'Get your kicks... on Route 66...'
The neat thing about my trip out to New Mexico was that from Oklahoma City westward, there were markers for Route 66... I didn't realize how much of the old Route 66 still existed until I was on my way back home...
I exited I-40E at Tucumcari, NM... there were road signs about a dinosaur museum being located there... and I recalled a lame joke about dinosaur floats... so I thought it needed to be checked out. About a mile or so east of I-40, I came upon... Route 66, and it was as if I had driven through a time warp and had entered the late 50's / early 60's.
There was an architecture associated with that time... buildings that looked like this...
Or this one...
Or even this one...
This is a slice of Americana that is almost all gone...
Thank God that a few die-hards have found this valuable enough to retain...
With the exception of the first photo, these structures are all found in Tucumcari...
this made me wish that I had spent more time in Albuquerque exploring Route 66 that
still winds through that city... I would love to go back just to see more of these types of structures!!
____________
I lamented about not being able to make it further West on my trip... about how beautiful and how spiritual I find the Mesas and the Canyons to be... While looking for the 'Route 66' theme above, I found this haunting rendition of 'Deguello'...
This is based on the music that General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered to be played as a signal to the men inside of the Alamo... the meaning of the song, or of the bugle call was that of 'No Quarter'... no one would be spared... no one would survive. True to that notion, the several soldiers captured after the Battle of the Alamo were summarily executed.
However, watch the video... only the opening scene is shot at the Grand Canyon... the rest of it was filmed in Monument Valley... just look at those wonderful rock structures... and maybe you can understand why I am drawn back to such beauty...
*sighs*
~shoes~
Back in the early 1960's our family traveled to LA on Rte 66. From where I lived, we traveled the entire length of that road except for the first 100 or so miles. Every year there is a Rte 66 celebration near here when people take their antique cars for a memory drive.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very wistful ending to this post. Cheer up. A new crop of young female students will be arriving soon for your viewing pleasure.
My recent visit to Oklahoma City was my first time seeing/driving on Route 66. It was a little thrilling. And the monument looks devine. Someday I'll get there.
ReplyDeleteI have jobs I fill in Tucumcari. Now I know what it looks like! Thanks!
Oh.... you know what I want to do? I want to take a road trip. A long one. Stopping on all exits and marking each mile and fence post. Alllllll along Route 66 - with my camera in hand! And just take pictures... building a whole album of what my eyes see along Route 66. And I'd like to make that road trip with someone interesting and special - and that person have a camera in hand building their own album - then in the end see the same route through their eyes. Yep - that's what I want to do! I could get lost for DAYS just standing in the middle of all that kitschy goodness - wandering around the buildings... I'd have to stay at a "motor inn"... drink milkshakes and floats...
ReplyDeleteHow DO you make a dinosaur float, hmmmm?
I see why you are drawn back to that beauty. I want to go stand and breathe it in...
;-D
goblin
i can't believe you just hop in the car and drive that far away... though after the disaster my flight was today, i might not be getting on a fucking airplane anytime soon!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful trip Shoesies ! I've never really taken good roadtrip like you have. Something to look forward to, I guess.
ReplyDeleteLove the nostalgia Americana from your western tour, two-step.... I hope you enjoyed your time.
ReplyDeletexx
i absolutely love nostalgic mid-20th century stuff like that. i love road trips that happen on US highways instead of interstates. when i lived down south, i'd sometimes take US 98 and US 19 from mobile to pinellas county, florida. there's a lot left on the panhandle that hasn't been touched, and it's really nice to see (especially when you contrast it with something like clearwater beach, florida, which breaks my heart every time i see it now).
ReplyDeleteoh, and thanks for the encouragement on my last entry - i needed that. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome road trip!!
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to do the Route 66 trip. I had no idea parts of it were gone. Now you have me thinking I better do it soon before it's too late.
ReplyDeletexoxo
~vk~
There was a book: Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon. I read that book, and it may be back on the shelves somewhere now, back in the early 90's. This guy traveled over 13,000 miles in America over the "blue" highways [roads that are blue on paper maps]. That's what got my imagination.
ReplyDeleteThe classic story of a "road trip" where you pack up and take off alone or with your buddies, is part of the American Story.
You need to plan this Red Shoes, and do it! Don't go in the heat. Plan to do the cold parts of the country in the summer and the hot parts in the winter.
You can blog as you go and we earthbound types could live vicariously through you. It would make a great book. You can sign me up to buy the first copy!
"Blue Swallow Motel", lol ! Yeah, I'm SURE that place was sanitary !
ReplyDelete@ Catch Her... my brother used to love to watch 'Route 66'... Was the road trip on it fun??
ReplyDeleteYeah, the end of it was wistful... it's a general feeling in the air here at the office... but it's going to be ok... :o) I hope all is well in your part of Illinois...
@ PeeDee... I didn't see all of Tucumcari, but the part I saw was wonderful... :o) There are some wonderful and beautiful places to see in this country...
@ Red.Neck... hmm... dinosaur floats? LOL... I'm sorry I didn't make it the rest of the way to see those rock structures... I needed to do that... I just did. There is something about being in the midst of something that spectacular... that has survived many civilizations... I like the idea of the photo-journalism road trip... that sounds fun...
@ Jaime... A fucking plane? They do that on planes?? (Get's an idea!!!!!) Seriously, I just needed to get away... I needed to do some healing that just wasn't going to happen here in the flat lands of Mississippi... you know?
I hope you've recovered from your trip...
@ Senorita... Hey you... maybe you haven't taken a road trip.. but I've never jumped from a perfectly good airplane... nor have I gone to Barcelona... or Amsterdam... You have MUCH to look forward to, dear.. you do!!
@ Southern Girl... it was a good trip, but I didn't accomplish what I wanted or needed to... but all in all, things are good... I have no complaints. how are YOU?!?!?!
@ Magnolia... you are right... we are in too much of a hurry... we want to be there NOW... Get there NOW... when in reality, if we slow things down... there's a LOT of NOW here... ;o) Re: the comments on your blog, it was my pleasure, dear...
@ Tee... it was good to get away... :o)
@ Hi there, VK... it was good to get away... great to slow things down a bit... Too much of our life gets away from us when we are in a hurry...
@ Charlene... that would be fun... to take that kind of a road trip and to blog about it... and do like what Red.Neck above suggested... take a ton of photos... I noticed that on my trip, I saw a lot, but didn't take many photos... hmmm. That book idea could be fun... Hmm... maybe something along the lines of 'The Red Light Highways'... LOLOLOL
@ 思韓韓韓穎 (Si Han Han Hanying) 是的是的。我还可以帮助我们从我们的那种假装的朋友我们真正的朋友。(Yes it does. I also helps us sort our real friends from our pretend friends.)
@ Heff... oddly enough, I did stop and look into one of the rooms of that place as room service was cleaning up... I would have stayed there... Very clean.. very neat!!!
~shoes~