When Trumpets Fade....

I awoke around 7 or 730 this morning after staying up past 1AM with a somber feeling in my heart and a hint of fatigue in my shoulders.  Rockabilly on the Route in Tucumcari was over and folks were starting to filter out of the town. 
A weekend of high comed pomps, petticoats and the chugging slapping sounds of double basses had come to an end and it was time to return to normal life. 
I'm sad not so much because the festivities had ended, but rather because I would soon be pointing my front wheel towards my own home and putting in my rear view mirror people that I genuinely care for and miss when I can't be around them.
The energy in Tucumcari has faded as quickly as the bands and hotrods drove out of town and I am left looking at a sleepy route 66 town. The sun bakes the asphalt and continues its work of fading old paint and neon signs that once glowed brightly during its heyday.

I find myself emotionally ready to leave and head back to Missouri...

...and I hate that feeling.

I'll be here another day so I can go over my motorcycle and make sure everything is tip top and such and to make sure I'm adequately rested for the start of the following day's journey.

Route 66 really is the people and the experience and not just the sights.

Good Morning Tucumcari and Good Morning Rockabilly on the Route!

I would have posted more yesterday evening but not only was I swept up in a reunion of sorts with various regular attendees to the Rockabilly on the Route festival who are like extended family now.... aaaannnnd.... I was dog tired from the road. Thoroughly crispy too.  So I'll start off today the right way with a few shots of a few of my favorite morning time things here in Tucumcari.

Grubbin and Rainwaiting....

So its a little uncharacteristically rainy at the moment and my buddy Josh n I are getting food and waiting for things to blow over again.  It's nice to be back out on the bike for a long haul again. I've needed it something fierce after a very crazy May. 

While stopped earlier at the old Sinclair station in Gay Parita, we ran into two fellow road wanderers.  These cats were from Germany, near Hamburg. They're out doing their bucket list ride! Good on them and many safe and adventerous miles!

Here is to wind therapy, good riding buddies, fantastic roads and hopefully cooler heads prevailing....

Waitin' Out the Rain in Gay Parita

Well... looks like my buddy Josh and I are taking a longer break at the old Sinclair station in Gay Parita, MO. I'm so glad that Gary's family decided to keep the old place open!

On the Road Again

Once again I am on the open road.  The Mother Road calls to me with her siren song.... aaannnd there is a big rockabilly event that happens annually out in Tucumcari, NM.  That is where I am heading!  So stay tuned for old neon, old cars smiling Route 66 "Roadies," pompadours and victory rolls as I once again head out to get my kicks, on Route 66.

A Surplus of Time and a Whole Helluva Lot of Highway

Well, my intrepid readers, today marks my final day on active service to our Nation as a member of her Armed Forces. 
It's sort of bittersweet as I know I will miss working with the people I have had the opportunity with over these past 11 years and seeing the places I have seen.

So here before me lies an entirely new world of opportunity. One full of unexplored pavement and towns, shops, restaurants, new interestimg people and experiences to be had.

Now all I have to do is figure out which way to point my front wheel first!  Stay tuned for more posts and pictures and rambling musings from this particular drifting greaser!!

The Train'll Stop in Tucumcari......

For me, Tucumcari was a big deal in a few different ways.  It being a Route 66 town aside, two big things for me were 1: staying at the Blue Swallow Motel and 2:..... getting to make a cheesy reference to an old Spaghetti Western to my dad.

Tucumcari is a small town on Route 66 that has a number of restored hotels on it.  It's historic downtown area has become somewhat of a ghost town but the main drag of old 66 is still hanging on.

The crown jewel of the strip is the restored Blue Swallow Motel.  Family owned since it opened in the 1940's it has passed down from generation to generation, so to speak, and now it is run by the original owners' son and his wife.  They have done a great job of trying to keep things as original and oldschool as possible. 
Each room has a small garage and there are murals and/or bits of old Americana signs and ads hanging on the walls.  The rooms have been decorated in vintage 1940's and 50's accessories and furniture to really tie everything together.  The room that Matt and I ended up with had an old cabinet TV set that was doubling as a stand for the modern TV that was provided and the night stand had a small selection of original newspapers and periodicals dating from the late 40's and early 50's stacked on it. 
We rolled up to the motel, parked next to the main office and headed inside to check in.  The main office was virtual cornucopia of post cards, license plate frames, magnets and t-shirts.  Road gifts were there a plenty.  We checked in and chatted briefly with the owners and they mentioned that, when they can, have a bonfire and invite the guests to it to hang out and share stories from the road.    

When we arrived the main sign had been switched on but the sun was still bright enough to overpower the neon as well as the lighting that was around the buildings themselves.  We snapped a couple of pictures and then parked our bikes in our garage and began to download our luggage and

clean the road out of ourselves.  We decided to head to the place that the owners recommended for supper. 
Our food was decent and we talked about how we wanted to tackle the rest of the ride home.  We had specific things that we wanted to see but we weren't sure if we wanted to follow I-44 or follow Route 66 only.  We decided that since I-44 and 66 paralleled each other through the majority of Texas we would take I-44 so that we could maintain a higher rate of speed in an attempt to make up a little time for time spent at stops.

We came to the decision that we needed to try and capture the neon signs on the way back to our room.  We set up our GoPro cameras to maximize their view and headed out.  Unfortunately only a couple of the signs were lit up that evening so it didn't turn out as spectacular as we had hoped.  At least we were able to get the Blue Swallow on camera.

We got back and called it a night and turned in.  The next morning we loaded up and checked out.  The owners recommended a spot for breakfast and we headed there after checking out. 
Upon entering we were greeted by Route 66 artwork and and signs.  I ordered up an omelet and Matt ordered some eggs and bacon and we both set to writing postcards to send home from the road. Once finished we zipped back over to the Blue Swallow and, utilizing their gigantic mailbox, sent our post cards out into the world to find their way to their recipients and got back on the road home.

Enjoy the pics I've included and stay tuned for the next installment y'all!

Matt snapped this little staged number for me.  I wanted to set up a real artsy fartsy retro shot of the front.  So I set up the shot and he snapped the shutter!

Neon and classically styled machines is a hard combo to beat
visually speaking

I was really digging on the old sedan they had parked out front

It really helped to tie things together and give the shot a really oldschool feel

I love seeing the reflection of the neon in the paint of the Harley's front fender.  I had the
Route 66 shield hand painted by a pinstriper when I went to Rolling Thunder who goes by
the name of LetterFly.  Look him up on FB he does great work and is a real cool cat to boot.

Here is a shot of the garage that was attached to Matt and I's room.  The dirt and gravel floor made things a little interesting at first when we parked the bikes
but after a little shuffling around and kicking some gravel around we got the jiffy stands on a solid footing.

Heres a nice wide shot of the motel from the street that ran next to it right off the main drag.

Another exterior shot from the street.  the building in the center is the main office area. Off to the left by where the fence starts is the area with the bonfire pit.

A fellow guest snapped this shot to send to some of his motorcycle friends and
was kind enough to send a copy to me as well. :-)

Here are the vintage periodicals on the night stand.  Look a vintage rotary
dial phone that was functional!

The cabinet TV TV stand that our room was equipped with.  I think that the age of the TV eliminates the whole "You might be a redneck if..." vibe on this one, hahaha!

Downloading our gear from the bikes for the night.

Omelets and postcards!!

GO WEST YOUNG MAN: Day Three Part II: Taos, the Road to Los Alamos, and Old Town Santa Fe (Again) -or- Drinking a Cup of Joe in an Ancient Village Before Getting Irradiated (Possibly but Not Likely) and Walking Around The Square

Good day to you my dear readers who are few and far between but still clinging loyally to this erratically updated blog!  As mentioned before in a previous post a good deal has gone down in my world since taking this trip and starting this blog and it prevented me from updating this as much as I would have liked to.  Now I guess we're making up for lost time!  So here we go, on to Day Three Part II!

Matt and I rolled out of the Tent Rocks National Monument and headed for our next destination:  Taos! 
Now to those of you who are not familiar with it, Taos is a Native American pueblo village that has been in constant operation for somewhere in the ball park of 1500 years.  People have actively lived, worked, played and a host of other things for the past one thousand five hundred years.  I am pretty sure I read somewhere that it is the oldest populated city in the United States.  Which is pretty dern cool if you ask me.


WELCOME TO TAOS!!  I'm really not sure as to whether I would play some music from a travel channel show here or perhaps the opening theme of National Geographic.  I'm pretty sure I could get away with either...

 Matt and I really didn't explore the city of Taos that had grown up outside of the ancient yet still inhabited village.  We were more interested in what was inside where the adobe was.  I suppose I could go on and on about how neat things were and how mind boggling it was that homes were still maintained and handed down from generation to generation, but I think for this part of the post I will let pictures do most of my talking.

It is worth noting however, that Matt and I stopped in at this little cafe that was situated in the ville.  The Adobe Cafe is run by a lovely woman with help from her son from time to time.  She has a small but delicious menu that offers a fantastic taste of cuisine from this area of the South West.  All of the offerings are made in house and are full of wonderful southwest flavor.

 She also sells Pinon Coffees and had a little air pot standing at the ready with creamers and sugars on standby.

I ordered a cup of coffee a a blue Corn Fry bread Taco and Matt had the Ground Turkey Black bean Chipotle Soup and a Quesadilla.

OK.  I need to get kind of serious for a moment here.  I really have nothing to adequately describe the deliciousness of the foods we ate from this little gem of a cafe.  I'm being honest.  My vocabulary is escaping me.  What I can say is this:  If you go to New Mexico and are near Taos, GO to the pueblo, go to this lady's cafe and order her food! It's fantabulous, you wont regret it.  I enjoyed it so much that I made a very poor attempt at trying to recreate the Turkey Black bean Chipotle soup for a gathering of friends and it turned out awesome and everyone loved it.  there were like ZERO left overs.  So seriously.  Eat there.

Cozy and friendly little hole in the wall!  All power is supplied via batteries, a generator and the fridge runs off of propane of all things!

the Blue Corn Fry bread Taco....OM NOM OM NOM NOM

Ground Turkey Black Bean Chipotle Soup....OM NOMNOMNOMNOMNOM ALLLLL THE NOOOOOOMMMMMS!!!!

Yup, just sittin' here in this ancient Native American village, drinking some coffee....

The structure with the two rampart-y looking structures is a Catholic Church. It's been there for a couple hundred years. It's pretty crazy. the inside is absolutely amazing, unfortunately they didn't allow photography inside :-(

This place was pretty amazing and I very much hope that I can visit it again and explore more of the village as well as the city that grew up outside it's walls.  It was so interesting to be able to experience a very different culture within the borders of my own culture.  I highly recommend the experience to anyone and everyone who is even the least bit curious about things like this.

After we had finished up our lunch and looking around we headed back out on the road.  Our next  places of interest were going to be a sweet stretch of ride through some awesome canyon-y territory and then on up to the Valera Caldera via some very fun mountain-y passes and then into Los Alamos before finally heading back to Old Santa Fe for the evening.

 The Bandera Caldera was quite impressive to view:The floor of it now fields and grasslands while the rim is covered in fir trees stretching high into the sky.  Matt and I stopped briefly at the turn in for the fenced in area to snap a couple of pics before driving on to Los Alamos.

 

Los Alamos was interesting but really the remarkable thing about the place wasn't the city itself or the buildings, but rather it's history revolving around the military and it's nuclear program back in the second world war.  Now today the town is MUCH different than it was back in the 1940's so its not like there are a plethora of reminders that are obvious to the average passerby.  I did have a fantastic burrito there though.  Damn that was a good burrito. The ride out of Los Alamos was very impressive!  the twisties and turnies coming down out of the higher elevations was pretty incredible, unfortunately my GoPro's battery has managed to give up the ghost by the time we got to that particular part of the ride back to Santa Fe.  At least I got a shot of the burrito...


We rolled back to the KOA campsite and did a quick freshen up before heading back into Old Santa Fe to see what was what while there was still a lot open and a lot going on.  I had a crazy craving for sushi and we managed to find this little number.  San Q, Japanese Sushi and Tapas and Japanese Pub.  The sushi was great, they had a good selection of saki and I chose a nice Nigori that was sweet and refreshing.  They brought out a salmon skin salad and the sushi was served with a "hand chopped" wasabi which had flavor but was rather lacking in the zing department.  No sinus clearing properties with this stuff.  They brought me the Chef's choice which landed me with a decent selection of fish and.... a scallop.  Yeeeah.... I managed to choke that one down, not due to an unpleasant flavor but rather due to the unpleasant TEXTURE of raw scallop.  yeah.... not doing that one again.

Mmmmm Nigori saki.....



Here is my plate o' sushi... the to piece just below the pickled ginger... yeah... thats the scallop...

 Our next stop was at the Santa Fe Espresso Co.  We had some fantastic Mexican Drinking Chocolates and we even caught a sighting of the guy who hit us up for money in a drug or alcohol fueled state! We also managed to duck past a few panhandlers who decided that we looked like likely targets for a hand out. Sorry guys, not this time.

After  we finished strolling around Old Santa Fe, we headed back to our bikes and then back to our bunks at the KOA "Kabin".  It was a good day and we'd be starting our return leg and final day in New Mexico in the morning. 

A few more pictures from this day's journey are posted below!  Enjoy and remember to stay tuned for more tales from the road covering our journey home!