At long last… A Blog

My apologies to those who have checked out blog only to see Tucumcari again. That’s kinda how we felt in September/October, seeing Tucumcari again.  We can now say we have REALLY done Tucumcari AND got the shirts.

But we did get rolling to Albuquerque only no Balloon Fiesta, the balloons had moved on to happier skies.  Cool Judy and Luke Rinehimer had not moved on as they were waiting for an important mail delivery of their tire monitors. Lucky for us though so we joined them at FamCamp for several days.  We even got to meet up with our CokeCacher friends Wendy and Mike Lawrence for a yummy dinner.

We finally started to move slowly west stopping often to see SKP friends. For our readers who are not RV’ers, that’s  Escapee friends. Our first stop was in Holbrook. We met Bob and Pat DeSpain, friends of the Rinehimers, and stayed the night at their beautiful ranch just outside of town. What a fun time we had going to their favorite Mexican restaurant, playing with their very energetic ball (and rock) retrieving dog, touring the ranch, and admiring the amazing petrified logs that Bob’s father found many years ago in the quarry he owned. Super couple who are now Facebook friends.

We moved our caravan down the road the next morning stopping to rest, have lunch and get a geocache on our way toward the Elks Lodge in Clarkdale. I cut the bottom of the picture of Cool Judy off so there is no ‘spoiler’ (a giveaway of the location of the cache) shown.

We stayed a couple of days in Verde Valley visiting our favorite sites like Jerome, built on the side of a mountain, and the museum in Cottonwood that houses an amazing model railroad.

Verde Valley-Clarkdale & Cottonwood VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

When we visited Jerome we had lunch at the Mile High café. I love the grilled cheese sandwich which is like no other. This time I had the fried spinach as the side. It is hard to describe this other than to say the spinach just melted on my tongue. Amazing!

We then drove to Prescott to visit more SKP friends, Greg & Sally Schindel.  They had just gotten back from their trip to the northeast and their RV was still being unpacked in their spacious driveway. We enjoyed their hospitality and especially their beautiful view of Prescott. The Schindel’s took us to one of their favorite historic Prescott eatery, The Palace Saloon.   This is the oldest Frontier Saloon in Arizona. Greg told us the interesting story about this saloon.  On July 14, 1900, the town of Prescott was burning and when the fire reached the Palace the drinkers just moved the enormous bar out of the saloon to a safe place across the street and the beautiful bar was saved.

As you can see we were SLOWLY moving toward California, but we were not done visiting SKP friends. Our next stop was the Avondale Moose, dry camping and visiting Robert and Barbara Moore. Dinner was a blast as Betty and Duane joined us.  The restaurant almost had to kick us out as we talked and laughed long after our dinner was done.  We sure have a great time on the road, traveling with friends and meeting old and new friends as we travel this USA.

We finally arrived back in California landing in Indio after 10 months on the road. We checked into the Indio Elks to rest for a couple of days. We even had the rig and toad washed by the mobile RV washers that regularly visit the Elks drumming up business. They were recommended by others staying at the Elks and we felt they did a good job getting 12,000 miles of road dirt off DA PAD and DA TOAD.

We met MerrieAnn and Jeff Martin for dinner in Desert Hot Springs. I think this blog should be titled “Eating our way to California adding friends along the way”. 

Our next stop on our way home was without Cool Judy and Luke. We were so sad to leave such fun traveling companions, but they had to get home to Cool and we were on our way to Fresno with one very special stop along the way. We found the West Covina Elks was pretty close to Arcadia where Kay and Tom Tierney live.  They have been friends, very dear friends, since we met them just weeks after we were married over 50 years ago.  We lived next door to each other for several years and visited them almost weekly after we moved to Redondo Beach and they to the San Gabriel Valley. (If it were not for Kay typing my homework, I probably would not have a college degree ).  When we get together with Auntie Kay and Uncle Tom it is just one laugh after another.  We got to see their new remodel of the room addition started about 35 years ago and check up on their Westie, Mensy.

Tierney abode & Mensy VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Daughter, Karen, joined us for dinner and we talked about Sherrie & Kevin.  That’ll teach them to not join us for dinner.  tee hee.

We finally arrived back in Fresno just in time to see the grandboys, Logan and Ryan, dressed up for Halloween.

 

Until next time we will be On the Road Again Caching  Places that we’ve Never Been. Thanks for patiently waiting for our blog. Next one will not be so late… I promise.

Wrapping up Tucumcari

First, let me say we have left Tucumcari and have headed west.  We were there from October 1 to October 18.  We had a couple of very frustrating and tearful days, but for the most part we were blessed with meeting some good friends, meeting up with some old friends, and caching places that we’ve never been.  These are some of our favorite memories:

Our time in the Best Western Discovery Inn. VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Boredom in the Motel

New and old friends.

Lft-Rt: Melissa, Jim & Stella, Mike, Tom & Steve, Anthony & Justin VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The Old Gray Cats, Carol & Robby, Rich & Frances VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We did have some fun times eating and geocaching.  On Friday, the 15th, on the recommendation of Rich and Frances, we went to lunch at the Watson’s Bar-B-Que.  This is the twice a week restaurant next door to the amazing eclectic Tucumcari Farm Equipment Supply, both owned by Jim and Stella Watson.

Tucumcari Farm Equipment Supply VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

While eating our deeelicious lunch we looked out the window and saw A BUZZARD.  We walked outside and spotted 2 more buzzards. Now Tom’s Indian Guide name when he was the YMCA Longhouse chief was Big Buzzard. Jenny was Little Bird and Jason was Road Runner.  When we saw that Buzzard we knew we had to place a cache there.  We check with owners, Jimmy and Stella Watson and they were so excited to have a cache at their store and to learn about caching.  We were fast friends and were on each other’s Facebook within hours.  That cache has now been found 3 times; the first to find was a local insurance lady that the Watson’s didn’t even know was an avid cacher.  We were beginning to love Tucumcari.

While in Tucumcari we were invited to join Richard and Frances and Robby and Carol at the Mesaland’s Rodeo.  This is a Junior College competition and quite highly rated.  There were cowboys and cowgirls from as far away as Australia. These are some of the exciting moments at the rodeo.  I am happy to announce the bulls, calves, and bucking broncos won.

Mesalands Rodeo VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I even have a T-shirt that Tom caught when they were chucking shirts to the crowd.

One of the most interesting thing we discovered in Tucumcari was the painted walls.  Remember the old pool at 5 Mile Park in the last Blog?  Well, it is found in a couple of Wall Paintings.

5 Mile Park VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We decided on our last day to see as many of the Painted Wall that we could. We ran out of time, but here are some of the best.

Painted Walls VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

That has been our time in Tucumcari. We missed the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta but there will be another Fiesta. I doubt we would ever have stayed in Tucumcari a half a month were it not for our break down.  In hind sight it was a blessing. I think we have learned to slow down, when handed lemons… make lemonade, and to be thankful for every day we have on the road regardless of if it is our plan or not. 

So we will be on the road again caching places that we’ve never been.

Our Last Days in Tucumcari

Last Sunday friends, Richard and Frances, came by the hotel and we all piled into DA TOAD and we drove out to Rich and Fran’s ranch. They have 160 acres that are being planted by a sharecropper who farms about 10,000 acres. We drove DA TOAD all around the property and walked to the only building – a boxcar.  The boxcar is inhabited by 2 barn owls.

		Richard & Frances’ Ranch VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We were treated to lunch at the Russell Truck Stop about 10 miles from the ranch.  It was good lunch, but the free museum inside the truck stop was real interesting. There were cars including a 69 Corvette and 4 Shelby Mustangs, collectibles – lots and lots of stuff, and history.

We then drove back to Tucumcari to sit in on another practice session of the Blue Grass Bank, Old Gray Cats. They were just great and we are sorry we will not be here for their performance.

Later that evening we went to Denny’s with Rich and Frances, Robby and Carol. We laughed and carried on so I thought they may ask us to take it outside. We’ll miss these great friends.

Monday we did some caching and had some unsettling and conflicting information from the insurance company.  It was later resolved and it was agreed the shop had to tear down the engine to examine the piston and rod on the number 1 cylinder. That lead us to Tuesday.

Good news. The insurance company agreed to pay for the parts and labor to replace the head, head gasket, and rod.  There are a number of things they will not pay for. They will pay for the oil but not the oil filter. What’s the logic there?  They started on the repair. After that news we went Geocaching. We had placed a geocache near the truck repair shop and needed the agreement of our friends, Rich and Frances, to maintain it for us. We decided to drive into Logan and get some caches and talk with Frances and Richard. We discovered a cache just next door to Rich and Frances’ house and they didn’t even know it was there. On our way out of Logan we placed another cache and picked up 2 more before eating dinner.

This is the saga of our dinner experience last night.  It was quite an experience getting dinner and desert in Tucumcari. We went to a Chinese Buffet only to find the buffet was only served at lunch. OK, no problem, we like Chinese food ordered off the menu. I ordered Hot & Sour soup and Crab Rangoon and Tom ordered Shrimp and Snow Peas. The family of the waitress came in and sat down next to us (we were the only 2 tables in the room). I was served my soup and rangoons and the waitress’ family was served shrimp, fried rice, and several other dishes. Tom was then served chicken and snow peas. He asked for shrimp instead of chicken. I ate my entire dinner; the table next to us with the waitresses sitting down with them ate most of their dinner. Tom was served his shrimp and snow peas about 25 minutes later.

We were going to stop at McDonalds for a couple of pumpkin pies. When we got there about 6 cars were in the drive thru so we walked in to the front counter. On the other side of the store a Greyhound bus had unloaded it’s passengers, about 50, for a dinner break at Mickey D’s and we couldn’t even see the counter, so we got back in the car and drove across the street to KFC for Apple Pie where no one was at the drive thru. We ordered, drove to the window, our money was taken and then we were told they were going to put the pies in the fryer right then and it would only be a few minutes. We waited about 10 minutes and the drive thru window opened and we were told the cook dropped our pies on the floor and they were cooking another batch… could we drive forward so the car behind us could receive their order. (timing is everything) Another 10 minutes and we had our pies and were heading back to the hotel room. So that’s how we spent a week in Tucumcari yesterday.

This morning we went to the free breakfast again that is served at the motel. Mary, the hostess, is there each morning to greet us; the variety of breakfast choices is terrific. Fruits, yogurt, eggs, sausages, biscuits and gravy, green chili potatoes, Belgium waffles, bagels and cream cheese, and sweet rolls.

Then we drove over to the repair shop and checked out the progress on DA PAD. 

We then went to check out some more geocaches.  We drove west on old Route 66 to 5 mile park.  This has been abandoned for many years and the main building burned down in 2010.  This was originally an Olympic size pool and is now beyond repair. This is typical of the result of the highway passing a thriving town by.

This is a recap of our caching time in Tucumcari: found-26, placed-2. 

Looks like we will be loading all the cat stuff, clothes, and technology back into DA PAD and we will be on the road to Albuquerque tomorrow. Hurray!

Stuck in Radiator Springs

We have been in Tucumcari, NM, for 6 days.  We have driven from the north to south and the east to west; we have seen almost all of Tucumcari and can’t help but think of the movie ‘Cars’.  I decided to look up the the towns that were depicted in the movie on this website. 

“If you are able to drive to only one Route 66 city that best resembles Radiator Springs, I recommend Tucumcari, N.M. It’s a small town that boasts a bunch of vintage motels, a Mexican restaurant shaped like a sombrero, lots of neon lights, a Route 66-themed grocery store, Tucumcari Mountain and the well-preserved Odeon Theatre, which still shows first-run movies.”

These are some of the scenes we found while geocaching in Tucumcari.  This was a challenge. If we did not have the GPS working on our cell phones, there is no way we could have found a cache in this “pickers paradise”.

 

Another cache was found in the iconic motel, Blue Swallow, also mentioned on the website. “Sally’s Cozy Cone Motel in the film is a composite of the historic Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, N.M., and the teepee-shaped Wigwam Motels, with one in Holbrook, Ariz., and the other in San Bernardino, Calif. All of these motels are restored, well-maintained, and worth seeking out for a night’s sleep.”

Blue Swallow Motel VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Of course the mountain shaped like a radiator cap that overlooks Radiator Springs is inspired by Tucumcari Mountain in Tucumcari. The mountain is the dominant feature in that region for miles around. Local high-school students repaint the town’s initial on the side of the mountain each year.

We looked for a cache called Zombie Town.  This was the huge Tucumcari Truck Terminal.  There was a restaurant, diesel pumps (where the cache was located), a Shell gas station and store. This was totally abandoned because the Highway passed the town of Tucumcari by.

While we are stuck in Radiator Springs … Tucumcari we have been reminded that like Lightning McQueen we have had been forced to slow down. Whether we like it or not after all the crazy travel from Kansas City to Montana to Sault St Marie back to Indiana and back to Kansas City in just 2 months we slowed down even if we did not want to, just like Lightning McQueen. 

We have seen the specialness of this small town from the friendly waitress in Pizza Hut that sat down to talk to us to the lady at the hotel breakfast room that greets us each morning with a smile and is sorry we are still stuck here.  While caching today we were sneaking around a little building outside a historic old home when the door opened and Robby, who we had dinner with last Saturday in Logan, poked his head out the door and asked what we were doing and then invited us in to listen to their jam session.  What a wonderful time we had with Robby, Carol and Bob.

I think we are resolved to look on the bright side of this situation and there are really some good things going on.  We eat a fabulous breakfast each morning, we have good internet, we take long showers, everyone is super friendly, and we have gotten almost all the available caches in Tucumcari.  Tomorrow we will get the rest of the caches.

The latest news on the repair is we are waiting for the adjuster to approve the recommendations Cummins suggests when a head gasket is blown.  If they do not the predicted failure will cost much more than the $9,000 of this repair.