Day 13

Waking up in Grants, New Mexico we headed off and came across the Indian Trail Trading Post. Jane bought a little pot, and I bought a stone dinosaur which they wanted to give me for free and didn’t want me to pay, so I bought a NM number plate to try and make up.

Mr. Freeman (as Mary Lou behind the counter always referred to him, and shown above) said there was a small museum. He showed me this photo of a “Wind Talker” and his guard meeting up long after the war.

Navajo Marines, used their native language as an unbreakable radio cipher during the war.

It was the guard’s job that if the wind talker was captured he was to shoot him to keep the code safe.

Mr. Freeman had been in London with the military in the late sixties.

Driving onwards we got stuck behind a house on wheels.

Passed through the Continental Divide where…. well, you can see from the sign.

A walk around Gallup (murder capital of New Mexico, fact fans) and picked up another Muffler Man. Also, this very nice old cinema.

The main trip for the day was to the Painted Desert (which is part of the Petrified Forest - of is it the reverse?)

Newspaper Rock (below) contains 650 images scratched into the rock between 650 and 2000 years ago. The meanings of the symbols are unknown.

Motel for the night in Hollbrook, Arizona. Being across into Arizona we get another hour we hit another timezone, though it’s not observed all over the state. Wikipedia says: “Because of Arizona's hot climate, DST is largely considered counterproductive. The argument against extending the daylight hours into the evening is that people prefer to do their activities in the cooler morning temperatures. The Navajo Nation, a semi-autonomous Native American territory, follows the United States DST schedule. It lies in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah and thus maintains the same time throughout tribal lands despite state borders".”

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In a new series called Local Area News, what’s on the front page of the local paper?

In Gallup: Independent - The Truth well told.

“A Mentmore man has been charged with his fifth DWI offence after police received reports of driving stunts and a possible race.”

“Parents concerned of gender politics in curriculum withdraw children from Ramah Elementary School.”

“Navajo Breastfeeding Coalition holds health fair.”

Day 12

We awoke to slightly grey skies and the weather was a bit cooler (which means it was still hot). A drive North through the mountains to Santa Fe. Santa Fe is our second state capital, and we took a stroll through the capitol building where they had an art exhibition. It was nice seeing both chambers.

Just round the corner is the “Oldest House in America” (though for English standards not that old at circa 1640). They make the case for this in a note pinned to the wall.

Why the oldest house?

The Spanish colonised this part of the world in 1598, though they came for gold in 1540. There were no West civilised settlesments in 1598 North of here until you go over the North Pole. There were thousands of indigenous people everywhere. But... There was no Jamestown. There was no Plymouth Rock. There were no Dutch in New York... no New York. There were no French Canadian Fur Trappers.. no Canada. There were no Russians in California.

There are approximately 12 structures that claim to the older then the "De Vargas House".

Some have ranges of dates.

Some are dated by dendrochronology, the science of dating events, environmental change, and archaeological artificats by using the characteristics patterns of annual growth rings in timber and trunks.

Some are strucgures that aren't houses, like a shed.

Some have been moved.

There may be an older structure prior to 1646.

...but none are built on the foundation of the rubble of a native structure abandoned in approximately 1435.

...none existed in 1598.

...and it isn't the house in St Augustine which was bombed by the British in the late 1780's or 90's.

The woman from reception at the state capitol building suggested we take the road back to Albuquerque that takes you through Madrid as it’s a fun town full of artists. On the way we came across Cerrillos which had a wibbly-wobbly looking statue. He reminded me a little of the air-blown things you get near garages. The church was looked so I didn’t get to look inside.

On the outskirts of Madrid there was a sign to see some “Outsider Art”, so we drove up the drive, put some dollars in the donations box and had a walk around. A sign said it was a Kenneth Wolverton, and we could hear some loud music coming from somewhere so I assume he was hard at work at his art. One piece was called “The Shrine of Broken Dreams” which seemed to a pile of - what I’m quite sure was carefully curated - rubbish. I did like it though.

A drive back down the through the mountains, on long and pretty empty roads.

Into Madrid where Jane bought a turquoise bracelet.

Back onto the mountain roads and we came across the San Francisco de Asís Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos so we drove up the slope for a look.

In Albuquerque we had a somewhat random driving looking at a few things relating to the show “Breaking Bad”. We couldn’t remember why but we had a comic book store on the list but it had closed. Outside some people were adding graffiti to the shop they were going to open to see skateboards. We chatted to Tommy whose parents had taken him from Santiago to Detroit, Michigan for a “better life” and it’s not one that suited him. There was some talk of white people and Nazis but I wasn’t paying sufficient attention. He’d been shot at (they missed) and stabbed (they didn’t) and had gotten his first tattoo when he was 14 via some ink and a broken bottle. All in all seemed nice enough though.

We were definitely going to head to the hotel but seeing a sign to the To'hajiilee Indian Reservation and remembering we’d been before because it was the location of the first scene from “Breaking Bad” we decided to revisit it.

Then it was definitely time to head to the hotel in Grants. 237 miles driven.

Day 11

Breakfast at the Carlson Coffee Company/Goodies Go Last Bakery (as it was so nice yesterday. People write their names on the bricks of the wall. Our silver pen wasn’t that legible, but if you find yourself then then look for ours names.

A drive around Tucumcari looking at the murals/street art. We were taking photos of Mystery Ink when Matt pulled up and kindly gave us a map of where to find all the murals (there’s Matt between Cheech and Chong and Shaggy).

A rest stop in Newkirk which a sign said was Comanche Territory.

We went to Clines Corners to fill the car up. “Clines Corners is an unincorporated community in Torrance County, New Mexico. The community was established in 1934 by Roy E. Cline, who built a rest stop at what was then the intersection of U.S. Route 66 and US 285; the rest stop, known as Clines Corners Retail Center, is now over 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) in size.” — Wikipedia.

Driving through Santa Rosa we saw the nice big, blue and closed Coin Operated Laundry we’d photographed in 2016.

Onto a deserted motel called the Longhorn Ranch. Someone has done some good digging on its backstory here.

We stayed the night in Moriarty. A town of just 4.8 miles squared, and a population of 1,1910 (in the 2010 Census). Fun facts from Wikipedia:

• Every October, Moriarty plays host to the Pinto Bean Fiesta, which is composed of a bunch of simple games in Crossly Park, as well as a parade and crowning of a "Pinto Bean Queen.

• Moriarty is named after the first permanent settler in the town, Michael Timothy Moriarty. (Established in 1902).

For all your Mortiarty needs; www.cityofmoriarty.org

Day 10

A short drive to our final destination so we took us to the middle point of Route 66 (not that we’re going right to the end on Santa Monica pier). A nice breakfast at the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas where Jane ordered pancakes which turned out to be large enough to land a plane on, and I had - spoiler - a cheeseburger (which was excellent).

A walk around the little bit of Adrian close to the cafe and snapped some of the rusted buildings.

Glenrio, a ghost town, falls across both Texas and New Mexico. There wasn’t much to see though someone had built a new “smoke shop” that looked quite cool. Getting into state number seven and a new timezone Mountain Daylight Time.

Passed through San Jon, another ghost town.

Into Tucamari that we enjoyed so much last time. We visited the Tucamari Historical Museum which had a curiously large amount of things. A plane, fossils, farm machinery, telephone equivalent, etc.

Here’s a flag with just 48 stars, so before Alaska and Hawaii joined.

We actually got to the motel at a decent time. Check in was 3pm so we went to the cafe across the road and had some nice food, and coffee (and the owner kept saying the coffee was free so we just tipped the cost of the coffee). At 3pm we went to see if the motel was open for check-in and the Basil Fawlty-esque guy beyond the desk just seemed apoplectic with rage saying “people who check in aggressively early.” His hands were shaking with rage. It was somewhat odd. Hotel is nice though.

An early evening walk to see the Blue Swallow Motel with its neon.