Thursday June 14, 2012

Hello All, 

The last couple of days were mostly spent driving... I actually like that, it's relaxing, except for the car being buffeted around so much by the wind... You know the song "OOOOOOOOOklahoma where the wind comes whipping down the plain"? Well it should also include Texas and New Mexico in there as well! I'm not exaggerating when I say they were 40- 60 MPH winds, I watched the news and that is what they said... They said it like it was nothing. You know why? Cuz it happens every day !
If you know me or have been reading the blog, you know how much I "love" wind... and hot weather, so it was best that I just went to sleep last night and didn't blog... :)

Thankfully today wasn't so hot, (ok, if you think 89 isn't hot!!) and we had a mostly freeway day with some cool turnoff's onto Rt. 66..
We of course went to the Cadillac Ranch... I stayed in the car (remember the wind!!!) I saw all I needed to see from there, and really this is the first thing I didn't do in 7 weeks, I just couldn't walk out there it was sooooo windy! Truthfully I don't get it. 10 cars upended out in the desert??? Why? What does it mean? Maybe it's a guy thing?? There were alot of people out there in the wind, so maybe its just me???

We went to the Dinosaur Museum, which was way cool! I wish my nephews were with us, they would have loved it! I didn't kiss a dinosaur though, too scary!!

We went to a Rt. 66 Auto Museum, they had about 30 cars (one Woody!!) and it was just this woman's family that ran it... $5.00 well spent! I saw a few guys there I had to kiss, Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon, Michael Waltrip (Man is he tall!), and Buddy Holly...
The kissing thing might seem weird to you I know, but I wanted to do something in every town and so I just decided to look like I was kissing statues, animals, people.... It was either that or wear my tiarra in every picture and I couldn't figure out how to bring it along without it getting squished or broken so kissing it is!

We ate at Josephs Bar & Grill which has been on Rt.66 since 1956! Dang! That is older than me!! Good food, and lots of history.

We got to Albuquerque around 4 today and Gar had to make a run to the parts store (I'm sure he will elaborate), then we headed to Old Town, which is super cute. It is obviously the "old" part of Albuquerque, with a square, a church, and a park, and then the houses were built around that square.. The buildings are about 300 years old and really cool. It reminded us of Sonoma, same sort of style.
We shopped a bit and then had fantastic mexican food at "Little Anita's". The food was so good and they had a duo siging traditional mexican songs and they were fantastic too! Her voice was so pure, unbelievable, the same quality as Linda Ronstadt.


We had a great dinner then hopped in the car and headed out Rt.66 to see what was out there as we came in on Hwy 40 today... Old hotels, movie houses, stores and lots of old neon signs pointing to things that were not there any more... Kinda gave you a sad feeling to think about what it was, but still cool that the city left the signs to remind us all of what it was like in its heyday...

Tomorrow we are off to Flagstaff Arizona, someone contacted us to tell us of a "Cruise In" and they are saving us a spot. Looking forward to that. It's at a Frozen Custard Drive in!! Yummy!!! I will break my rule of being good for a few bites of frozen delishiousness!

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)
　
"From the driver's seat...."(Wednesday)Today it was about the destination, not the journey. The route for Rt. 66 is not well delineated through Oklahoma and we spent too much time getting back on track. I was able to 'cypher' my way back several times but even when we found the road it was in disrepair so we were 'happy' that the freeway had swallowed up the original road so we had some smooth roads and well marked 'Historical Rt. 66' side trips.
We have been reflecting on where we've been and how long we've been gone...... just like the Simon and Garfunkle song says '...Michigan seems like dream to me now...." it does. We have about 10 days left one and side of me hates to see it end but the other side can't wait to park in my own garage. We'll be properly exhausted when we get there, meaning we were out long enough.
The car ran nicely again today...took it to Jiffy Lube for an oil change....first one I have EVER paid someone to do. Several people stopped by to look at the car, asking what it is, who made it, what year..... it'll be nice to drive my Scion too....for a while. I've had three experiences with agressive drivers, all in Cadillacs. Numbers one and three were in the fast lane, behind me far enough that I could see them in the rear view mirror, looking at the car and I'm pulling up on a slower moving truck...the moment I put on my left turn signal to say that I was going around the truck they floor it....really? I continued with my lane change, putting them both on the inside shoulder. Number two was a similar situation, I'm trying to change lanes, a Cadillac behind me...again as soon as I put my signal to change lanes he jumps on it and whips into the lane I was indicating I was going into.... I let them all know that I thought they were number one!
We stopped into the Rt. 66 Museum in Clinton, OK, (located on the Gary Expressway) which nicely covered the Mother Road from Indian trails to six lanes of asphalt. Very nicely done with lots of old photos, movies and historic items, including a '51 Ford sedan. I highly recommend it if youi ever do 66.

We're going to go to Cadillac Ranch tomorrow (ironic, isn't it?) before heading off to Albuquerque, then Flagstaff, Vegas, Santa Monica, Santa Cruz and then home !!!!!!!!

(Thursday)...Got to visit the above mentioned Cadillac Ranch....it's been there forever and the area is littered with spray cans. The cars have so much paint on them that the metal details are gone. It was really windy walking out there which brings me to another topic.....energy.
While in Arkansas and Kansas (why are they spelled the same but pronounced so differently?) I saw gas stations with signs reading "No ethanol!!!! Pure gas!!!"..... now, first of all the ethanol cuts down emissions, secondly, isn't ethanol made from corn? And what is it you farmers grow and sell? Isn't that corn?....is it just me? The next is a huge media push by the petroleum companies pushing coal for electricity production....remember the aforementioned wind???? These ads use smoke and mirrors to say the EPA isn't taking advantage of our existing supply of coal.....which produced massive emissions and wind turbines make.....how much pollution was that? Oh, yes, ZERO!!!!!!!
All I will say in closing is that these are the same people who put 'Dubya' in office for eight years....I honestly don't get it....and that's why I don't live here. A couple old ladies were looking at the car and when they saw the CA plates they shook their heads and turned away...that attitude is rampant.

Nice drive today, mostly freeway as it replaced 66 except in a few places through towns...well marked, lots of remaining signs and buildings from its heyday. There are a number of Rt.66 museums along the way, we skipped most of them as they looked kinda lame. The dinosaur museum in Tucumcari was outstanding....the displays looked like something in a big city museum, very well done and lots of hands on displays...again, don't miss it if you're there.

Tomorrow we're on to Flagstaff, then Vegas, Baby!!!!