Wednesday night

We are at the "Northwest Inn" in Woodward OK. We got here on Route 60, which did go through "cowboy country." Lots of cattle in huge pens. Some oil wells (a few). In Texas, we saw Halliburton's trucks! Spooky--even more so than the UFO stuff around Roswell.

This is kind of off the beaten track. Route 66 and also the interstate are quite a bit to the south. But we will intercept 66 tomorrow, and follow out a porition of it that we missed before.

One of the main sights for today was the Cadillac Ranch, near 66, which is a bunch of cars half buried in the dirt!


Re sleeping. I'm still not doing really well, and have a cough, etc. This morning, I went back to bed after a light breakfast and slept until 10:30 or so. That helped!

Anyhow, Connie and I are trying to take it easy, as best we can.

Tuesday--two weeks on the road

Tonight we are in Hereford TX, which is the center of cattle activity in the state. We saw many large feed lots as we left New Mexico and approached here, going through Roswell NM, the flying saucer headquarters, and Clovis NM, where Buddy Holly recorded Peggy Sue. Another interesting industry we saw was the center of pistachio growing in New Mexico, just outside of Alamagordo NM.

Now we are on US Route 60 (which runs south of 66). Very likely we will also follow it much of tomorrow, up into Oklahoma.

Roswell

Today we should pass through Roswell NM, famous for flying saucer sightings. Now, seeing the proximity between White Sands and the airbase there and Roswell, my guess is that most of the flying saucers were unusual or secret aircraft. But it will be fun to look around a bit and learn a bit more.

http://www.iufomrc.com/incident.shtml

White Sands

Today we came south and visited the White Sands national monument. It is a spectactular desert landscape!


Tomorrow we will travel northeast, really starting "back home."

computer troubles

The connection here at the motel is fritzie, and all of a sudden my computer froze. Fortunately I have a "backup" with me, but I am really not sure that I will be able to handle email or blog postings very easily. If you don't here from me, that is the reason.

Over to Albuquerque

Today we drove from Gallup to Albuquerque, following the old 66 route much of the way. It is such a pleasure when we can get away from the interstate!

Part of what we went through was a winding rock-lined road that included "dead man's curve." It was totally lovely, and seemed perfectly save to us now.

This is the fourth time we have cross the continental divide.

Tomorrow we expect to head back south, to White Sands, which Connie's son Paul thinks we will really enjoy. We are free to take some new routes, because we have covered nearly all of 66 out to the Painted Desert, with the exception of a section near Kansas that we skipped in order to see Fayetteville Arkansas, where my parents met.

Saturday in Arizona

Last night David and I realized that the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park was not very far from Show Low where we were staying. We also found out that we could again pick up Route 66, which originally went through the park. So that became our destination for the day.



We spent several hours viewing some of the most incredible vistas imaginable. The parts of the southwest that we have seen in the last week have such a unique look and feel, so different from ones I grew up with. My east-coast eye and soul have finally come to appreciate the colors and sytle of this part of the country.





After we left the park we headed east on 66, much of which has disappeared or is not drivable in these parts. Much of our trip has been criss-crossing or actually joining interstates as we try to follow The Mother Road. Here in Arizona and New Mexico it is I-40. And so we followed it back into Land of Enchantment and are spending the night in Gallup.



By the time we get back home, we should be able to say that we had travelled Route 66 from Chicago to the Petrified Forest near Holbrook, Arizona. Not quite sure what we will do tomorrow, let alone the day after, but things have gone well and our travels have been very enjoyable so far. Stay tuned!

Connie