Notes From The Road

December 12. 2009

Leaving Santa Rosa, New Mexico, this a.m. We never make any more than $300 on this job but we (I) love the little town. Santa Rosa is home to the Blue Hole, a diver’s dream, Historic Route 66, the author of Bless Me, Ultima lives here, and it’s not far from the Bosque Redondo, the “long walk” of Navajo and Mescalero Apaches 150 years ago. This is Billy the Kid country, too, but we don’t find his legend nearly as worth remembering as the Bosque Redondo, now a State Monument, or Memorial.

I didn’t get my annual story from Johnny Martinez, owner of the Comet Restaurant. Johnny was glad to see me, he’s looking well (Alice has been gone two years now) but his priest came in while I was there. So I got to meet the priest, whom I had heard about from nearly everyone in town, but I didn’t get my story. (I got the sale, though. How can you turn down a nice lady in front of your priest?)

Father Joe (no one can pronounce his last name) is Pakistani and is learning English and Spanish at the same time. The 150 year old St. Rose of Lima Church is being remodeled, a big event here, which is how Father Joe came up in conversation so often. Santa Rosa is 96% Hispanic Catholic; they are being very kind and patient with Father Joe, but a little disappointed not to have someone who understands their history celebrate the remodel. If we weren’t getting out of town as fast as we can this morning, I would go to church tomorrow.

We see a lot of trucks on I-40 today. I counted 55 in six minutes. When we were coming west in June we were shocked at how few trucks there were. Must be a good sign.

When you’ve seen the first 50 miles of the Texas Panhandle, you’ve seen the whole stretch of it. Elevation down to about 3,000 ft, straight concrete highway, brown fields, winter dead shrubs, cattle, the largest cross in the world, occasional rest stops called “picnic sites,” (no toilets), few billboards, lots of open space.

You need a sign to tell you when it’s Oklahoma. The road is a little worse and there are more oak trees. Toilets in the rest areas. Oklahoma has casinos; no casinos in Texas (it’s the law). Oklahoma dirt is a rich sienna; still nothing on the horizon. We are down to almost sea level in this State, though, and it’s warmer. Lots of construction on I-40; we welcome it. Skies are clear, rolling across Arkansas. We can see some hills in the distance.

Arkansas is big on pigs. Not enough to have the razorbacks as a State School Mascot, pigs are a feature attraction everywhere. We passed “Pig trail,” a State maintained hiking area, the “Hog Trough Liquor Store.” and we could have eaten at the “home of the big porker. It’s a beautiful state, though, and we’d like to spend more time here. Arkansas has water: lakes, ditches, rivers, green grass. The Corps of Engineers sponsor most of what would otherwise be State Parks. Toad Suck Ferry is a lovely COE park.

Memphis, Tennessee happens fast. Cross the Big Muddy and you’re there. The huge pyramid convention center (needs a big eye on it) and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Center are right on Front Street. We have stayed in Memphis before and can attest to a lot of REALLY bad neighborhoods. Every bit as bad as the worst in Montgomery, Alabama. Elvis lived in a fairly seedy part of town, as I recall.

We notice that we have stayed in a lot of the places we are stopping at now. Making eight trips back and forth, I guess that’s bound to happen. We are thinking of changing our route, maybe go north up the east coast and see Nova Scotia, and cross the country across the top. We’ll see. Right now there is a really strong pull to the Swan house in North Carolina. We have about 900 miles to go.

Stay well, friends, and enjoy the holidays. We send our love,

Sam and Dave