane before leaving the Circle RV Resort. We may be south but we are still running our furnace every night The park’s computers were down so they couldn’t process our credit card Dave had to pay cash. Next stop is the Bank of WalMart.

We don’t use ATMs anymore. WalMart lets you get $100 cash back when you shop there and that’s been enough to keep us going between shopping trips. Pretty convenient.

Going east on I-8 I can see snow on a hill ahead of us. But there’s so much solar heat coming in our windows we are both in shirt sleeves.

Someone else likes that solar heat, too. There’s a large bank of solar collectors on the side of the hill beside the road.

Remember Dave saying we aren’t going over any mountains today? Why are my ears popping?

We stopped at a viewpoint. That’s quite a valley for us to not be on a mountain.

There’s shattered glass on the pavement. Apparently a couple of drivers argued over whose turn it was to pull out next. I wonder if either think they won?

A little while later I saw a bumper laying on the side of the highway with the license plate still attached. Do you think it will be missed? Do you think someone else will claim it? If so, will the claimant report it or keep it for some nefarious purpose? OK, I read too many mysteries.

The windsocks on the bridge say we have a tailwind. Much better than a crosswind.

Sunrise Highway is on the west side of the hill. Shouldn’t it be on the east side?

We drove through a pass at 4055 feet. Not quite to snow level. Not really a pass, either, since that would mean we are in the mountains and we aren’t going into the mountains today; we are going through a valley between mountains, remember?

So, what’s this?

You know how groups of things have names: herd of cows, gaggle of geese, etc.? How about a tumble of rocks? There are piles and piles of rounded boulders alongside the road. It looks like some very large kid’s toys. Some of them look like they are stacked rather precariously. I wonder how many are named Balanced Rock?

When we see signs for “brake check area” and “runaway truck ramp ahead” we know we are coming to a big downgrade. This one is 6% for 7 miles. The truck speed limit is 35 miles an hour so it must have a lot of curves, too.

As we round those curves we are driving back and forth between Imperial County and San Diego County. I’m sure glad the counties are not responsible for maintaining this road. Can you imagine what a headache that could be?

I guess we are now out of those mountains we didn’t drive through since the elevation sign here says, “Sea Level”.

In El Centro, California, we stopped at a KFC to eat lunch and talk about future plans. I have a prescription to pick up at the WalMart here but then what? Our daughter called while we were still deciding and she and I talked long enough that we decided to not go anywhere except the local campground.

So we are now at Rio Bend RV Golf Resort in El Centro, Caifornia. We will be here two nights while we decide whether to go to an RV park in Yuma or Phoenix or Quartzsite (we have friends/family in all those places right now) or go boondocking on BLM land or what. One of the realities about moving all the time is that there are always many decisions to be made.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 29 Route 66

Since I still haven’t relearned to stay up late and sleep late since we crossed into mountain time zone during the switch from daylight savings time, we were on the road about 9 a.m. today.

Our first sighting was the Rio Puerco Bridge. You can no longer drive across this bridge but they did turn part of the old road into a parking area so you can walk out to the bridge.

Dave would like to drive as much Route 66 as we can without having to backtrack but when he mentioned today’s route included a section called “Dead Man’s Curve” I balked. It makes no more sense to me to drive a road with that name than it does to drive in 35 mile an hour cross winds. As we bypassed it on I-40 he pointed it out to me–it didn’t look as bad as it sounded but still…

There is a lot of nothing out here. So much so that we saw a sign saying, “Driveway Entrances Next 5 Miles.” If those ranchers can’t enter the freeway from their driveways, where are they supposed to go?

Driving uphill we caught up to a truck from the Swift company. Not so much so today, eh?

We did see a lot of trains. We drove over an eastbound piggyback one that was stopped on a super-elevated curve which made it lean to one side. It seemed an odd place to stop.

Then we saw a westbound tank train that looked like it was stopped, too, until we came to a bridge against which we could see it was moving along quite nicely. Apparently, sage brush is not something against which you can measure movement.

In Grants, New Mexico, we saw several Route 66 places. The Franciscan lodge had been described as a “pretty swank place.” I wonder when the author last saw it?

The Grants Cafe and the Uranium Cafe were both closed and our picture of the Monte Carlo did not turn out.

So, we headed on west and saw more trains. In order: an eastbound stack train, a mixed freight and another stack train all stopped on the main. It was good seeing so many locomotives in the old Great Northern paint scheme but it was not good to see them all stopped. Dave wondered if there was a rookie dispatcher working today since it’s Saturday.

On the other track we saw several hundred empty stack cars, also not moving. Then we saw another EB piggyback train, also stopped.

Several miles later a hy-rail went by Eastbound and he was moving a quite a clip. It was nice to see something moving even it it was just a truck. But the rest of the day we saw only eastbound trains, plenty of them, but no west bound trains at all. I wonder if something happened to tie up the westbound main? Or both mains, since the first batch of EB trains were all stopped?

We pulled into Gallup, New Mexico, just as my stomach was saying, “Lunch now, please.” I was glad we had reached Earl’s family restaurant because I was looking forward to eating in a place that was built the same year we were and that Frommers still recommends. I wonder if he would recommend us?

Earl’s was quite an experience! We had seen evidence earlier that Saturday is flea market day. That wasn’t quite true at Earl’s but it was a day for locals to set up tables on the restaurant’s sidewalks selling jewelry, pottery, and other crafts. They also brought samples to the tables in the restaurant to try to sell them to the diners. Lots of sellers. Lots of samples. Some people more than once. You couldn’t just ignore them because they stood there until you said, “No, thanks,” or shook your head if your mouth was full. And around those vender servers were scurrying everywhere trying to keep up with the demand.

The menu offered things that were original and things that were new. There was a section of sandwiches which had only been on the menu since 1982. We both ordered from that section. Dave had a clubhouse and I had an adult grilled cheese. I ordered it without onions so it only had two types of cheese, tomatoes, bacon, olives, and avocado. It was delicious.

The other thing odd about Earl’s is that except for two employees we appeared to be the only gringoes in the place. No one made us feel unwelcome, though. Staff and vendors alike treated us the same as all the other customers. And there were lots of other customers. When we left, they were lined up out the door waiting to be seated.

I was so busy watching all this action I forgot to take pictures. Sorry, you’ll have to go see for yourselves.

We did take pictures of our other stops in Gallup, though. Here’s the El Rancho Hotel/Motel “lovingly restored to it’s 1930 glory” and the El Morro theater, a recently restored Spanish Colonial theater built in 1928.

I had planned to stop at Richardson’s Trading Post to buy some moccasins since I keep borrowing Dave’s. The Richardson’s have been traders on the reservation since the turn of the last century so I expected them to have the most authentic stuff. But when we got there the signs said “Cash and Pawn” so instead I felt like they were still taking advantage of the natives; we drove right on by.

From Gallup on west Highway 66 plays In-and-Out-the-Windows with I-40. For a few miles it is the north frontage road, then for a few miles it is the south frontage road, then for a few miles it goes right down the freeway itself, then it repeats. So our primary challenge this afternoon was keeping track of the exit numbers so we’d be on the right piece of road at the right time.

About 3:30 p.m. we took our final exit from the freeway and nearly hit our first roadrunner as it crossed the exit ramp to Sun Valley, Arizona. We’d been on the road for nearly seven hours–a long day for us. So, we were glad to reach our goal: the Root 66 RV Park. We are parked on gravel right by the freeway but we are glad to be parked and glad to have our Passport America membership save us money again. $14.50 for full hookups. Not bad.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 28 Route 66

We aren’t actually leaving Albuquerque yet but we spent today doing things here in hopes of leaving tomorrow. Our first stop was the UPS store to pick up the new, more padded seat for my Segway. Unfortunately, we got there before the seat did. We thought that the tracking number indicating the seat was in Albuquerque was enough. Nope, it was in ABQ all right but not yet to the store we asked it be delivered to. Normally it would have been there by the time we found the store but today’s delivery driver was running late. So we decided to make our other stops and come back later. But, the delivery driver pulled in before we got out of the parking lot, so we waited after all. At least, we didn’t have to backtrack for it.

Then we went to WalMart. Our groceries were amazingly low for us and I needed to order another prescription. We’ve been moving all our prescriptions from Target to WalMart because there are more WalMart stores than there are Targets once you get out of Minnesota. This may be a bad idea, though. As I’ve indicated previously, WalMart pharmacies don’t seem to have their act together well at all. They treat each new prescription as if I’m a brand new customer so they don’t get the address right nor do they see that they are supposed to give me easy-open caps. This one didn’t notice they were supposed to fill with a generic if possible nor did they file a claim with our insurance company. So Dave had them do it over again. I think I need to Google Target and see if they are more prevalant than I originally thought.

At least, this WalMart had recycling bins. We finally got rid of that bag of cans we’ve been carrying around plus another bag we filled up while trying to get rid of the first one. Yay!

Then we started seeing the Route 66 sights in ABQ. We were supposed to do this earlier in the day so the photos didn’t come out as well as I would have liked. And some of the places we saw didn’t have good photo opportunities at all since they were all along Central Avenue, a busy 4-lane street. But, we did see the De Anza Motel, the Royal Motor Inn, the Town Lodge Motel, the Aztec Motel, the Lobo Theater, the 66 Diner, and the KiMo theater.

We had lunch at the 66 Diner. We almost didn’t because we couldn’t find a place to park. We got trapped in their parking lot without finding a spot then found ourselves turning into a very narrow alley trying to get out again. I got out and helped Dave figure out the maneuvers required. We had about three inches on each side of us as we made the turn but we didn’t scrape anything. Then we parked in a lot next door, with me helping him back up over that same alley so close to a utility pole that when Dave got out of the RV it leaned into the pole. When we were ready to leave, he pulled out of that one before I got in or something would have been damaged.

The diner had lots of memorabilia on the walls including a row of hundreds of Pez dispensers which reminded me of my friend the late Pat Walker who also had a collection of them. I still miss him.

The diner also had George Lopez eating at the table next to our booth. All the waitresses suddenly felt a need to come to our end of the counter to roll silverware in napkins. And a few people stopped to ask for photos and/or autographs. All of this happened behind my back so I didn’t know what the fuss was until he and his friends left. I’ve never watched his TV program so I wouldn’t have known who he was if the waiter didn’t tell us. He did look like he should be somebody, though. Something about his tan and his clothes and the way he carried himself. I wonder if celebrities don’t get tired of never being able to eat a meal in peace, though.

Driving down old route 66 in cities can be a challenge because I see lots of places that look like they should have been on our list and wonder why they weren’t. One of the reasons may be because they bought their signs from this place–The Absolutely Neon Co. How would you like to have that display in your front window?

We also went to the American International Rattlesnake Museum. Sort of. It was in Old Town where the streets were narrow, not as narrow as that alley, but narrow anyway. And the only parking was in a paid lot where we couldn’t tell if we would fit between the gate posts. And the museum, which we only wanted to see because it advertised a display on how to be safe around rattlesnakes, looked more like the old rattle snake/trading post tourist traps than a museum.

So we skipped it and headed back to camp where Dave is installing the new seat on my Segway and we will do laundry to be ready to hit the road again tomorrow–God willing and the creek don’t rise.

TTYL,

Linda

We Blew It

We are sitting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and have been doing so for several days now. As you may remember we were trying to get over the mountains before it got cold enough to freeze our water lines. Dave watched the weather forecasts very carefully to help us determine what the temperatures were doing. Unfortunately, when the temperatures gave us a potential break, the winds started. I don’t know if any of you have ever driven a motorhome in 35 miles an hour wind gusts. We try very hard not to do so. Blowing off the road is not on our list of things we want to do.

So we are still sitting in Albuquerque. And the temperature here dropped to 19 degrees last night. And our water lines are fine. It turns out our furnace blows into the water pump area and the rest of the lines are inside the coach. The indoor/outdoor thermometer Dave put in the pump area only got down into the 60s last night.

So we’ve had a few days off. Or a few off days. I’m not sure.

Here’s some of the things we’ve done with those days:

We cleaned house, inside and out.

We did the monthly maintenance of the RV.

We reset our clocks and watches–except for my pocket watch; we haven’t found it yet.

We paid bills and filed papers.

We backed up the computers.

We checked on my Segway and ordered a new seat for it.

We ordered a bunch of freeze-dried foods.

We caught up with our on-line discussion groups.

Dave did some more fine tuning of the Escapees Class of ’08 map.

And, of course, I did more trip research.

So now we can’t leave because the Segway seat is coming here Friday. The freeze-dried food will be waiting for us at an REI in California.

So still we sit. Which is actually a nice thing to do every now and then.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 27 Route 66

I have become a morning person! Not on purpose. I just went to bed early the day we crossed into Mountain Time Zone and then daylight savings time ended. So when I woke up at 8 am this morning it was actually 6 am! I haven’t been up that early in a long time. We were on the road shortly after 9 am.

Today we saw the Route 66 sights in Tucumcari, New Mexico: Tepee Curios, the Blue Swallow Motel which was advertising 100% refrigerated air, and LaCita with its sombrero entrance.

It’s clear we are now out west. Even this two lane highway has cattle guards wherever we cross another road. We slow way down for them since they shake us up enough at slow speeds.

One of the old alignments of Route 66 went to Santa Fe. It included a hill with a 28% grade. We decided not to go there. Can you imagine the pioneers doing that with their wagons? This must be one of the ones I’ve seen pictures of where they tied ropes to each wagon and everyone helped pull them up the hill.

Today’s route took us alongside a Union Pacific Railroad mainline. We saw a long mixed freight moving beside a stopped stack train. That surprised me since usually stack trains are carrying higher priority merchandise than mixed freights. Maybe it had to do with the auto racks on the mixed freight. We also saw another stopped train that had two locomotives on each end so we weren’t able to determine which direction it was headed.

In Santa Rosa, New Mexico, we visited the Route 66 Auto Museum. All of these vehicles are sitting outside the museum. Since we are racing weather we didn’t take time to go inside. We’re not either one that much into autos anyway.

Then we ate lunch at Joseph’s where we saw another classic car. It wasn’t on display, though. It’s owner finished lunch and drove away about the same time we did.

We also stopped at a gas station where I saw two teenage boys wearing chaps over their jeans. I wanted to take their picture but they were too close to do so without them noticing and I thought they’d be embarrassed if they caught me or if I asked their permission so I didn’t.

We stopped at a rest area to see what they are like in New Mexico. This one had full facilities for everything except recycling. We may carry our bag of cans all the way to California.

There were a lot of billboards for the Flying C Ranch souvenir shop. They advertised a lot of authentic Indian and Mexican goods. Since they also advertised Black Hills Gold I question their authenticity of anything. Why would anyone want to buy a souvenir of South Dakota while in New Mexico? We didn’t stop there.

As we passed Clines Corners, New Mexico, we started seeing mountains. They don’t appear to have any snow on them yet.

In Moriarity, New Mexico, we stopped to get a picture of the rotosphere at El Comedor de Anayas. That thing moves.

I tried to take a nap there but every time I started to doze off a fly landed on my face. Dave is good at killing flies but having him keep swatting them wouldn’t have let me sleep either. So I gave up and we moved on.

We drove by a movie rental place that gave us a chuckle. Their sign said, “Get your flicks on Route 66.”

We planned to stop at Hidden Valley Resort but it lived up to its name by hiding so well we couldn’t find it so we just kept driving.

Finally we reached Alburquerque, New Mexico. We stopped first at Home Depot to see if we could buy a new water pressure regulator since our previous one is now gracing some park we stopped at earlier. They didn’t have one there but Dave did buy an indoor/outdoor wireless thermometer so he can monitor the temperature in our pump bay when there’s a risk of it freezing.

Then we stopped at Camping World where he did buy a new regulator. I wish I’d remembered to have him buy some collapsible water jugs there.

We are now camped next door to Camping World at Enchanted Trails RV Park. We have full hookups for $14 with our Passport America discount. Unfortunately, the sewer connection is raised so I imagine we’ll wait until we are leaving to stop at their dump rather than try that uphill dumping again. Once was enough for that experience.

We did see some more vintage cars here, though. With vintage trailers attached. Cool, huh?

This campground also has this sign at the entrance.

I like it when people use humor to gently remind people of things they need to think about.

TTYL,

Linda