We had a great journey to Taos yesterday. Traversing almost the entire state of New Mexico from south to north is like driving up page 43 of the Rand McNally roadmap. Only there's pictures. Thousands of pictures.Always, one of my 'must stops' is in the little town of San Antonio, NM. There, at the Owl Bar and Cafe, they dish up the world's best green chili cheeseburger even if it is only 9:30 in the morning. Yesterday's did not disappoint.
South of Taos, we took a detour through Alcalde. It's a small community like so many on the side of the Rio Grande just clinging to life where it's very easy for anyone the least bit imaginative to sense they have not just gone off the beaten path, they've stepped outside of time.
A few miles further to the north, we noted the gates into another time warp had been left open. The temptation was just too great. We turned into Johnnie Meier's incredible yard of vanishing icons from the heydays of Route 66. A couple of old Oldsmobiles from petroleum's middle ages commune with great old gas pumps towering over them, pumps that nourished them over half a century ago.
Johnny Meier is the former President of the Route 66 Association of NEW MEXICO - "The Mother Road in the Land of Enchantment!" We first encountered him a couple of years ago as we were returning home from a few days in Taos. You know how you pass interesting places on the side of the road but are always in a rush to get somewhere else?
Well, that's what we did our first time to stop there. We just drove past. But then we turned around and went back. And trust me, we were so very happy we did. Because Johnny Meier is a braintrust of New Mexico, from its glory days of Route 66's past, he seeks tirelessly to preserve, to its other extreme, its future, the Atomic Age to which he devoted much of his career.
I hope to write more about Johnnie in a future blog. But after another rewarding visit with him, it was a short drive into our goal, Taos, where we arrived in incredibly cool 70 degree conditions with moisture laden clouds sagging dangerously low to the ground. In the evening, it was a reunion with dear friends.
Today we'll look at some art and explore for changes that have occurred since our last time here over 14 months ago. Always anticipating the unexpected as the day unfolds under the spell of Taos. Hopefully upon our return, I'll have a few nice pictures to share. For now, I'm using pics from previous trips (in case you notice "fall colors" in any of them). Today's is of an old 1954, or so, Mercury I spotted in Rancho de Taos a couple visits back.
8 comments:
what a great drive you had! Rte 66 stories ... did you see the ghosts of Milner & Maharis? I remember being glued to the TV for that show, having quite a crush on Buzz. My husband had a corvette when we first got married & so it was especially meaningful seeing road signs every so often "You are on historic Route 66". Lots of little towns well off the interstates (like Seligman AZ), no Denny's, yeaaay. Later, we made it as far as Amarillo TX (yes, saw those cars half-buried in the ground).
Have a great Taos adventure, stepping out of time into 70 degrees sounds heavenly about now !!! D.K.
DK - Yes, I remember those Rte. 66
shows too. Wow...your husband-to-be had a Corvette when you first met him? No wonder his days were numbered! (Just kidding.)
Well, not sure what happened but I posted a comment here earlier but apparently it didn't take.
Things are going great. As I remarked in Eske's to the wife, friend and one of their staff earlier this afternoon, "This is the most fun I've ever had with in daylight, with my clothes on."
(That was just before I felt the sting of my wife's swift kick on my calf. ~ again, just kidding...about the kick, not the remark.)
So back to the lobby for a snack of salsa and chips before heading out for the evening.
Dada! Who needs clothes ... just drape yourself in the flag! Yes, your right to do was just affirmed by ONE vote in the senate today. Frist, et al, are probably spinning like crazed rabid troglodytes right now. hmmm, maybe they need a swift kick (and NOT in the calves). D.K.
hey, dada, I am enjoying the read of your travelogue and following along your path in my atlas...nothing like a good old "road trip" to clear the head...even on the interstate, which looks like about the only way to get to Santa Fe from El Paso...hey, there really is a place called "Tucumcari", somehow that name sticks in my head from some old Clint Eastwood spaghetti western...
I remember a very fine drive some years ago on the state roads in AZ from Phoenix to Las Vegas via Wickenburg and Kingman...and I spent some time on historic Route 66 in Seligman this year...nothing open for coffee or breakfast at 6AM, but there was pretty good food in the evenings (we didn't take a chance on the "Roadkill Cafe" across the street) and a great, kitschy tourist trap Route 66 souvenir shop with mannequins perched on the roof and lounging on the tailgate of an old pick-up truck parked in the street...of course, we had to stop for some trinkets...I never got to watch "Route 66" on TV in its prime, but, boy did I want a Corvette and the open road in my younger years...
maineiac, don't you just love the names of some these old west towns? Like Tombstone or Dos Cabezas. I was "passin thru" Tucumcari in late 80's. Got gas, bought a few "saco de toro"s & left. And yes, we've been on that road to Wickenburg a few times, driving through some of the smallest, dustiest, deadest towns ever seen, where bars outnumber churches about 3:1. Come to think of it, maybe that's the perfect ratio. Attended the Wickenburg Bluegrass Festival one year. The ensemble that won everyone over was a group of retired school teachers out of Sacramento who did a fantastic version of Wimoweh (the lion sleeps tonight). Last time I drove thru Seligman was before the I-40 was completed. I'd like to go back now & see how they weathered it.
All this talk of Rte 66 makes me want to find a DVD collection of the TV-series. Just the first few seasons with Geo Maharis. Don't wanna ruin your fantasy, but I found much fault with the corvette we had & would never own another. Extremely uncomfortable ride, but the throaty growl of that engine made up for a lot. D.K.
Hi, Dada. Thinking of the era of Route 66 which ran from 1960 - 1964, when the Democrats were represented by men such as Lyndon (“I got their peckers in my pocket”) Johnson and Bobby Kennedy, and superimposing DK’s saco de toro image, I was reminded of our current dilemma - - an absence of Democratic leaders with balls. Like the champion prize fighter who goes in for the kill when the cut opens up over his opponent’s eye, or the shark who smells blood, the Republicans ( for all their odiousness ) have had such people in plentitude since Buz and Tod sailed the highway. Characters like Lee Atwater, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay and GWB himself are like the schoolyard bullies tossing the
“ ballcap “ of power over the heads of the flailing, leaping Democrats whining “give it back to me, give me my ballcap”.
Ultimately, it is acknowledged that one reason Bush was able to get appointed in 2000 was simply that the Repubs wanted the power more and approached the post election with the attitude that they would not be denied. That attitude is one I have not seen in any Democrat leader since Lyndon Johnson. Sure, some show a little passion at times, but to paraphrase Jon Stewart’s show : When we look down from outer space, the only saco’s we see are Republican ones.
If we can find a Democrat leader who won’t be denied, we’ll have some hope of grabbing our cap back from the bullies.
signed, anonymous EK
Ahh good, Dada. I was hoping that car wasn't yours.
EK: Thanks for that political "time piece". I couldn't agree more.
Taos has been a great diversion of my attention, thankfully, because I made the mistake to have the TV in our room turned to CNN last night before showering. What I saw there was just the biggest nail yet being driven into the coffin of these grovelling "democrat" bastards.
I'm talking about this push by some within that former party to woo evangelicals and the public into their fold by becoming even MORE republican. And this being led by who has been labelled the future of that party, sentaor orock osama aboma from Illinois.
Jesus Christ, maybe they could just ask directly for blood donations from DeLay and Frist?
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