Jan 7th: Santa Rosa, NM >> Amarillo, TX (Part 1)
Today’s weather: 50F/22F
Driving Route (Part 1):
It was cold today. Really cold. And in more than one way. But I’ll explain that in a bit. We didn’t stay long at the fuel station, just long enough for the sun to come up. I had to make the van dance and wiggle a bit to get us out of there because so many trucks were stuck there overnight during their curfew. That’s correct, “their” curfew. It seems that some states are requiring commercial vehicles be off the roads by sunset. Looks like several states are now considering the same thing for non-commercial vehicles on highways and possibly on local roads as well … or vice versa. There’s a lot of noise on the “snewz” but not much of it is making enough sense to fully believe.
We made a quick pit stop at Power Dam Falls as we headed out of Santa Rosa and then also saw Cuervo and two more ghost towns. On the way out of Santa Rosa, the route is pretty barren again, with three different ghost towns that it goes through. The ghost town of Cuervo is the most substantial with lots of structures to see. The other two ghost towns are only one to two structures as you are driving the route. At one point, we followed Route 66 under the interstate through a tight, one-lane underpass. Nesting birds that fluttered about made it feel like we were going through a cave. Luckily there was no traffic coming the other way.
Next “town” was Tucumcari. The Route 66 Museum in Tucumcari boasted a neat monument along the road which drew us in for pictures and to visit. It is filled with perfectly restored old cars and a great photographic exhibit to see. It isn’t that Lev is into cars precisely. I think it is mostly a Y-Chromosome thing. What he really likes is old cars that make fun photographic subjects. I think that is the same reason he like the old signs that he has been taking photos of.
The town of Tucumcari was one of the best Route 66 towns in New Mexico from what I could tell. We made sure to spend some time here and see some of the old signs and recreated gas stations as we drove through town. The Safari hotel was another spot. It had a neat sign depicting a camel and rider. We stopped in for a few photos. The Blue Swallow hotel was another staple on any list of Route 66 attractions according to a tour bus we crossed paths with there. It has a classic neon sign and old cars, making it a must stop.
San Jon was a small old town that was listed on the national registry of historic places with vintage garages and a few motels. We didn’t see a lot when we went through it though so it made me wonder if maybe the current circumstances had stuff closed down.
Not long after San Jon is when our day got more interesting than I was happy about.
It wasn’t till the late 1920s that Route 66 began to be paved, so for years, it was dirt or gravel. Driving this section of the road between San Jon and Glenrio was supposed to give you a feel for what it must have been like back then according to a couple of brochures that Lev had picked up. Er … fine. It was cold, dirty, and dusty. I don’t consider that nostalgic but whatever. It was a highlight for Lev, but something many people skip if they are trying to do the route fast. The gravel pinging around on the bottom of the Ark didn’t make me happy but that just meant I drover slower. I’ve driven worse in the national parks and in Alaska.
We’d stopped so Lev could take some pictures when this other car comes from behind us. I got funny feelings off of them from the get go. One, they weren’t driving the right kind of vehicle for that stretch of the road. Two, while they were male and female they didn’t give off the right kind of vibes to be a couple of any flavor. And they didn’t seem to have a long acquaintance either. They knew each other. They have a good story. But it just didn’t ring true. I sent Benny back to the Ark and locked the doors. I winked at him and he knew the drill; something was making Aunt Gus’ hamster fritzy.
When I heard a radio crackle from the woman’s purse and the guy’s “camera bag” at the same time the woman knew the jig was up but she refused to give in and kept playing their game, whatever it was.
When they pulled around us and kept on going Lev asked, “What gave them away to you?”
Turns out Lev had pegged them for cops. I told him, “Not cops, at least not local ones. Locals wouldn’t have had to be undercover like they were. Feds? Meh. If they were, not good ones. If we had been bad guys we could have shot, shoveled, and shut up and kept going. No drones that I can hear.”
“Hear? Babe …”
“When the APD isn’t in gear you know my hearing is better than normal. Drones irritate me, they make my eardrums itch … or that is how it feels. Chan tested me after I kept tugging my ear when he was using one. But that’s not the important part. What I meant is that either there wasn’t a drone or it was too high or too far away for it to register. Too high or too far away would make what they could see and hear problematic if they were cops. And they were carrying radios that went off at the same time. I haven’t seen any other vehicle and ours were the only car tracks until they came up behind us. And before you tell me my tinfoil is too tight …”
“Whoa. I wasn’t going there.”
I took a breath and shoved Hamster Dragon back in its cage. “Oh. Well good. Let’s get out of here but keep an eye out for anything strange. And let’s watch the going off road in unfamiliar territory. They weren’t local cops. I’m fairly certain they aren’t feds because they could have just used drones to keep an eye on any ‘travelers’ in a given area.”
“They could have been looking for terrorists.”
I shrugged then nodded. “Weird and stupid but possible. Still if they were they weren’t very good at what they were doing. Could be some flavor of local militia but I don’t think so, they usually go in groups of three.”
“Are you ever going to tell me?”
We hadn’t gotten in the van when I noticed there were a lot of boot tracks near the rear corner that had faced away from where I had been standing. I got angry. I was also glad I’d locked the van after putting Benny inside.
I growled, “Correction. There was a third but he or she must be good as I missed the SOB. See if you can find a car wash or something along that order before too much longer.
The road between San Jon and Endee, New Mexico is the dirt one we were traveling. Along the way, you can see the “modern bathrooms” sign on an old, abandoned bathroom in what is left of the town. This is the last thing we saw before passing into Texas.
Driving Route (Part 2):
After crossing the state line, the first town we came to was literally the first town; Glenrio, right on the border, or as close to it as makes no never mind. And Russel’s Automotive in Glenrio was the closest thing to a car wash we could find. I sent Benny with Lev to go take pictures and asked the guy in the shop if I could use one of the bays at the rear of the building to check for a rattle that has been driving me bug crap. The guy laughed and said sure, why not. He’d had a few of those rattles himself. Not to mention the town was run down and doing poorly and all but one of the bays were empty.
I pulled in and then climbed down in the bay and used a high intensity flashlight to look around. Those bastids had put not one, not two, but three trackers on the Ark. The first one was obvious … and obviously meant to throw me off if I found it. The second one was a more professional placement. The third one was damn good but so am I now that I’m leaning back on my training. I looked at the three trackers in my hand and came to a quick decision. One I flushed, one I palmed onto a cop car that was in the bay next to me getting an oil change and the other I got rid of before we hit Amarillo.
No. I don’t feel guilty. I do feel irritated. I don’t know who they were or what game they were playing but I decided we weren’t going to join their game. I kept an eye out for the remainder of the day and didn’t see anything but I’m going to be watching for the next week to see if there are any more stupid cards being handed out. I think they may have just been some flavor of local militia making sure strangers weren’t scoping something out. Maybe we were too near something, or some place, and it made them suspicious. With that same reasoning they could have been some traffickers of some flavor. Who knows but I hope they don’t get too stupid and I’ll leave it as a minor irritation.
The only other reason we stopped was so Lev could get a picture to celebrate the halfway point of our “adventure.” There is a sign there which highlights being at the midpoint of the route. I stuck my head in the café to get some privacy and deal with my anger at the three jerks that put the tags on us. I was angry enough to skip the diet restriction I normally follow for Benny and Lev’s sake but managed to control myself. But it was hard to say not to a sample the fried bologna or the “ugly pie.” The food looked and smelled really great.
Our next stop was in Vega, Texas to visit a small and interesting museum there. The Caretaker was a character (right up Lev’s alley) and we got a postcard custom printed by an 1800’s printing machine with some dust bowl dust attached to it. The place also had a Route 66 passport stamp.
Heading on from there, we made it to the Cadillac Ranch, home of the twelve Cadillacs buried nose down. This is easily one of the top five well-knowns stops on most people’s Route 66 road trip. Even I knew about Cadillac Ranch.
Trying to use my head for something other than a place to park a hat, while Lev is taking his turn driving I was looking for places to stock up. If the trackers did nothing else, they woke me out of the fog of hamster-control I’ve been working through. The big problem we are running into in that regard is that many stores are “locals only” and you have to prove your residency with ID and a piece of mail in your name from a local address. This just proves most places are ignoring the federal mandates, assuming they can get away with it. At the stores that aren’t “locals only” there is some price gouging. It is making both Lev and I a little concerned. Yeah, we’ll use that word rather than some of the ruder terms we used once Benny is asleep.
Luckily just on the other side of Cadillac Ranch there was a SAMs Club that accepted my membership card, rather than requiring any other ID. We didn’t stay in there long, the armed militia in the parking lot didn’t exactly give us warm and cozy feelings and we weren’t the only ones on edge. The mood of the other customers was not a happy one.
First “trouble” we ran into was that no one was allowed to use the flatbed carts; regular grocery carts only, and only one cart per card per day which would limit what we could pick up. Sensing a potential storm brewing that could sink our plans, I let Lev do our surveillance as there was too much general noise in the warehouse. It was creating an issue with my APD. Not the best time for that to happen but that’s why we make a good team.
Good thing that Lev has his own way of getting information; he is good at getting people to talk. He found out the no-flatbeds-and-only-one-cart rule was because yesterday there was a large brawl that broke out when “non-resident aliens” – aka illegal immigrants and green card holders – came in by the truck full right at opening and grabbed all the flatbeds and were trying to game The Limits.
Bottom line is that while some got away with some inventory – some because they were first in line and paid for it and some because they ran off with it while they were trying to lock down the store – most of the non-residents are in custody at a local ICE processing center that didn’t have any choice because it isn’t exactly totally controlled by the feds any longer. Those that were involved in the actual brawl are in the county lock up (definitely not fed controlled) until it is decided how to proceed. It is in the local news but hasn’t really hit the national news networks yet … probably intentionally … and I guess those in authority are still trying to decide what to do. There are already problems because they are finding that there are illegals in terrorist cells, or that is what Lev heard from an off-duty cop in with his wife to get groceries. Maybe that explains the trackers and maybe not. It gave me something to chew on anyway. I suppose the next hole in the boat that needs to be corked is what to do about all the green card holders currently in this country, as well as the tourists and people here on tourist and student visas, and that includes all of the HB visa holders. What a mess.
We got as much as we could but if the SAMs Club is any indication, inventories are getting slim on the shelves. Almost no paper products but we have a bunch. Lev insisted that if it even looked gluten free that we picked such items up; basically rice and beans galore but there were also a surprising number of other things like pretzel thins, Kind brand bars, gluten-free pancake and waffle mix, gluten free breakfast cereals, gluten free snacks and chips, and the like. We got some canned meats … tuna, salmon, beef chunks (not in gravy), canned hams certified gluten free. Shelf-stable milk and protein/nutrition shakes that are gluten-free which we managed to get around The Limits by getting different flavors for every flat (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and banana). Then Lev slowed down in the meat department and asked if I knew how to make jerky.
“I did it once, understand the process. Why?”
“Do you think the batteries will hold up to keep the dehydrator going?”
“Probably? Are you thinking of making some? We can probably look up the directions online.”
“I know how. It was one of the things that I did with my grandfather every year … beef and venison usually. Our Thanksgiving tradition was to bag an extra turkey and make turkey jerky.”
“Don’t we need to marinate the meat before drying it? Because if we do we need to find something besides soy to do it with. Too many condiments have gluten in them.”
My point looked to have given him a headache, but we headed back to the condiment area and what do you know, they had Kikkoman soy sauce that was gluten free and they were selling it by the gallon jug. We popped Benny out of the buggy seat and put three such jugs where he had been sitting then headed back to the butcher meat area.
While Lev was picking his cuts of meat I looked down only Benny wasn’t where Benny was supposed to be. I looked up and spotted him in time to not give the hamster a coronary. I marched over and got down in his face. “Benjamin Lawrence Barrymore, you do that again and I will tie you across the grocery buggy like a roadkill deer on the way to the taxidermist. Do you understand me?”
“Uh … sure Aunt Gus. I … er … was just reading the ingredients on the cheeses to see …”
“Don’t. Even. I already told you that if there was money left in the budget I would come over here and we’d pick out the cheese together. There are too many people in moods that are too foul for you to be playing this game. You have KP duty until I say otherwise. Got it?
He sighed, admitting defeat, and accepting the consequences he’d earned. When we got back to Lev I was surprised when he stopped what he was doing and bent down on Benny’s level.
“Look Buddy, I know you are bored. I remember what it was like having to tag along when my mother or aunt went shopping and there wasn’t much for me to do but stand around. The problem is, things are too crazy right now. We need you to stick with us. If you can’t follow the rules you are going to have to go back in the buggy like a baby.”
“Uh uh! I’m too big!”
“We thought you were. But if you keep wandering off …”
“I only went to look at the cheese.”
“And what if we had lost you in this crowd? Because you know that would have been bad. Right?”
He sighed. “I didn’t mean to.”
“You meant to walk over there without telling us. Now we are having to spend time getting you to understand rather than getting this trip over with.”
Benny got it but it makes me realize he is growing up and that means he is likely going to grow into some trouble sooner rather than later. Especially since he is a Barrymore. But for now, the situation is handled and we got in line to check out and then took way too long to try and find some way to stuff our purchases into the van in the non-existent space we had left. I got hives just looking at how things were packed. We need the trailer now but that’s not happening so just live with it hamster. I drove while Lev put the first batch of meat in the dehydrator which first required him to simmer the meat in the marinade until the meat reached 160 degrees F.
Happily that didn’t take that much time so Lev could still take his photos. On the way through Amarillo we stopped at a few old signs and motels – including the Beef Burger Barrel & Cowboy Motel – to take photos before making our way to our last tourist spot.
For our last stop of the day, Lev had booked a hotel room at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. I was surprised that the place was packed but then again, there are only so many places you can eat when you aren’t from the area. In fact, many of the usual eateries are still closed and aren’t looking to reopen until after mid-January.