June 11 - 14, 2023:

Santa Fe, NM - Tucumcari, NM - Amarillo, Texas:

I arrive in Santa Fe around noon time and proceed to the square where everyone is circling around looking for a parking spot.  After about three circuits, I break down and go to a pay lot.  I’m already thinking maybe this isn’t a good idea ?  I’m not really into the shopping, it used to be buying a new tee shirt, but these days I'm kind of over that.  I like the native jewelry, but its pricey, as it should be, but I feel awkward wearing, but mainly I’m really cheap.  

The main thing for me is to take photos, mostly architecture, murals, street art, signs and occasionally something involving scenic nature. After four hours of this, I’m done and ready for a nice meal at my favorite place, at the moment the Cowgirl BBQ.  

I then drive away from the central downtown area to look for a place to stealth camp, I soon recognize that once you get away from the touristy central plaza area of Santa Fe, where the low to middle income people live, many areas look rough and you will see lots of homeless types. I found myself in such an area was awoken at night by someone near the van causing me to move to a different location. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe,_New_Mexico

Crazy paint scheme !

Seems to everyones favorite

The flowers always bloom for me

The famous Santa Fe cathedral

The museum

I depart Santa Fe early the next morning heading for Tucumcari, NM with a stop at Santa Rosa, NM.  Santa Rosa is on the original route 66 and the businesses on the highway through town promote themselves with catchy signs to advertise their nostalgic motels, restaurants and businesses.  It appears to me that this is starting to fail, the younger generation does not have that nostalgic feeling for that time period.  Many of the businesses are now closed or look depressed, they're just getting by.  Such is the case for Santa Rosa, but the town business district on a side street seems to doing way better.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosa,_New_Mexico

Appears closed

Only open for dinner

Pecos Theater is looking good

"The Lion"

Love the sign, but it appears closed and I wonder if grandma is still around

  

I make another stop at a highway exit for Cuervo, NM which looks like a ghost town, the old adobe houses are in total collapse with private property / no trespassing signs all over.  There must be some thing wrong with me as I find these abandoned town sites fascinating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuervo,_New_Mexico

Where's Louise, now that's funny 

I then drive a portion of original route 66 that runs parallel to Route 40 for several miles, it was very interesting especially one area that was flooded slightly. 

 

I wondered about the risk and then took it

Arriving in Tucumcari, I have the same feelings about their Route 66 nostalgic promotion, it’s starting to wear thin, lose interest.  Tucumcari is really quite sad, the original downtown area which must have been beautiful and vibrant in the 1950’s to mid 1960’s is decimated, most buildings are vacant and deteriorating.  The one bright note I could see was the train station, the incredibly large impressive station that actually has been renovated and is now a train museum.  The majority of the tourist services are now located in a new section of town with several chain hotels, gas stations and quick food chains.   It was time for me to get cleaned up so I treated myself to a night in a Days Inn and a good meal the popular Del’s Restaurant.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucumcari,_New_Mexico

The Tee Pee is looking good

The Swan sign is just legendary

As is Tucumcari Tonight

Most interesting mural in the old downtown

Beautiful but closed

A ghostly old theater

The Train Station is impressive 

I depart in the morning taking the longer, but more interesting route 54 rather than the faster route 40 to Amarillo, Texas.  This road had very heavy truck traffic and I came upon a car accident that had just occurred , a truck driver was stopped, I didn't witness the accident, one of the victims had already called 911, but no one had yet arrived. One car was totaled and there was an injury, but basically nothing I could do so I left before  

A short distance away, I happened upon another sort of roadside ghost town, Nara Vista, with several very interesting buildings and signs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara_Visa,_New_Mexico

No gas here

No beer here today

No rooms tonight

No snacks today

I made another stop in Dalhart, Texas which has miles of very unappealing and smelly stock yards around town.  The downtown was mostly drab and dingy but there was an attractive museum on the historic XIT Ranch, one of the largest Texas ranches at 3,000,000 acres and the beautiful La Rita Theater  I’m not so big on Texas history, I skipped the museum, Texas history annoys me, but I’ll check it out online.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalhart,_Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XIT_Ranch

I'm wondering what they mean by "Feed the Fire"

I check my RV boon docking app and see that there is an OHV dispersed camping area about 20 miles before  Amarillo, I find it and decide to spend the night there.  It is right on the Canadian River which appears to have had a massive flood recently.  It appears that most of the roadways on entering the area were washed out and much construction is on going to repair the roads.  I was able to drive in to a great open campsite close to the entrance.  I had a slight scare at about 6 PM when a fast moving storm front blew in suddenly with high winds and blowing dust, but it didn’t last long, no rain, no hail and thankfully no funnel clouds.

              

I could drive under the bridge

The red colored Canadian River

The graffiti artists were here

A great campsite

In the morning, I travel into downtown Amarillo, park on Polk Avenue near the incredible Santa Fe Building, headquarters of the Santa Fe Railroad.  I then do a walking tour around several blocks finding several good murals and buildings of interest.  This is a beautiful downtown area with many restaurants and night spots. I see signs on 6th Avenue indicating that it is the original Route 66.  I then drive on 6th Ave to see what I can find, but I’m not seeing much of interest except for A bar called “The Circus Room”.  I had passed a building withe sign for the Route 66 information center, so I went back and went in find quite a lot of information.  The shop attendant noticed my va and wanted to know the usual, where are you going, how long etc, this happens a lot and it’s usually good.  He then told me that I continued past the Circus Room Bar I would come upon an area of several blocks dedicated to Route 66 with all sorts of shops, cafes, bars and oddities. I did so and he was correct, it was a vibrant route 66 scene.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarillo,_Texas

Actually the Circus Room didn't live up to the hype 

Good music

I then left to find a library to get on Wifi, but that did not work and returned at  5 PM to find a vibrant music scene taking place at Smokey Joe's.  It was a fun crowd and the band was very good.  I end up overnighting at a Cracker Barrel which was really quiet and go inside in the morning for the Old Timer breakfast, first one on this trip.

Next was a twenty some mile ride to Canyon, Texas  where the Plains / PanHandle Historical Museum is located.  I’ve bent this museum before, but don’t remember much although it it huge and has amazing stuff.

 

Impressive building

Great old paintings around the lobby

Who would have thought ?

My favorite exhibit of the museum

A great story

Windmills made the west

Love these stories

Battery powered car

They hit it big in oil

Then could afford a nice car

Interesting looking couple

It’s then about 15 miles to the Palo Dura SP.  All trails in the SP are closed due to crazy rain recently that has caused much erosion.  That’s OK as my knee is messed up from my last rock scrambling hike.  You are still able to ride through the park, but the sight are not that good from the road itself.  I stop at the visitor center where I fine good exhibits on local history, the indigenous tribes, the Indian wars, the geology of the area and the building of the Sate Park by the CCC back in the 1930.

I'm a sucker for a love story

Finally back to Amarillo to the Rt 66 area in hopes finding more music, but no luck, so I head back to Walmart for shopping and overnight.

I have concern about violent storms rain, hail, wind, tornadoes in the direction I am traveling so I'm doing some research on what to do if one gets caught on the road in a car or truck, none of it sounds good. 

Next stop ?