The Road Goes On…

Category: Trips

Elephant Butte, NM

Today we managed to cover a whole 26 kms but had a lot of fun.

After picking Cindy’s brain at the Cedar Cove RV park for things to do in the area we started with a brunch buffet at the Hodges Corner Restaurant. Kim, one of the waitresses there, recommended the Riverbend Hot Mineral Springs Resort and Spa right at the Rio Grande. They offer a Soak and Float package which includes an hour of soaking in their five hot spring tubs and an hour long float on an inner tube 6 miles down the Rio Grande. Wow, what a lot of fun!

Back to Hodges Corner Restaurant for dinner and the Cedar Cover RV park for the night where we expect to have an extremely relaxing sleep.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

June 7, 2013
Albuquerque, NM to Elephant Butte, NM

After spending the night on the Walmart parking lot, it was only fitting that we visit the store for breakfast at the McDonald’s inside.

Our packed day started with a 2-3 hour visit of the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History where we learned all about the Manhattan Project (first nuclear bomb) and nuclear materials in warfare, medicine and power generation.

Next was a visit to an older section of Albuquerque where we saw the KiMo Theatre, built circa 1927 in the Pueblo Deco style which reflects the cultural influences of Indian, Hispanic and Anglo of the area.

Also in the area is the Hotel Andaluz, a former Hilton property from 1939 where Conrad Hilton married Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1942.

We decided to do an excursion to White Sands National Monument in the south. On the way we passed the White Sands Missile Range where we found a plaque near the Trinity Site where the first atomic bomb was tested. The actual site can be visited only twice a year.

Next came the Valley of Fires National Recreation Area which had nothing to do with the atomic bomb, but is an area of lava flow about 5000 years old. Many plants and animals live in this area now and a short interpretive trail helps visitors identify them.

Among the animals listed were lizards and Martin was complaining he didn’t see any of them. Evidently the lizards heard this and shortly thereafter two appeared.

Another thunderstorm loomed as we arrived at the White Sands National Monument where we arrived shortly before sunset. We only had 30 minutes or so before the sky turned completely back and the lightning flashes were close.

The weather report called for a severe thunderstorm with hail up to 1 inch. Not wanting to risk damaging the van, we decided to head back towards Albuquerque, about 4 hours away. Along the way were were stopped by the Border Control folks searching for illegal immigrants. They didn’t have any problems with Canadian tourists.

About 240 km from Albuquerque we stopped at the Cedar Cove RV & Mobile Home Park in Elephant Butte. What a fabulous place. The showers are huge, wheelchair accessible and absolutely spotless.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

June 6, 2013
Tucumcari, NM to Albuquerque, NM

The night was still a bit young and after writing last night’s blog we stopped by the campfire where we met up with Tom, one of the owners of the campsite, and a couple from England and had our first moonshine from Georgia. We talked about local politics, car racing and rich people in Bermuda who have to cut their cars in half in order to be allowed to buy a new one. There was some discussion of the benefits of having a BMW or Mercedes on an island that has a speed limit of 20 miles per hour.

The next morning we visited Tee Pee Curios and bought some interesting Mexican items.

The owner, Mike Callens, is an accomplished photographer and sells some of his prints in the store.

We drove on, mostly on I-40 since Route 66 is fragmented or dirt road in many parts of New Mexico. Just outside of Newkirk we came across remains of an old gas station and restaurant.

In Santa Rosa we visited the Route 66 Auto Museum.

Lunch was at a Mexican and American cuisine restaurant called the Silver Moon which was established in 1959. The food was great and the souvenir shop wasn’t bad either.

Santa Rosa is a very special city in that it has a collection of artesian springs in the area. The most famous is the Blue Hole which is more than 80 ft deep and 60 ft wide.

Back on our route, we were very happy we had decided not to go to Santa Fe when we saw the smoke from the forest fires. In the picture below, the you can see the smoke cloud caused by the fire.

We made it to Albuquerque and stopped at Absolutely Neon, only because it was one of the waypoints that we had on Route 66.

This was a good thing because we met Robert Randazzo, the owner of the store/gallery.

After talking for four hours about neon signs, politics and everything else under the sun, we decided to buy a small neon sign and then the three of us headed out for dinner at around 9PM. The Vietnamese restaurants we had intended to go to were closed by now so we ended up in an Italian restaurant in a very trendy area.

After pizza and beer we headed off to a nearby Walmart parking lot for a good night sleep. Those of you who watch Breaking Bad on TV (which is filmed in Albuquerque) might recognize our RV neighbour.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

June 5, 2013
Amarillo, TX to Tucumcari, NM

It was a dark and stormy night….

The thunderstorm that started at around midnight and lasted until about 1:30AM was so strong that it shook our 4 ton truck. Fortunately no damage done. Needless to say, everything started a bit later this morning. Add to that the discussion about whether to take the Santa Fe loop or not.

Our first stop of interest was Vega. We stopped, not for a museum, but for a visit to the Boot Hill Saloon and Grill. Two ice teas were our ticket to have a closer look inside.

The words of wisdom for today: “Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction.”

After seeing a couple more abandoned gas stations and motels we arrived at the Midpoint Cafe which is coincidentally located at the midpoint of Route 66. Dennis is the current owner, having bought it two years ago to fulfill his dream of owning a cafe on Route 66.

The burgers were the best on the trip so far, but the “Midpoint ugly pies” which he makes himself were the highlight.

The story behind the name is that the recipe was that of the former owner’s baker’s grandmother. The granddaughter, while learning to bake as a child, wasn’t able to make as nice a crust as her grandmother, so they got the name “Ugly Crust Pies” which became “Midpoint Ugly Pies” with the current owner.

A little further down the road is the virtual ghost town of Glenrio, Texas. We stopped to take some pictures of a completely deserted four lane road (part of Route 66), which our GPS cheerfully announced as I-40 Business Loop.

A fine opportunity to give the tilt-shift lens a go.

We said goodbye to Texas and the Central timezone and headed into New Mexico, headed back to Texas after missing the visitor center and then back to New Mexico and its visitor center. Loads of brochures and great plans to visit Santa Fe and Los Alamos only to have our plans altered because of forest fires in that region. We slowly feel that we’re constantly weaving our way through natural disasters on this trip!

Near Endee, at the Russell service center we stopped to visit a vintage car museum and Ruth again feel in love with a turquoise Bel-Air. There just happened to be one for sale at a good price in the miniature edition.

Our last stop was in Tucumcari (Two-Come-Cari) where we spent some time talking to Kevin and Nancy, the owners of the beautiful Blue Swallow Motel. The motel was built in 1939 and Kevin and Nancy have lovingly restored it in a 1950s style, with original furniture and decor. It may be the only motel that still has garages for the guests next to their rooms. Unfortunately they were all booked for the night.

On the side of the motel are beautiful murals of Route 66 which we will leave you with tonight.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

June 4, 2013
Shamrock, TX to Amarillo, TX

Today was a very exciting sightseeing day starting with the Art Deco U-Drop Inn building in Shamrock.

Next stop was the Devil’s Rope Museum in McLean which made us aware of the importance of all kinds of barbed wire, particularly for cattle containment but also for its military purposes. “Barbed wire gave us control of the land and windmills make the land habitable”. The was also a great photo and first hand account of the dust bowl in the 1930s.

Just east of Amarillo was a Peace installation designed by Richard Baker. Fascinating.

At point it was 3PM and our small breakfast had long worn off. Time to hit the Big Texan, home of the Free 72 oz Steak Dinner if you can eat it and three sides including a fully baked potato in 60 minutes. The current record holder accomplished this in just under 9 minutes! And yes, one brave soul attempted the feat but ultimately wasn’t successful. They even have a live webcam where you can watch the action as customers attempt the feat – http://www.bigtexan.com

Everything truly is bigger in Texas.

Free limo service to the restaurant is available in these fine vehicles:

On the menu – Mountain Oysters – “If you think it’s seafood, go with the shrimp” and “He was a bold man that ate the first Mountain Oyster”. And no, we weren’t that bold.

Last, but definitely not least was the trip the Cadillac Ranch just west of town. Several hours were spent here waiting for the tourists to finally go home so we could photograph the cars (and cows) in peace.

Tonight we’re staying at a campground near the site as it was dark when we finished the photo shoot.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

June 3, 2013
Guthrie, OK to Shamrock, TX

We cheated a bit today! But first we had a great breakfast as guests of our new camp site friends Wanda and Andy which was a lot of fun! Yes, and then we had to leave and still couldn’t go through Guthrie because of the flooding, which was sad because we had decided to visit this town because of its Victorian architecture and the drive-in movie theatre, both we were not able to enjoy, even today. Nevertheless we had a day full of new impressions. It began by cheating! We couldn’t take Route 66 as planned but had to take two faster highways to Oklahoma City, in a way a nice treat since we average only about 70km per hour on Route 66. Route 66 in Oklahoma City did not lead us into the modern city centre but even the outskirts were modern, impressive and cheerful. In some areas however neglect was predominant. We left Oklahoma City via 39th Street Expressway and came to Lake Overholser, named after mayor Ed Overholser, crossed the beautiful Overholser Bridge and drove along the shore of the lake.

Beautiful scenery and not much flooding there. In Yukon we caught sight of the very self assured statement “Yukon’s Best Flour – No finer or more modern mills in America” by Yukon MIlls & Grains Co. and fortunately we didn’t find any evidence of the Tornado that came down in the area on Friday.

Passing through El Reno however should a different picture. On a small section of our route through El Reno we could get a glimpse in the magnitude of destruction this section of the city has to deal with now.

Martin’s brother asked whether our tour gives us more the feeling of the old glory of Route 66 or rather a dreary look at harsh realities. Martin and I both see that the glory of Route 66 is in the past. However, off and on there are examples that give way to hope, that highway travel in the fast lane will still have an alternative in the future and will find people who will appreciate a way of travel that lets you get to know places and people of the area you drive through. One example of the attempt to recreate an icon of the past is Lucille’s Roadhouse. Lucille Hamons had her Gas Station and small restaurant in Hydro and was famous for sharing road stories with her customers.

After she passed away, her gas station and eatery were closed since her location on Route 66 was by-passed for a long time. However, a brand new Lucille’s Roadhouse opened in Weatherford. The architecture is similar and on the menu in the restaurant are some of Lucille’s dishes.

Another example are the Drive-Ins which could be found everywhere on Route 66, some old ones are still in business and a new chain is doing good business.

In Clinton we visited the Route 66 Museum – definitely a Must-Visit if you do this route. It shows the history of Route 66 starting from its planning through to its decommissioning.

The outside collection of buildings at the Old Town Museum at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City was a nice additional treat.

We then crossed into Texas and stayed at the West 40 RV Campground in Shamrock, Texas.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

June 2, 2013
Carthage, MO to Tulsa, OK

Homework – routing Kansas and Oklahoma – was on the agenda even before breakfast. E-mails were written, notes for next blog entries crafted, needless to say it was lunch instead of breakfast at our restaurant that let us sleep in their lot. When we left it was very hot and humid … we should have known.

The 66 Drive-In Theatre still in Missouri was in beautiful condition and is still in use.

The gas station in Kansas of the four women received an exceptional face lift. We talked to one of the four women who owned this gas station during the hey days of Route 66 and she told us that the gas station and the tow truck at the station were inspirations for the animation movie Cars.

The building next door was a brothel with very interesting stories of crime and intrigue. We were told to stay tuned.

One more stop at the Blue Whale, a former water park and from then on we only looked at beautiful Route 66 sites briefly because we were on the run chased by tornado warnings.

And in the end we made it safe and sound to one of the places the least hit in the tornado zone today, to Tulsa. Here we parked the RV at the Hampton Hotel and splurged by taking a room for a safe night.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

May 31, 2013
Devil’s Elbow, MO to Carthage, MO

We left our private ‘campground’ at the Elbow Bridge early in the morning before breakfast, crossed elbow bridge, traveled through Devil’s Elbow and booted it to Lebanon to visit the Munger Moss Motel.

The former restaurant and the motel, which is still in business were established by the same people how had a sandwich place where the Elbow Inn is today. We talked to the female owner and discovered that there are states in the US that are not necessarily Obama fans.

We had liked Springfield Illinois and we liked Springfield Missouri as well first of all because of its wonderful chocolate store Askinosie, a famous judge. He established chocolate manufacture after a cup cake stint and imports the coco beans from select farmers in a couple of counties. He produces his own chocolate and shares the profits with his selected farmers. 3rd world projects are another item on Mr. Askinosie’s list. Food items are for sale in his store and the proceeds go the countries in need 100%.

The nearby Jefferson Avenue Footbridge across railroad tracks is still in use, we walked it and it is in very good shape for being in use since 1902.

We left Springfield and our next ‘quick’ stop was Gary Turner’s gas and repair station in Paris Springs.

We had a lovely visit, good chats with the family and bikers from Austria during a torrential rain. Gary, one of the experts when it comes to Route 66 in Missouri, suggested we pay Lowell Davis a visit in Red Oak II, which is what we did.

Driving through sheds of water we finally arrived on Red Oak II and met with Lowell and Rose. Lowell was born on a farm and used some of this land to create his own town using the buildings from the old village of Red Oak (I) and having them transported to his land and building Red Oak II. Art work from metal, chickens, cats and dogs add to the colorful architecture. But Lowell himself with his wonderful stories, small sculptures from metal and china, his paintings, cartoons and books was absolutely fascinating.

Finally we had dinner in Carthage at 9pm at the Sirloin Stockade, not a Route 66 must visit! And we received permission from the restaurant to sleep in their truckers parking lot. The truckers were not too pleased with us because we parked right in the middle of the lot, because it was the only level point. All had to drive with their long trucks around us.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

May 30, 2013
Eureka, MO to Devil’s Elbow, MO

Time is just running. We are still following Route 66 religiously but don’t stop everywhere anymore. We drove by Red Cedar Restaurant in Pacific and the Sunset Hotel in Villa Ridge, did stop however at the Gardenway Motel west of Grey Summit. We liked the sign with the glass blocks so typical for the time of Route 66.

The old sign of the Diamond Restaurant we missed but photographed the remnants of the building.

Time for a change of scenery, the Meramec Caverns in the Stanton region were our next stop. Amazing caves with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites and stories on bandits Jessie James and his brother staying in the caverns, sharing their loot and escaping via an unknown exit.

From cave to springs we went this day by visiting Maramec Springs and the ruins of a 19th century iron works. Very nice park and lots of information on working with iron.

We stopped later at the beautiful Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba and missed hwy 19 Drive-In Theatre and did not stop for the world’s largest rocker in Fanning-Rosati but went instead to the Elbow Inn close to Devil’s Elbow with its beautiful bridge for dinner and bear with the boys. The locals were mostly retired officers and specialists of the near by Army base and we had the opportunity to have great conversations with these super nice people. We even parked our RV at the fence of the Inn and slept right there.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

May 29, 2013
Lincoln, IL to Eureka, MO

Left Camp-a-while campground after a quick cleaning of the RV and went to see Lincoln. Missed the old Mill restaurant right away but did see Postville Courthouse, a replica. Lincoln did frequent this court as lawyer and the Deskins tavern across the street to meet with colleagues for lunch and stay overnight.

At the former site of the burned down famous Pig-Hip Restaurant and Motel we only found a plaque and an empty lot.

In Williamsville we had a wonderful hour at the vintage gas station at 117 N. Elm. The owner is a collector of everything and anything collectable and even has a small section with household goods. The die cast auto section however was a bit disappointing, the kittens however in the old truck made up for this.

In Springfield we peeked through the fence at the fine collection of car related ‘toys’ at Shea’s service station. Too bad it was all fenced off.

As the capital of Illinois Springfield gives tribute to Abraham Lincoln in a big way. We visited the tomb and rubbed the nose -as so many did before- of Lincoln’s bronze bust.

Time for lunch at the Cozy Dog Drive-In. Ed Waldmire invented these corn dogs while serving military duty at Amarillo, Texas and established a small chain of eateries in 1949 at the same time as the first couple of Dairy Queen’s in Springfield with corn dogs as their specialty. Corn dogs are hot dogs fried in batter. And yes, they are really tasty.

A nice chat with some of the other patrons followed about the economy in Springfield after the manufactoring sector left the city. After taking a quick picture of the old sign of the former Art’s Motel at Farmersville and of the Sky View Drive-In Theater, which is still showing double features on Friday, Saturday and Sunday since 1951 we visited the Ariston Café, had great cake and got our picture taken behind the bar by the owner. It is a family business still today.

Yet another old gas station came our way in Mount Olive, the Russell Soulsby Shell Station, followed by Henry’s Rabbit Ranch in Staunton, which will not offend vegetarians and make German eyes smile!

Another drive in visit in Mitchell, the old Balair, was followed, and yes, there is a pattern, by another café, the Luna Café.

The Chain of Rocks Bridge was our last item on the Illinois agenda and it was a bit of a scary one. This bridge carried in the old days the traffic of Route 66 across the Mississippi from Illinois to Missouri. Today the bridge can only be used by pedestrians and cyclists. We wanted to do the same, but auto glass on the first parking lot and a lot of young people hanging out in their cars and more people coming and parking next to our RV made us feel uneasy and we took off and started the Missouri leg of our trip.

A KOA camping spot in the Eureka area was nice an quiet after our trip through St. Louis where we did not miss out on Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, the predecessor of the Dairy Queen Product in Springfield.

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May 28, 2013