"SHOW ME A SIGN, I'LL BE WILLIN' TO BE MOVIN'"

Actually not so willin'.  We have been holding up at the Buckaroo Motel (circa 1952) on Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico for two whole days because...we like it here. And we needed to do laundry, take lots of artsy photos, eat more Mexican food and plan out our next moves.

When we first arrived we went to the Chamber of Commerce. I had read online that they had maps of the many murals painted on the old buildings here. Tucumcari is famous for their murals plus their neon signs (now mostly gone) that made this part of Rt 66 known as a little Las Vegas. We needed a cheap motel and the ones the chamber woman said were cheap were not cheap enough for us so I went through my GPS listings and when I saw the motel named Buckaroo I simply had to call. Yes! It was our kind of affordable.

MURALS >>>

Tucumcari is dilapidated and dated. Some people are disappointed visiting this town but not me. I like gritty. I like "character" and Buckaroo has character. We knew it when we drove up. We went into the office and asked a few questions. Ines asked if there was wifi as in some motels we have had problems getting a connection. Yes, the room had wifi. The AC wasn't on in the office area so I asked if the rooms had AC. Yes again. Then the owner added, "We have indoor toilets too." Oh I like this fellow! That was the funniest line of the day for sure!

I drove the car to the room's spot as Ines walked over and went in. She came out saying, "You will be pleasantly surprised." And I was. We spent the next few hours going over materials that we had picked up at the Chamber. We took dinner at the famous Dell's (ok to miss if you visit unless you are on the senior early bird special bus) then later, after the sun went down, we drove around stopping for neon sign photo opps. Poor Buckaroo's sign got hammered by hail last month and was half out. The full moon made up for it.

NEON>>>

This morning was more researching so we can be willin' to be movin' again. We plan on heading toward Alburquerque and banging a right up the Turquoise Trail. Hot Air Balloon week is beginning  - and the crowds. We'll miss it/them - fine by me. We are opting to go camping at Cedar Crest then getting overwhelmed in art along the way. I put a Public Trip up on couchsurfing but no bites from possible hosts. I had found one woman that looks to be a true kindred spirit in so many ways. We are on "maybe" status at the moment with her. It will work out one way or another.

I have a gazillion pics and they will take awhile to upload so I am finishing writing this post to get it done.

" I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah. Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made. Now I've driven the back roads, So I wouldn't get weighed. And if you give me weed, whites, and wine, Then you show me a sign, I'll be willin' to be movin'"

(I have opted for one margarita, some DHEA and 3 liters of water - I am getting too old for that much fun - and weighing in is not going to happen in the near future either - today's pulled pork sandwich at the Tucumcari Ranch Supply BBQ was delish!)

PS: Thanks to Robert "Lost at Sea" Lee for the lyric title of this post.

OH AND DO NOT FEED THE MONGOOSE!

"COME ON AND EASE ON DOWN THE ROAD"

We are on the grid again and out of the prairies. This is a quickie post because I have a suspicion that I am going to be taking a lot of photos later this afternoon when we reach Tucumcari, NM. I wanted to take a couple of minutes to share a few shots from yesterday.

People warned us that Kansas was a long boring ride. We broke it up, took side roads to the south of I 70 and made a point to stop at a cool political sculpture garden off of Rt 54. We did not readily find it we stopped at a little gas station surrounded by windmills and dust and asked a customer buying his supply if Sunday Gatorade if he knew of it. Yes he did. He knew exactly as his son-in-law works there. "Heck - I am going right by it. Just follow me." His big white muffler impaired truck chugged along and he got us there in minutes. He wished us safe travels and puttered away.

From there we headed quickly to Liberal, Kansas, a border town with Oklahoma and home of Dorothy's house. It was hokey but a good place to stop for the night and give our munchkin spirits a rest. We ended up in another motel for the wifi and comfort. We have been traveling the last two days in wonder bread white land and it is really comforting for me to be here with some diversity and several Mexican restaurants. We ate well. I slept very well. I love camping but a nice comfy bed is also much appreciated.


Well I have to go now and "Ease on Down the Road" -  Thank you Kansas an chau to the Wiz.

"INDIANA WANTS ME, LORD I CAN'T GO BACK THERE"

Girl with netbook goes off grid for a few days. Oh it is not that we haven't had wifi with one of those SMAHHHRT phones but pretty much when you are camping for three days in a tent batteries run low and time at Panera or McDonald's to catch coffee and passworded signal are few and far between. 

Yes - I am behind in posting again. We have been doing a few days of just driving. I got grumpy last night when we stopped at a motel. "No more of rushing through. I don't want to do more than 4 hours drive time a day from this moment forward. (Original plan) The purpose of the trip is not to get anywhere fast and miss the cool stuff in between the road signs."

(I am sitting in bed in a flea bag motel with instant coffee so excuse the lack of prophetic wondrous on this catch up post.)

So how did we end up getting off the vibe? I blame it all on ourselves and unwittingly temporarily deleting Illinois from the lower 48 states. 

After we left Larry's lovely cabin in the hills of western West Virginia we headed out on I 64 heading to Kansas. Along the route we received a phone call from our GHOST HOST Drew who was heading east after attending Burning Man. We made a plan to meet at the intersection of I 64 and I 65 and spend an evening camping at a national campground in Indiana. Drew owns the house that we stayed in in Bradford, PA. He had been gone and his friends were house and cat sitting when we stayed there. This was to be our first meeting in person.

Drew's little RV was fully equipped with food and wine. Ines and I constructed my big tent and we all relaxed to chat and relax. Well.. we got very relaxed, so relaxed that the next day people were a bit fuzzy. I just had a sinus headache but when Drew said "Let's stay another day" I said "YES".

I am in love with my tent. I really love my tent. I went back inside, put on my Putumayo Yoga music, reclined on my comfy sleeping bag and drifted in and out of peace-zone so appreciating the open screened tent roof and fantastic weather. Later in the afternoon Ines and I mapped out our route westward. We had planned on crossing up to I 70. I had all sorts of cool places noted to check out along the way to Denver through Kansas. We thought we had the route and timing all figured out and then...

I got up Friday morning and informed Ines that we forgot about Illinois. We had routed to the border of Indiana then crossed into Missouri on the individual maps. Looking at the large map we needed to add a few more hours to the drive as we needed to add Illinois back into the United States. I thought some people would get upset if we deleted Illinois from the lower 48 states. "We best put it back."

So... we re-routed, drove much and got off the lookie-loo vibe. But that stops today. We are going back to meandering. We'll stop and chat with locals, look at "stuff" and get out of the car!

At this moment we are to the east of Wichita and taking back roads. Rt 400 has been rolling and not "amber waves of boring grain" but it has also been void of humans. We ignored a detour sign and ended up... well, I will save that story for another time. For now I need to make some coffee and figure out a campground somewhere along our path for tonight.

NOTE: SEE THE "FOLLOW BY EMAIL" FIELD IN THE UPPER RIGHT OF THIS PAGE. :)

"OUR HOUSE IS A VERY, VERY, VERY FINE HOUSE"

I just got back into the cabin after practicing my poi and flow wand in the sun. We are up in the mountains of western West Virginia in a cabin in the woods. It is a magical place. The cabin is full of history. I felt much of it upon falling asleep and awakening and I softly whispered to myself, "Oh how I wish we could stay longer." Magic abounds. Call it vibration (I do) or whatever makes you feel comfortable. Larry stopped in before heading to an appointment in town and offered us another night in this incredible space. More further on in this post. First let me fill in the last few days.

Sunday we had the great pleasure of being brought on a hike back at the huge municipal park in Wheeling. Mike knows the space so well; the landscape, the plants, and the history. He got us huffing and puffing up some hills which it was great. I needed to burn some calories and get the legs stretched out again. After we all went to check out a really interesting event at the Greenwood Cemetery.

Dead personalities came to life in full costume. No not as zombies but as historical figures who told us of their lives. I wish I had brought my video camera with me. I took photos and recorded some clips from my Canon. Later I edited them up for YouTube. I know our host Mike had a wonderful time too. He's into history and preservation. It was a happily active day and we took full advantage. It was early to bed as Ines and I were up early to hit the road to Hurricane. We had a CS host couple waiting for us and as the property is off grid and off GPS I wanted to get there (here) early in the day.

 

In the early morning we reached the Palace of Gold. It was on our way. I wanted to center, chill and take photos. Tours don't start until later which was perfectly fine. The garden grounds were open, the air was fresh and the light diffused. The Palace is a Hari Krishna property. The temple is a little further down the road from the palace but we chose to turn and bypass it. There were so many convoy trucks (fracking) taking up the winding two lane road. A workman warned me about hooking into the interstate to head south. I had already routed us on a State Route to the east of the Ohio river. Perfect. In fact, we are avoiding interstates on this trip whenever possible. This trip is about discovering and learning about people, places and things along the side roads.

Which brings us to Larry and Will's place in the woods. You can't get much more side road than this. It took a detailed map to get us up here and I am not driving back down. Not many things scare me but steep, skinny, gravel "road" ways do. I was white knuckled and screaming FLOOR IT! as my car stalled in a practically 45 degree angle when the three dogs came out to great us. THE DOGS AREN'T STUPID - GUN IT -THEY'LL GET OUT OF THE WAY! Obviously I wasn't driving. I am a wimp.

side note: The dogs (Blue Bell, Woody and Waldo) are our companions, trail guides and faithful protectors. They guarded the cabin as we slept last night.

 

The electricity here had kicked out just before we arrived which meant - yup - BUCKET FLUSHING again. (We also did this with Mike and Betsy in Wheeling but not because things didn't work. They are conservationists and practice what they preach. If it's yellow...) Larry showed us all that we needed to know about the cabin for survival. I jest. The cabin is fully equipped. He should be offering this on AirBnB. He treats us with the same concern as a proprietor of a fine hotel. What a dear soul. This cabin and he are pure gems. We also got a tour of the main house, hot tub (yes hot tub) and more. After the dogs took us for a short hike through the hollows. When we got back the electricity was on again. No buckets needed. Larry was cooking up traditional pinto beans and skillet cornbread. We were told when they were ready he would let us know. This made me very pleased as I was not into driving down the hill for groceries.

This property is equipped with modern day phones AND some of the old ones have also been wired in. As Larry was explaining the history of the cabin the phone rang. He answered with the antique phone. His sisters were traveling through the area and wanted to stop by. We all relaxed, conversed, laughed and ate beans and cornbread on the cabin porch. I was thrilled. "THIS" I told Larry, "is what I love about traveling and why I use couchsurfing.

Larry had found this cabin 40 miles away. It had been torn down and the owner gave it to him as a pile of boards. He painstakingly identified the placement of each item and reconstructed it high up on this hill.. What a feat of love.

Well - I am incredibly grateful that he offered us another night. I just hope he brings Ines back. They are off on the ATV up and down the hollows. He asked which one of us was the bravest. We really didn't have an answer to that one. I suggested Ines go instead of me as I have already experienced that fear in 2012 when I worked on the farm in Harrisville, WV. Someone else should get that "pleasure" too.


I am running out of battery on this netbook and must plug in and get into the woods. PS - if you call leave a message. I often do not have signal up here in these woods. Be patient. I think it's great. A disconnect reconnect.

"I'll light the fire, while you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today." We'll have one in the hearth tonight in the cabin. :) happy face.