11/12 - 11/28/05 Historical Highways in New Mexico - Rt 66 for Starters

Old Route 66 Photo Gallery New Mexico Scrapbook Photo Gallery White Sands & Tularosa Basin Photo Gallery

11/13 - We pulled out from Storrie Lake on a clear but blustery morning & headed south. The order of the day was to drive another segment of pre-1937 Route 66, then head east toward Texas to check out the eastern New Mexico run of 66. The "Mother Road" has meant something to me for many years, having driven & even hitchhiked it in my college years. But I'm not a 66 purist & the rational for exploring it stems from my new writing gig: Americas Historic Highways. More on that later, but clearly if you are going to write about historic highways & you are in the neighborhood, you gotta take in Route 66. For kicks, right?

You'll have to read my columns to get the long version, but the short one is that the leg down to Santa Rosa, now US84, was picturesque in the higher elevations, but pretty boring after that. Then we turned east & spent the next couple of hours driving I40 proper or I40 frontage roads which are most of what remains of old 66 here. Some of the old roadbeds were pretty rough & some of the old towns that 66 once passed through are little more than ghost towns. We spent the night in Tucumcari at an RV park that was a converted motel. There are lots of converted or abandoned 50s era businesses (motels, gas stations, eateries) all along the route.

Today we went nearly to the Texas border to explore an early unpaved section of 66, then we headed south to Clovis, leaving 66 behind. I didn't want to go any farther east nor backtrack west across the state, so I decided to pick up US 70 at Clovis & head on down to Roswell. I was interested to see if there was any mention of the Clovis archeological connection near there & we found a rest stop museum devoted to the subject just south east on 70. Very interesting & worth a stop.

We're staying at a low end RV park in Roswell & will visit a couple of the local attractions before continuing down 70 to Alamogordo & maybe as far as Las Cruces. US 70 will be the subject of another column.

You know, this highways thing is going to change my approach to traveling. Heretofore I have usually been goal oriented: get to some place fun/interesting/etc, generally by an expeditious route. Now we're going to be traveling highways for their own sake & look for fun/interesting/etc places along the way. Stay tuned!

11/15 - The temperature dropped overnight from the 80s yesterday afternoon to the 20s tonite. Brrrr. Gonna have to get farther south! At least on hookups we stay cozy.

Yesterday we drove into downtown Roswell where we found a lot of UFO nuttiness right in the center of town. If you subscribe to alien crash site conspiracy theory, etc, you'll find plenty of ammunition at the UFO Museum & Research Center. Or if you just want some cheap alien souvenirs, there's an ample supply of that too. We also visited the main Roswell museum where we found the Goddard (father of rocketry) exhibit very interesting. Interesting juxtaposition - rocket science & UFOs in the same city. Timmy enjoyed the Roswell museum too: It had nice thick green grass that he could roll around in to his heart's content.

Next we visited the Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge east of town along the Pecos River valley. Big time migration stopover. Huge numbers of snow geese & big flocks of sandhill cranes. Must see if you are into birds.

We're heading off for Tularosa & Alamagordo tomorrow. Doesn't New Mexico have some great place names?

11/17 - We woke up yesterday to find our water hose frozen & icicles hanging off Gypsy. The drive on down to Tularosa was very nice. We left the great plains at the Rio Hondo valley, stopped briefly at the village of Tinnie, then drove on through the forested Mescalero Apache lands in the Sierra Blanco. We're staying at Oliver Lee State Park about 10 miles south of Alamogordo. It's at the base of the Sacramento Mountains & the mouth of Dog Canyon, where we have a commanding view of the entire Tularosa Basin. Mr. Lee it seems was a New Mexico cattle baron of the late 19th & early 20th centuries, apparently quite a colorful character.

There are several attractions in the Alamogordo area. Today we visited the White Sands National Monument, where we spent a couple of hours hiking the dunes & taking pictures. Timmy enjoyed frolicking in all that white sand. It's a beautiful area.

11/23 - Well, we've been here at Dog Canyon for a week now. It's been a great place to take a break from the road & catch up on some stuff. We also visited more of the area's attractions, including the Space Museum & Hall of Fame & the Solar Observatory, almost directly above us at the summit of Sacramento Peak, but about 50 miles by highway. And we've hiked the canyon, enjoying the spectacle of the basin spread out below.

In keeping with our theme of traveling historic highways, when we leave here Friday, we're going to continue along US70 into Arizona. There are several points of interest along the way.

11/26 - I had Thanksgiving dinner at the Golden Corral Buffet in Alamogordo, not the best feast I've had, but at least I didn't have to cook a feast for one. Friday we headed off across the missle range, following US70 to Las Cruces where it merges into I10. We went as far as Deming & checked into the Loners on Wheels (LoW) RV Ranch. Dry camping there is cheaper than the nearby Rock Hound State Park & besides I've been wanting to check out the LoWs. They had a Thanksgiving leftover potluck, better than the buffet & some folks to enjoy it with. Today I took in the Deming museum, very nicely done for a community of its size, & then went over to Rock Hound where I thought we might go hiking. But there's a big storm system brewing to the north of us & it has brought 40 mph winds today that kick up a lot of sand & dust. It makes you want to stay sheltered, so that's what we're doing. We've had very nice weather for the last 10 days or so... no complaints.

11/28 - We had planned to leave Deming yesterday, but that storm developed into a full blown (so to speak) dust storm with frigid, savage winds. I heard that a tractor-trailer was blown over out on I10. We weren't on a schedule, so we just stayed put. Today we moved on to Lordsburg & checked into an el cheapo RV park. I wanted to visit the Shakespeare Ghost Town 3 miles to the south, but found that it is only opened to visitors one weekend a month. Oh well.

We've enjoyed our month in New Mexico, truly the land of enchantment. But it's getting cold. We'll be back in Arizona tomorrow, finishing our westward run on US70.

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