Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Leaving Tucumcari

Wednesday May 25, 2011
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM

Today was running day so we went out
to run around Tucumcari
and perhaps over to the “Historic Section”. 
I’m trying to get moving here
on ROUTE 66,
Tucumcari  Blvd the  main street.
But I’m definitely not getting “my kicks”
at the moment.
J

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Cut over off of 66 to some side streets
and passed this interesting private home

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Over into the “historic district” and
past the Oden Theater

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which is still showing movies

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but is for sale.

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Interested in going into business for yourself?
Looks like an excellent price  for this theater
and everything inside including the popcorn machine.
Sure hope somebody buys it. 
It’s a long way to the next town for a movie
assuming they even have a theater. 
Sadly Not much happening in
this part of the state without Route 66..

 
Do you think, in cases like this, the city should
buy the theater at this price to keep it alive and then
contract the running out like many National Parks do their “concessions”?

There are a number of interesting buildings
in the historic area
(loved the trim work here-click to enlarge)

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including the “other” movie house which is out of business
Great looking building.  Really a shame.

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Looks like they may be restoring the train station
although it was hard to tell since it was before 8AM
and no one was working although just to
down the block to were a bunch of guys
in orange vests being talked to by a
buy with a bullhorn.  But they might
have been highway workers.
Hope not.

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One thing Tucumcari does have for sure are some
excellent muralists as you’ve
already seen.
Here are some that we ran by today.

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Finally, we ran back through the neighborhoods
to Winnona

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The loss of Route 66 and now
the economic recession have hit this
area very hard.  We are sure
hoping for the best for these
folks and what could be a darling little town.

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Notice the shrine in this woman’s yard.
very common here.

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Breakfast, shower, departure list check offs
and we’re on our way to Albuquerque.

It was a 185 mile trip
and I was VERY GLAD the 50mph winds
from yesterday were absent today.

As we drove down I-40 we saw
signs saying “Dangerous Crosswinds”
and “Gusty Winds May be Present”.


Although the winds were much less strong than yesterday,
we could really feel them hitting the side of rig.
Hold on tight, keep her in the lane.


For sure I would never drive this route in anything
more windy than we had today.  Wish we had
a wind speed indicator on Winnona so I’d know exactly
how strong those winds were.

WE pulled into Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Company
around 3pm.  It’s another desert campground.
Dirt and Trees.
Seems like all these places have some nice big
trees up toward the front of the park which is
the area shown on their websites but most
of the park is treeless or at best one
medium size tree for every 3 sites.
Ahhhh for our days of wooded parks.
J

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Here there is one picnic table for every other site,
sites are close together but it is
the least expensive thing around Albuquerque. 
$30 a night for 30 amp service.  50% discount for
Passport America for a max of 2 nights. 
20% discount for Good Sam on the other nights. 
So our bill for 4 nights was $84. 
Pretty good for this area.

They do have nice clean restrooms,
though the showers are old,
and a pool for cooling off in.
But poor Wifi and no cable.


Since we have an air card, don’t watch TV
and have a fine restroom ourselves,
we were only interested in proximity to
the Petroglyph National Monument,
The Pueblo Indian Culture Museum
and Old Town Albuquerque.
All of these are on the west side of
the city so this is a perfect spot.


We got pulled in and went to level up.
But the driver’s side rear jack won’t come down.
We banged and banged and put the jacks up and
down and banged some more.   Checked the fuse.


Not sure what to do about this.  I’m wondering
if, given the winds and dirt, I should have been
crawling under the coach each time we arrive and depart
to wipe off the jacks and spray WD40.

We have a Camping World right next door,
the only one in New Mexico,
but after doing some research, we found that they had
unanimously terrible recommendations for their service. 
So at the moment we aren’t sure
what we are going to do about this problem.

If you have any ideas or experience with this
please let us know.

We had the usual leftovers for travel day dinner.
Although these were left over kabobs so that was great!

I worked on reconciling our Mastercard before paying it.
While David went out to take pictures of all the
toy vintage RVs the owner has collected.

The park office is filled
with antique RV trailer models
and their cars.
Only a few class A’s, mostly trailers from the 40’s & 50’s.

(click on any you’d like to enlarge)


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This one looks like a mini Winnebago friend
of Winnona and Wanda. 
J
They haven’t changed that big W in years.

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Aren’t they cute?
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I think the guy in the back is getting out his grille. :-)

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These were just a few of the
literally hundreds all around the office on shelves.

Where does she get them all?

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These folks look like they are having a good time
in the car passenger’s seat and the trailer doorways.

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Hmmm, who do you think had the best time
this evening??

The park owner not only has a collection of models
but has real life antique trailers in the campground.
David found out that there is a gathering of
a vintage trailer group here this week-end so
he’s quite excited.
Here are the ones permanently
on display in the campground.
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David thought it was so cool that the car was a 41 Hudson.

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I’ve never seen a Winnebago trailer
Do they still make them?

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Is Yellowstone still in business? 

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Closer view of the Commodore 6’s Trailer.

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Which is so shiny you can see the photographer

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Seems like it ought to be called the Gold
rather than the Silver Streak

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That about wraps up this day.
Another good one!!!!!!!
Hope the wind will stay down for tomorrow
so we can get out and do things.
Check back and see if we make it.

A Windy Walk

Tuesday, May 24,2011
Cactus RV Park,
Historic Route 66,
Tucumcari, NM

David here
I've been asked to write this day’s blog
since I was the only one who did anything today.  :) 

Just kidding - Sherry is always busy doing something. 
But, you see it was an extremely windy day
with constant winds of 30-40 mph
and gusting to 60 mph,
so we stayed inside. 

By the mid afternoon, I was getting restless
and needed to get outside,
but Sherry was not interested
in going out in the sun & wind
to see any more old relics from the past. 
I think she a case of nostalgiaphobea. 

So, I set out on a long walk to see more
of the historic remains of the 'Mother Road'
as some call the old now historic route 66. 

I believe it was the first two lane highway
from Chicago to California and like the railroads,
if this road came through your town,
there were business opportunities and development
to cater to those brought to town on this road. 

Service stations, eateries and motels
were the primary enterprises
and the two mile stretch of old route 66
running east & west from the Cactus RV Park
is strewn with with the legacy of the boom days. 
Everything changed when Interstate 40
came through here apparently in the 60s
and took all the traffic away from this strip. 

At least half of everything along this road
is now in decline or abandoned. 
The businesses that survive are a combination
of the most successful from the heydays
and the current crop of entrepreneurs
taking advantage of the cheap commercial real estate
to try their hand at business. 

One of the things I noticed right away
was the many murals painted on the sides of buildings
all over town -
including this one on the side of the Chamber of Commerce.

01 

Tucumcari is also the name of this mountain or butte
just a couple of miles south of town
but visible from pretty much anywhere not blocked by a building. 
It is very flat here - great for running, but that is tomorrow.

02

You may have noticed on the first picture
that this town was once named
'Six Shooter Siding' -
in fact that was the original name. 
This little saloon keeps that memory alive.

03

The surviving restaurants include the two most famous
- Del's and Kix on 66 -
still in business serving up American road food. 

04 

05

Also surviving are some Mexican influenced spots,
one new and the other still here from the days of glory.

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07

Among the many service stations along the strip,
most of which are closed and in disrepair,
this one has been nicely preserved
although it appears for no purpose but show. 
The second is a rather busy little drive through smoke shop
where I saw some people still driving through
to buy cigarettes without having to get out of the car.

08 

09

Motels were a big business on this strip
– more so than any other type of business. 
The Blue Swallow survives today
not only because of its fabulous neon sign,
but surely also on the "100% Refrigerated Air",
but most importantly because many if not all rooms
also had a garage adjacent for your car! 
Talk about extravagance in the 50s!

10a 

10b

Other motels somehow still open from that era include
the Tucumcari Inn ("American Owned" on their sign
must attract some customers or perhaps they think it will),
the Motel Safari (very original retro) and the Pow Wow Inn.

10c

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And some of the less fortunate motels still remain to remind us of their former glory.

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15

Some of the failed motels have been converted to RV parks
- including the one we stayed in (Cactus RV in neon) while another RV park clearly from an earlier age was just shut down and left empty (Hunt's Trailer Park).

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Just across the street from our RV Park was another
- this one being "Veteran Owned". 
I suppose that might attract some folks.

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I'll close with some of my favorite of the very fine murals
painted mostly on the walls of buildings through out the town.

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And last, my very favorite neon from the night before,
is atop a laundromat.

 

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