Category: RV Stuff

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

Day 25 Route 66

We started the day at a Flying J in Amarillo, Texas, but the lines were long and other places were selling diesel cheaper so we backed out of line and headed back up to Route 66.

Rumor has it people are trying to preserve the Triangle Motel. They aren’t yet doing a good job of it.

The Triangle is doing better than the Natatorium, though. The Nat started as a place to swim then converted to a ballroom. There’s now so much stuff built around it that we couldn’t get a decent picture.

Next we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond. I’ve been having trouble sleeping on the jack-knife style sofa bed. On the View/Navion discussion group someone suggested getting a king bed bridge from BB&B. That turns out to be a t-shaped piece of foam that’s designed to go between two twin beds to turn them into a king bed. It was only $15 so it seemed worth trying. It turned out to be worth a lot more than that for me.

Then we went to WalMart to get new caps for my prescriptions and to stock up on groceries again. The pharmacy clerk who originally filled the prescriptions left something to be desired; she never did get our address right even though she copied it off the prescriptions. After watching her struggle with that I forgot to ask for easy off caps.  So, Dave took the caps into this WalMart with him and asked them for some non adult proof caps. That got him a double take but he did come back with caps I can remove without his help.

By the time we got through there all we wanted to do was veg out. So we went next door to Burger King for lunch. We don’t do that often but, for me, BK burgers are comfort food.

That helped enough to let us continue. Next stop: Cadillac Ranch. This place is a hoot! Ten Cadillacs buried nose down in the dirt. The owner, Stanley Marsh, encourages people to walk through the gate in the fence and add their graffiti to the cars. We took pictures instead. I especially got a chuckle out of the sign posted along the fence. The dumpster was on the road side of the fence.

  

We were too tired to head on down the road but not thrilled about going back to the campground we’d stayed at the night before either. So we were pleased when we found another campground right at the corner by Cadillac Ranch. The Amarillo West RV Park only wanted $20 for full hookups so we stayed there. It wasn’t fancy but it offered everything we needed and then some. Dave even used their shower facility before we settled down to sleep.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 24 Route 66

Some Route 66 states found a couple of good ways to preserve a lot of the old route. In rural areas, they made it the frontage road (or service road or outer road) of the Interstate Freeways. In cities they made it the business route. Those two things help us stay on track as we travel.

Today we crossed the border into Texas. They do things differently here. For instance, freeway rest areas here are picnic areas. They have tables but no other facilities. You can stop and sleep all night if you want to, though. Since we prefer to have electricity to run our furnace fan at night, we probably won’t take them up on that offer.

The leaves are changing color here! It’s hard to remember that they even have trees that have leaves, but in northeast Texas they do. They have seasons in this part of Texas. In fact, Dave says the really bad blizzards we got in Minnesota that came from the south instead of the west originated here.

Our first Route 66 stop today was the former U Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas. The cafe is still in business.

The book says Route 66 comes and goes between Shamrock and McLean, Texas, so we should take I-40. We did. Boy did it feel wrong to be on the Freeway! Plus, we could see Route 66 beside us so we think, for the first time, the book led us wrong.  

It was interesting to see how we responded to being back on the freeway, though. Dave has said if we hit snow or freezing temperatures we might have to get on the freeway and “make a run for it.” Was this foreshadowing of how that would be?

Our next stop was the Texas Route 66 Museum. I like their pictures of things along the route because their photos were of the families that owned the businesses standing in front of them. It was nice to have people in the pictures so the places had some life to them. That doesn’t mean Dave or I are going to stand in front of the things we photograph, though.

I also like the Coke machine they had. This one obviously dates from the days when Coke was not in competition with water.

We went to the McLean post office to pick up our mail but they were closed for lunch. So we toured more of the sites in town while we waited. While driving from one place to another we met a John Deere tractor driving down brick Main Street I wish I’d had my camera ready to get that picture! Here’s another Phillips 66 station. Note the outside rack for servicing cars.

And here’s the Cactus Motel. Housekeeping was moving from room to room while we were there.

 

Then we returned to the post office but it still wasn’t open so we snacked while we waited. Then, having received a read a bunch of our mail, we moved on.

This leaning water tower is in Groom, Texas. Lot’s of people stop there to ask them what happened. Which is precisely the point. It was built that way so people would stop rather than just drive by.

Then we stopped in Amarillo, Texas, for lupper. If a combination breakfast and lunch is brunch, isn’t a combination lunch and supper lupper? The Big Texan Steak Ranch’s claim to fame is a 72 oz steak dinner that you get for free if you can eat it all in an hour. Otherwise you pay $72. We were pretty hungry but decided not to risk it. We settled for smaller steaks. Besides they make you sit up on a stage next to a countdown clock if you order the big one. As former Minnesotans that’s too much attention.

Then we went to the A-OK campground where we planned to spend the night. But, they had too much electricity. Our EMS, electrical management system, shuts down the incoming electricity if it gets as high as 132 volts. When Dave plugged in our EMS it read 130 then 131. Rather than having our electricity turn on and off all night again, we moved to the Amarillo Ranch RV Park. It cost more but it also had a book exchange where I traded in six books, so I guess we came out OK.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 22 Route 66

Yesterday we drove from the Lucky Star Casino in El Reno, Oklahoma, to the Lucky Star Casino in Clinton, Oklahoma. The first one had full hookups but no shuttle. At the second one the shuttle driver said they had no hookups until we said we wouldn’t stay then he found a 30 amp electrical one for us. Neither charged a fee and neither made us sign up for a player’s card so they don’t even know who we are. This free camping is helping our budget a lot.

When we left camp we went first to WalMart where we mailed our absentee ballots, filled some prescriptions, restocked our groceries, and bought a hanging shoe bag.  

The shoe bag is designed to hang on the back of a door. We cut the bottom off it and hung it on the back of the dinette just inside the door. Now we have a place to keep our shoes handy where they won’t rattle around.

Then we went to a recycling center that didn’t want our pop cans. They were closed for lunch and were frustrated that we couldn’t find the container labeled cans. We were frustrated, too; we are still carrying that bag of cans.

Finally, we headed on down Route 66.  As we neared a place where there were two possible routes, there was a big sign from the Calumet Chamber of Commerce urging us to take their route. The smaller sign said “Paved Route 66”. We chose paved.

The route we chose was “interesting” enough. It was two narrow lanes of the original pink concrete and it followed the contours of the land; they didn’t grade the roads back then like they so now. So it was full of what the turn-by-turn author called “dipsy doodles”. It felt a lot like some kiddy carnival ride. To make matters worse, the angled curbs they used channeled all the water to the bottom of each hill where it froze and broke up the concrete so each of those places had been patched with asphalt which also didn’t hold up well. Like I said, it was an “interesting” ride.

We stopped for lunch at a truck stop at a Cherokee Restaurant. I had a barbecued buffalo sandwich.  I like buffalo; it’s lean but tasty. Dave’s French dip was made with slices of real beef roast. So we both went away happy.

Next we did take an alternate route because we wanted to cross the bridge of 38 spans. Most of it went over flood plain but it did eventually cross a river.

Our next Route 66 stop was Lucille’s in Hydro, Oklahoma. Unfortunately Lucille is no longer with us so there is just the building and a monument telling her story.

In the next town, Weatherford, Oklahoma, there is a Lucille’s Roadhouse in a similar building with an art deco addition. It felt to me like they were trying to take advantage of the original Lucille’s popularity but maybe it belonged to her family. I don’t know.

Also, in Weatherford we found a propane dealer. He was pleased to fill our tank for us so we wouldn’t have to worry about our furnace going out in the night. He had two dogs. The tiny chihuahua marked our tire as if that made him the owner of our motorhome. Oh, if only it were that easy!

It was still early when we reached Clinton, Oklahoma, but not early enough to visit the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum located here. We didn’t have any potential campgrounds on our list here, either. So when we saw the sign for the Lucky Star Casino we felt lucky indeed. Another night’s free camping and another night when we didn’t have to cook. This casino’s restaurant turned out to be just a fast food style deli but their sandwiches were good. And we have a good internet signal. What else could we want?

TTYL,

Linda