NOB HILL, ALBUQUERQUE—After spending much of the last two months on the road for “Off the Road”, I have been amazed by much of what I saw.. Here is a short list of what I thought were the very best or most interesting or funniest things I encountered. ❤ BEST CHEAP MOTEL. Although “cheap” is a relative term, I would have to say the title goes to Raton’s Budget Host Melody Lane Motel. ❤ BEST Read more…
ISLETA & BRIDGE SW, ALBUQUERQUE—Most of Albuquerque is laid out in a grid with main streets being about a mile apart. This is not really the case in Albuquerque’s South Valley. Oh, Bridge Blvd. runs east and west in a straight line all right. But Isleta Blvd. doesn’t follow those urban planning precepts. In fact, many of the north/south roads in the valley tend to wander a bit. The reason is that these roads have Read more…
PETE’S CAFE, BELEN—I met Rhona Espinoza, Belen’s Executive Director of its MainStreet Partnership, for lunch. There are two things I have to say about that: 1. Pete’s Cafe was packed, but Rhona knew absolutely everybody in the place…well, except one person and that person was me. 2. I have seen Bill Richardson work a crowd of people before, but he was nothing compared to Rhona Espinoza! I just sat there and smiled as she went Read more…
Let’s go back to Barelas. My friend Sam Pillsbury and I went down for breakfast at the legendary Barelas Coffee House. He, being vegetarian, had pancakes. I had the basic huevos rancheros. Apparently Barack Obama had the DeLuxe huevos rancheros when he ate here. That’s where they sneak a couple of corn tortillas under the eggs and sprinkle some cheese on the chile. It’s a dollar more. It was a good breakfast, and everybody around Read more…
ARTESIA PUBLIC LIBRARY—It was a two-part move for the mural. The first leg of the trip was to an airport hanger in Midland, Texas. There the mural would wait for about a year in a climate controlled setting until the Artesia library construction could be completed. However, there was a grass fire not too far from the airport as the Hurd fresco was being unloaded. It did no damage, but I imagine it reminded everyone Read more…
This is the story of how Artesia, New Mexico got a priceless mural done by Peter Hurd…how the mural came to be, its removal from a building slated for destruction, the multi-year journey from Houston to Artesia, and how this gigantic yet extremely fragile art piece was inserted into a library which had been built to receive it. In a state that is known for art and stories about artists, this may be the best Read more…
MAIN & CENTRAL, LOVINGTON—I gave Tabatha Lawson a questioning look. “Red Dirt Music?” “Yeah,” she said. “Red Dirt. Texas Country. That’s what they play.” She was talking about the band Reckless Kelly. I hated to display my ignorance, but I had not heard of Reckless Kelly, Texas Country or Red Dirt Music. I mentioned it to her. “They’re pretty famous.” Tabatha was the second person this morning to tell me that. The other was the Read more…
11TH ST. & MAIN, ROSWELL—Sometimes it’s hard to find a place to visit where there actually is something for everybody. Roswell is just such a place. What excites the kid inside all of us more than little green spacemen crash landing here on earth? Once, on a train from Chicago to Albuquerque, my wife and I were eating in the dining car with a middle-aged couple from New York. The man said, “Boy, I wish Read more…
4TH ST & BRIDGE BLVD SW, ALBUQUERQUE—The story of so many of our communities in New Mexico is the story of Ups and Downs: economic boosts followed by changing conditions and economic wash out. Many times the railroad is involved, and the Barelas community is no exception. Many times the coming of the freeways have left towns stranded, and no longer having access to the pocketbooks of the traveling public. This too is part of Read more…
RATON, NM—I rattled into Raton and immediately headed for the old downtown area looking for a hotel in the historic district. The historic district is not that big, and it quickly became obvious that there were no hotels in the area at all, so I did what a good many travelers do, headed for the McDonald’s for a cup of coffee and the free wifi. TripAdvisor has become the Go-To search engine for lodging and Read more…
EKLUND HOTEL, CLAYTON—It would not be true to say that the Rockabilly 4-day party chased me out of Tucumcari. No, I left of my own accord…although every room in the three motels I looked at were rented for the entire weekend. Sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, there was plenty of live music, swing dances, pinup pageants, and vintage car shows. But (darn it) I had already missed the Happy Hour Hootenanny on Thursday. I Read more…
SOUTH 2ND & CENTER ST, TUCUMCARI—The Odeon Theater lights up South 2nd St. in Tucumcari. The rest of the street is pretty dark. This is not on Route 66 that has the world famous neon signs…signs like the Blue Swallow Motel and the TeePee Curio Shop. No, this is old downtown Tucumcari. Route 66 bypassed this part of the city. It runs a few blocks south of here. There are signs of decay, but there Read more…
ROUTE 66, ALBUQUERQUE—About two dozen of us took a tour of one of Albuquerque’s properties last weekend. Purchased in 2010, the Route 66 Open Space, as it is officially known, consists of 66 acres at the eastern edge of town as it enters Tijeras Canyon. Old Route 66 passes right by it to the north. On the south, it encompasses part of the Tijeras Arroyo and abuts the protected biozone there and other publicly owned Read more…
PORTALES, NM—You can’t help but take notice when the movie folks come to town. They were shooting scenes for the movie “Comancheria” last Tuesday in downtown Portales. This made the newspapers as far away as New York City. Actually, the “Comancheria” crew shot scenes in Clovis earlier and were going north to Tucumcari later in the week. This is all entirely appropriate, especially considering that Clovis, Portales and Tucumcari were all in the area criss-crossed Read more…
NOB HILL, ALBUQUERQUE, NM—Some public art is so representative of the spirit of a city it just makes the visitor stop and say, “Let me get a picture of you standing right in front of it!” It is one way we keep track of our lives. Some towns have art pieces that seem to define their existence. For instance, in Reserve, NM the one photo you must have taken is that of yourself in front Read more…
Let’s talk about math. Today on the high plains of eastern New Mexico we rode four hours. Hills: sure. Headwinds: of course. We rode four hours through it all working like two friends who had survived everything weather could throw at us. But again, let’s talk about the math. In four hard hours we rode 20 miles. That doesn’t count breaks…just the time that the wheels were turning. By 2:00 PM, with 20 miles under Read more…
SANTA ROSA, NM—Good weather finally showed its sunny face today…with a tail wind. Add another plus: elevations went from about 6400 feet at Las Vegas to 4700 feet in Santa Rosa. Not that there weren’t hill, steep hills…it’s just that there were good, long downhill runs. In fact, even being on I-40 was made more than tolerable by an 11 mile downhill scamper into the city of Santa Rosa. And I mean we didn’t turn Read more…
LAS VEGAS, NM—It was still raining in Pecos when we awoke at the monastery. The Benedictine brothers had prepared a nice breakfast of some kind of egg and spinach casserole and melon slices. Mike and I ate with a couple of nuns visiting from Texas. Everybody knew the weather was bad. The Abbey’s cook came over to tell us that if we waited to leave we could eat lunch with them. She said it would Read more…
PECOS, NM—It should have been an easy day: only 25 miles and a train ride. It started out fine. Mike and I met near the Alvarado Station in downtown Albuquerque. We made sure our bikes were set up and rode them over to the RailRunner platform. What a deal! Roll on service for bicycles. Frankly, this is not a common service. AmTrak is still trying to decide whether it wants to do it. But here Read more…
NOB HILL—Today was the first day that I woke up and my legs felt tired. I believe it must have been that really difficult morning yesterday with the wind and hills. But all in all, I had expected to feel much worse at this point. We had been on the road for four days and I generally felt great! Mike and I left Grants and headed east on the old Route 66. We hadn’t gone Read more…