Author: mattlang

  • Monday, July 20. A day at rest.

    USA RV Park. Historic Route 66. Gallup, NM

    Today we took a day to work for me. We stayed put at the USA RV Park and took a day off from driving. I took advantage of the WIFI to update my new laptop a bit more and we rode our bikes around a bit to checkout the area.

    I did a few saxophone lessons and had a good connection for the most part. At a few times during each lesson I got the message “your connection is unstable” but Zoom took care. of things even restarting a few times. I switched from WIFI to cellular during one lesson and that fixed things for a bit. It’s great to stay in contact with students I’ve had for years. Thanks for sticking with me.

    Pam took the day to organize the cargo hold. She’s great at finding space where I thought we had none. She also wanted to make note of where everything is down there. You know the feeling. “I know we brought that thang, I just can’t for the life of me remember where the hell I put it!” Pammie took notes on everything so she knows where it is. I hope I can keep it all together!

    She also organized the cabinet below the stove. It’s kind of a pain in the butt because you have to get on your hands and knees to see what’s in there. We had been kind of piling everything on top of each other and digging for stuff when needed. Now it is quite well organized and stuff is easy to find. There are PLOYES in the cabinet. Tomorrow we’re having PLOYES for breakfast!

    While all the organizing was taking place, or after it, I can’t tell when she pulled it off, Pammie also made a tomato sauce AND some lasagna! Dang! We had homemade lasagna for lunch! Delicious!

    We had leftover sauce and mushrooms for dinner. What a day! I got my computer up to date and caught up with a bunch of news. The new in our country is not so good but I can tell you, out here on the road, we haven’t had any problems. People are wearing masks and staying safe. There are some that aren’t but it was the same back east.

    After dinner we took a bike ride outside the park on what looks like a little motocross park in a vacant field next door. There’s a river bed that’s totally dry and filled with junk. Unfortunately, there’s junk everywhere. This could be a really beautiful little nature area, it IS a beautiful little nature area, but there’s a TON of junk. WTF! I guess I’d have to live here to understand. There are a lot of closed businesses and tons of junk everywhere. It looks like things might be tough for some of the residents here.

    Tomorrow, back on the road. Headed for the Grand Canyon. We’ll see what happens!

  • Sunday, July 19th – Road Warriors

    We get the Canyon News every day!

    We woke up this morning on the rim of Palo Duro Canyon at the Palo Duro Canyon Adventure Park. It was a LOT cooler than when we arrived last night in the 100 degree, windblown, dusty heat of the late evening. Things were quiet in the morning. Not much action. My rubber neck wasn’t too busy yet spying on the neighbors. I had only the living room window open to check out the Texas morning sky.

    Today’s plan was to go into Canyon, Texas and root around. We woke up slowly, had a muffin and some coffee. I went outside and poked around packing up. A lot of folks were packing up. Our neighbor was packing up his new trailer and his girls were already sitting in the back seat of the pickup, trying to avoid helping out I imagine.

    We never took a trip into “the Grand Canyon of Texas”. Our neighbor talked us out of it the night before although I think it would have been a lot easier than he made it out to be. It wasn’t nearly as hot this morning and I think we would have been fine. We hit the road to Canyon, parked in town and dropped the bikes for some exploring. It was getting hot but Canyon is pretty flat so no hill climbs were on the horizon.

    Our first order of business was to find the dude on the Canyon, Texas sign: Tex Randall. Pam saw the sign and immediately went to work finding out who it was. She searched “things to do in Canyon” and old Tex was on the list. We followed googletta around town for a while before realizing old Tex was on the other side of the tracks. He’s quite stunning and worth the trip if you happen to find yourself in Canyon, Texas.

    We rode around looking for some Canyon teeshirts but, this being Sunday and all, nothing was open. A local convenience store clerk told Pammie Walmart was probably our best bet so we loaded up the bikes after a while and drove to Wally World. We found Canyon shirts AND a fly zapper! YES! We’ve had some flies with us in the camper since West Virginia and I swear they multiply every time we open the door. One of games has been to open the engine room windows while we’re blasting along at 70 miles an hour to shoo the damn flies out the window. Every once in a while one “flies” (nyuk, nyuk) out the window and a celebration ensues!

    Back on the road we were counting signs for tourist traps again. I can’t remember the name of this one but the signs were many. I haven’t fallen into the tourist traps since our trip to “Cherokee” but I enjoy the signs!

    We stopped for in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Pam had pulled up a Mexican Restaurant that said it was open and had good reviews. When we pulled off it was closed. There were a couple cop cars nearby too. Don’t know if that had any significance. Probably not. We found a place called Joseph’s Bar & Grill on Route 66 and pulled in the lot, ordered takeout and pulled over on the side to fire up the generator, turn on the AC and chow down – the signs say road calories don’t count!

    We’re headed for Gallup, New Mexico. The USA RV Park on famous (mostly trashed) Route 66. You’ll definitely get some kicks on Route 66 – mostly in the shocks of your vehicle! It’s been following us on route 40 for the last few days and when we pull off to get some kicks, there’s a lot of work in progress on ole 66 and a LOT more to be done.

    The drive from Santa Rosa to Gallup on Route 40 is incredibly beautiful. The hills, or mesas, or whatever the real name of them is, get a lot bigger. You start to get some curves in the road, some hills to go over. The road is good in most spots and trashed in others. We had some fun taking pics of each other. The V10 couldn’t decide which gear it wanted to be in. The truckers were voluminous but courteous. It was a nice drive.

    The campground is a small village. Most campers are right on top of each other but there’s a low, cement block wall along the side with few campers. We picked spot 130 which doesn’t have a sewer hookup but that’s cool, we dropped the kids off at the pool on Palo Duro ridge so we’ll be good for a few days. Tomorrow is going to be a work day for me and a day of whatever-the-hell-she-wants for Pammie. Talk to you soon!