Staying in Tucumcari for a few days

We are still at Kiva RV Park in Tucumcari. Old car and 50s sign out front.

And will be here for the next couple of days. Lots and lots of nasty weather in the plains states. Most of the campgrounds we stay at on the way home are out in the boonies so don’t want to be stuck there. Here at least there are a few things to do and see.

Yesterday was nice and warm, today it’s supposed to be windy again and by tomorrow and the next day quite cool! Even dropping below freezing Wednesday night - hope the weather report is wrong!

Going to the RV park of Kiva you pass a nice mural. 

This town has lots of nice murals and I think I’ve taken pictures of all of them at one time or another.

And here is Jennie – as I mentioned we are parked headed west – most of the other sites face north or south. So we had the best position for the wind – head on into it. No rocking and rolling.

Went out and about yesterday for a while. One of the older motels still in business on Route 66

Stopped at a restaurant for breakfast and had an encounter with one of the waitresses. There was a family in the restaurant about finished with their breakfast. They had a child about two or three. And he was yelling his lungs out. Not crying. Just yelling. Guess he liked the echo or sound of his voice. We couldn’t even hear what the waitress was saying to us. So I made a remark about gagging the kid. Oops – it was a relative of hers! She took our order, stopped at the table with the screaming kid and talked to them so they all turned around and gave us the evil eye. Meanwhile the kid is still screaming. And then she showed us. She never turned our order in. After a couple of tables that came in after us got served their meals we figured out we would never get ours. So we got up – paid for our coffee and left. As she tried to take our money she said “I didn’t do it on purpose.” Oh no? And I say tried because she either wouldn't or couldn't get any of our credit cards to work. Finally gave her cash - AND Bill tipped her - could have smacked him. We won’t be going back there.

So we went to Denny’s. Have you been to Denny’s lately? They are doing a bacon push. Somehow these just don’t sound good to me. 

Heart attack waiting to happen.

I mentioned this little town is full of murals. This is one of my favorites. This mural is on one side of an old gas station. It says “What da heck & Where’s my horse?”

The other side of the station.  Says “Hee, Hee, Hee”

On to the grocery store – went for tortillas but even found Häagen Dazs.

And like everyone else spent most of the afternoon watching TV about Boston. Cannot even imagine the kind of mind that could do that.

Went out to dinner at Del’s – very good restaurant here and I had my favorite liver and onions. Sooo good. 

Brrrr need to go turn the furnace on for a while the little heater is just not cutting it this morning. 

Quiet day in Tucumcari, NM

Hooray the wind isn’t blowing this morning. But it is colder. Didn’t turn the little heater on for the night and now am running the furnace to take the chill off. That’s being polite it is darn cold in here.

Yesterday we spent a very quiet day except for the howling wind. It lasted all day. Sure glad we weren't on the road. We had to keep the windows closed to try to keep the blowing fine dust out. So that meant keeping the AC running – I get tired of that sound. But by evening the wind had stopped.

I did see a robin yesterday. A sign of spring or just a sign that we’re in the Southwest. Guess it will count when I see one in Indiana.

Bill fixed breakfast and then we watched a couple soccer games and the boring truck race – I read through most of it. How come Hornaday didn’t get parked for wrecking Wallace Jr during caution? He just got sent to longest line. I guess there are different rules for different people.

And come evening I actually cooked dinner – chicken with onions, peppers, artichokes basted with chimichurri and lemon juice and an olive oil herb angle hair pasta.

We’ll be getting out and about later today. Have to go to market – need tortillas???? Also want to take more pictures of my favorite mural here. And want to go out to dinner tonight to Del’s – they have delicious liver and onions. Yum Yum. 

We are down at 4300 feet now but altitude still bothering Bill. Sure glad we live in Indiana - our house is at one of the highest points in Indiana at 950 feet!  

The trip from now on will probably be a dash for home (oh just looked out the window and there are two robins out there.) by the time we get to Oklahoma City we are like the horse that heads for the barn. So depending on when we leave here we’ll probably be home some time around this coming weekend. Or maybe later….

It's a little later in the day and I've been watching the weather channel and checking the weather across I-40 and I-44 - looks bad for travel starting Tuesday afternoon on for a couple of days.
So maybe we'll be staying here in Tucumcari for a few more days.
Either that or we'll have to hole up in either Shamrock, Tx or just west of Oklahoma City for a few days. We'll see tomorrow when we are supposed to leave.

Closer to home by one state - in New Mexico

What a beautiful morning. It will be shorts and t-shirt weather today.

I’m sure everybody knows by now that I’m a great NASCAR fan. My favorite driver is Kyle Busch from Las Vegas. Why do I follow Kyle – well it started out silly. Our son John was a great Earnhart fan and to rile him I picked Kyle to root for – at the time we were living in Vegas. As time passed I saw that Kyle was an amazing driver and  became his fan. Besides I like M & Ms. And this weekend he won both races in Texas. Friday night he won the Nationwide race and today he started from the pole, led the most laps and won the Cup race. Love to watch him race.

We had planned on stopping in Albuquerque yesterday but it was only a little after noon when we got there so we kept going. Ended up doing 393 miles. By the time we were here it was starting to get pretty windy and supposed to be very windy for the next two days so we’ll stay here for a couple days until the wind stops. We are now in Tucumcari, New Mexico.

We are staying in the Kiva RV Park here. Right in the middle of town on old Route 66 – in fact this park still has part of its orgins an old 40s/50s motel. We stay here when ever we are in town. It is a Passport America park with good WiFi and 30/50 amp sites. New owners since we were here in November but they seem really nice. We knew the park was for sale as the old owners wanted to return to their home in Alaska. Glad it happened for them.

To regress. I took this picture the other afternoon in Holbrook [when we were going in search of a mouse.] Just liked the cloud formations.

I-40 follows the old Route 66 much of the way so it is always interesting to see some of the older empty buildings that were once thriving businesses. Always makes me wonder what happened to the people.

Did they go on to bigger and better things or were their dreams smashed when the interstate came through.

And all the roadside businesses. 

Lots of tepees and big fake dinosaurs. All selling “authentic” Indian pottery, beading, blankets, jewelry etc. I remember one time years ago we bought a beaded belt for our youngest son. After we got home I noticed the “Made in Japan” tag on it. It was a very long time ago.

I must say though that the I-40 could use some of the governments money for repairs – talk about rough in places. Had to rescue the coffee pot before it shook out of its traveling place. But at least there were no tolls or animals. And the trucks. It’s been a couple of years since we drove much of the I-40 we’d forgotten about all the truck traffic. Lots of stuff on the go. Gas for the most part in Arizona and New Mexico is around $3.40 – diesel about 3.85. I thought it would be more expensive than that.

Into New Mexico. 

It’s funny but the scenery seemed to change just a ways into New Mexico. Got prettier – more brush and red rock formations.

So now we’re one state closer to home. From here in Tucumcari it is about 1200 miles to home.

We spent most of the day at altitudes of 6500 – 7000 feet. Way up there. Was messing with the GPS when we crossed the Continental Divide so didn’t get a picture of the sign. Did see this mountain in the distance covered with snow. Looked for it on the map and it is over 11,000 feet high.

At least now we are finally headed "down hill." The altitude really bothers Bill. We're still at 4100 feet but much better than 6000 feet. 

Today we’ll be busy with TV watching – and listening to the wind howl. Luckily we are facing the wind so we don't get too much rock and rolling. Barcelona plays early and right after their game finishes there is the truck race from Rockingham. Kyle isn’t driving but three of his trucks will be in it. One with a 16 year old driver.

Our TV works great once the dome picked up the satellite signal. Took a while for some reason had me nervous for a minute- thought I'd have to call tech support. Ugh. And the MiFi works like a charm. Strong signal and fast. After getting settled in we hightailed it up the road to Pizza Hut to get take out so I could get back here to see the race. Good pizza by the way.

Arizona doesn’t do Daylight Savings Time so even though we were and are still in Mountain Time Zone we lost an hour of the day here in New Mexico. Had to remember to change the clocks. Still haven’t figured out the one in Jennie’s dash – but soon it will be the right time.

Visit to Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park

Today, April 12^th is my Mother’s birthday, she would have been 94. In ten days it will be the 8^th anniversary of her death. Miss you Mom.

Today, Friday, was a very nice day. Blue sky and lots of sun and a few puffy white clouds that got denser as the day progressed.  
I mentioned that the view from the windshield is a lot of nothing – a 180 view. Double clicking on a picture will enlarge it.

So we had an early start to visit the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks.

One of the many advantages of being a “Senior” is the Golden Age Pass for the National parks. Saves us a lot of money. As does the AARP card at a lot of restuarants as long as we remember to ask.

We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and picked up our hat pins and magnet and then headed to the Painted Desert part of the Park. This is a panoramic view at the first view point. Tiponi Point.

Lots of different shades of red, green and blue. And the distance you can see is unbelievable.

Some information about the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.

From light pink to deep rust. I wish I could paint – but have to make do with my photography.

Just another look at the many colors and formations.

This hill has sparkles on it. Wonder what it is. Mica?

This part of the scenery reminded me somewhat of parts of Yellowstone Park – without the hot bubbling waters.

More of the colors – can’t get enough of this wonder.

Looking out into the distance…..

Mountain far far away.

The Painted Desert Inn – beautiful building on the inside and outside.

Just thought this looked interesting. Like swirls of lighter colors in the deeper reds.

Noticed this embedded in a rock as I was walking along gawking at everything.

Talking about “on a clear day you can see for ever.” Pilot rock is seven miles away from the view point.

And right below the words “snow on” you can see a white triangle. That is snow on a mountain just outside of Flagstaff 120 miles away!

This is in an area called The Tepees. The white layers are sandstone. The top of the tepee is clay. Dark layers are high carbon content areas, reds are iron stained siltstone.

Then we got to the Petrified Forest part of the park.

This is the Crystal Forest area. Colorful petrified logs are scattered throughout the landscape.

Getting closer to them.

One of the parks information signs. The trees fell and swollen streams washed them into near by floodplains. A mix of silt, mud and volcanic ash buried the logs. The sediment cut off oxygen and slowed the logs decay. Silica laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits. Eventually the silica crystallized into quartz and the logs were preserved as petrified wood.

Just look at the colors! I want to take it home with me it is so beautiful.

Another smaller log with its crystals visible.

Just more pieces.

A closer look at the crystals

Another log.

Even more colors.

Didn’t do any hiking on the trails as the altitude of over 5800 feet slows us down quite a bit. Very interesting day. Great place to visit if you get the chance.

Later in the day we went into Holbrook and found a store where I could buy a new mouse. Thank goodness. And even later we watched a race and Kyle won! He's won 4 of the 6 races this season already in Nationwide. And has one win and two poles in the Cup series. 
And Saturday we will be on the road again - don't know how far we'll go. The altitude is really bothering Bill but we don't start getting really lower until Texas.