New Mexico and the El Rancho Hotel

Monday morning we left the Tucumcari campground around 8:00 and drove right up the highway about a mile and stopped at a Flying J for diesel – needed over 80 gallons – good thing we got that 13 gallons when we did. Also had breakfast then on our way towards Gallup, NM.

The weather was basically good. Some rain off in the distance. Made for some weird clouds. This one looked like a flying saucer.

And a heavier storm off to our north behind the pretty red hills.

We didn’t get into any rain but it had just passed through this area – the road was still pretty wet.

We got to Gallup in the afternoon – after a 320 mile drive. I think this is the first time EVER that there wasn’t any wind on the I-40. Sure makes for an easier drive. We stayed at the USA RV Park in Gallup right on Route 66. It is a nice clean campground. Lots of pull-throughs, good size spaces, 50 amps and WiFi. Also spaces without trees so we could catch the satellite for the TV. Only drawback it is under the flight pattern for the small airport. And across the street from the RR tracks. But during the night both are relatively quiet.  

We unhooked the car and took a drive down 66 as I’ve always wanted to stop and see the El Rancho Hotel. So off we went looking for it. Lots of 1950/60 motels along the street.

This surprised me I didn’t know they still made Schlitz – that was the beer my Dad always drank.

We found the Hotel. Couldn’t get a real good picture of the front of it cause the sun was right behind above it.

A National Historic Site– it was built in 1937 as a base for movie productions and has a lot of movie history. 

It was built by the brother of film director D W Griffith. The casts and crew for over 14 films stayed there during production. Here is some interesting information about the El Rancho Hotel in its heyday.  

The main lobby is very different. Old west – hunting lodge type. Lots of wood and big heavy furniture. Animal heads, woven rugs, fireplace. Makes you want to sit down and spend some time there.

Curved staircases lead upstairs.

The fireplace.

The stairs and animals.

Player piano in the lobby.

The balcony above the lobby. Nice wood floors and comfortable furniture. 

Looking down into the lobby.

One of the hallways. Lots of art work and the rooms are named for movie stars.

The shoe shine stand in the lobby.

There is also a bar, restaurant and of course, gift shop.

I’m glad we stopped and looked around, been curious about it every time we got through Gallup.  

Driving back to the campground. There are lots and lots of older motels on the street.

And what isn’t a motel is a place selling Authentic Indian Jewelry. Hundreds of stores it seemed like one after the other.

The next morning, Tuesday we headed for Arizona where we are now. Just south of Sedona. Another post...

The weather here in Cottonwood is beautiful - blue skys and warm. In fact warm enough to run the air conditioning during the day. 
And the bad news is Bill's allergies were back in full force yesterday. Had a really miserable day. So don't know what we'll do now- stay here for a while and hope he gets better or move on to Vegas or somewhere else - looking for relief. Our reservations for here are until the 28th...
Fixed an oven roast with potatoes and carrots for Bill for his birthday dinner last night. Turned out good. 

Crossing Kansas

Guess I have some catching up to do. After watching the NASCAR race on Sunday I didn’t feel like doing any thing. Needless to say my favorite driver got in a wreck and is eliminated from the rest of the chase this year. Would you believe that in forty some minutes this car was back out on the track finishing the race.

We left Halstead on a beautiful morning. 

and head west across Kansas – there is lots and lots of Kansas. And this was pretty much the scenery. Grain storage. And fields of crops.

Trucks carrying grain either from or to storage.

One little town we went through had this statue of a lady waiting to cross the street on one corner. Can’t remember the town but it was on the 54.

I had the trip all planned out but then there were some changes –which actually started my bad mood. We’d planned on stopping in Liberal, KS – where we could overnite and go see Dorothy’s house – from Wizard of Oz and the airplane museum there.We did stop  – decent RV park right off the highway. So we parked, settled in and I watched the truck race while Bill took a nap. Or I guess I should say he tried to take a nap. The people we’d parked next too decided they’d have a party – a loud party. So he got up irritated – the party continued to grow in size…Next thing I knew we were unplugged and back on the road. Heading another 200 miles towards Tucumcari, NM. I tend to get grumpy when my plans are changed…so we had a mostly quiet drive - with just a few snide remarks from me. Some about the weather in front of us that did not look too nice. A lovely rain storm, and one of the things we forgot to do before leaving home was change the windshield wipers. [kept mouth shut about that one.] They didn’t wipe they smeared! Looking in front of us. Hum – we are in Kansas aren’t we. This bunch of clouds stayed to the left of us –

And what we were driving into looked like this.

We needed diesel so stopped at a station somewhere out there…they had a new trainee and she couldn’t figure out how to work the credit card machine. Then the pumps wouldn’t start. Anyway finally we got $50 about 13 gallons of diesel – paid in cash and got out of there. This didn’t improve my mood any. And it was getting late. And we were crossing into another time zone. Watching the sunset and still not to our destination. 

It’s been a long time since we’ve driven in the dark in the RV. Bill was impressed with how illuminated the control panel was. Well goody for him!

Finally arrived at Kiva RV in Tucumcari – full dark and no one in the office. So we drove on in and headed towards where we usually park – getting darker and darker. Finally the owner came to meet us and led us into a spot. We got there just a little after 7:00. A 413 mile day. 

We quickly set up and unhooked the car and went to Del’s restaurant for dinner. Their liver and onions is delicious – improved my mood somewhat.

Spent the next day in Tucumcari too, Sunday. Went out to breakfast at really nice café. All decorated with Route 66 items – but forgot my camera.

Then watched the race. AAARRRGGG.  Fixed a good chicken dinner and readied to leave Monday morning.. On to Gallup, NM. 

Still traveling

Slowly moving west, spent night in Gallup, NM. Probably will be in Arizona tonight. The altitude here in Gallup, 6000 feet, is bothering both of us. Especially Bill. Poor guy he was finally feeling better getting rid of the sneezing.

200 miles further west

We’re now 200 miles down the road staying for the night in Liberal, KS at the Western Star RV Ranch. Seems like a nice place. Big level gravel pull-throughs. Good WiFi and clear satellite reception. Got here in time to watch the truck race and the soccer game. In Liberal there is an Airplane Museum and Dorothy’s house from the Wizard of OZ. Don’t know if we’ll unhook and go see them or not.

So what else happened on Friday? Well we held our breath when we got up and turned the TV on in the morning. As Thursday evening for some reason our signal went POOF…Nothing we did would get it started again. Not the TV set but the satellite mechanism and/or box???  Any way it came on fine in the morning. Thank goodness – this is Talladaga weekend! [NASCAR]

So we turned it off and went into Wichita to explore the town. Going into town we got into construction traffic again. Does every major city always have the main roads leading into and out of downtown in some state of construction. I see the Kansas City Royals are in the Series – good luck to the people going to the stadium – the main highway going past it is or was when we went by – all tore up. So back to the day.

We found most of the sculptures and then drove around town a little checking out some of the different old buildings and older residential sections. 

Some pretty trees and a different sculpture! 

And don't know the story on this car - it was just parked at the curb. 

We came home a different way – to the west of the city out through the farming country. I was surprised to see cotton – the first we’ve seen this trip.

And once in the campground we had to stop for a good sized turtle. When I went to take his picture he got shy.

Walked around the campground a little – more little turtles taking the sun.

And of course the geese in the ponds.

It really is a pretty campground.

Then I turned the TV on … good it worked…then I tried to change channels. Pushed the buttons – nothing happened. Tried again. Nope. Turned it off and on – that worked, turned the volume up that worked.  Tried changing channels  nothing it was stuck on one channel. Fooled with it some more. Then called Direct TV tech support. We were on the phone over a half hour but finally the remote started working again. No one was quite sure what the problem was but either something they did or something we did here finally worked. But they are sending us a new remote – to our house. We’ll have it sent to us when we are going to be somewhere for a week or so. Until then hope everything keeps working. The strange part was we couldn’t change channels using the receiver box either. Weird.

Got up this morning and got on the road. Good drive – decent highways with little traffic. Got here and all is well with the TV and remote.