There's been a lot of concern about the weather during our trip as there should have been. Wildfires in Albuquerque; tornadoes in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and North Carolina; and floods in Tennessee. We've been fortunate not to have been directly affected by any of these. Our luck almost ran out on the drive from Van Buren/Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Tucumcari, New Mexico.
It was in the high 70s, overcast and oppressively humid when we left Van Buren. By noon the temperature dropped to the low 60s and the sky seemed more like dusk. Then came the lightening and thunder show, both the curtain of lightening and huge bolts. We felt like we were part of those extreme weather shows from the Travel Channel. But it cleared up somewhere in Oklahoma and we celebrated with DQ treats.
Motoring across the Texas Panhandle we came across small patches of burning grass alongside the freeway, one after the other. The problem was the wind - we estimate it was blowing steadily in the 40 mph range. Hard to keep the Grammy Van in our lane. Even harder when the smoke was billowing across the freeway and you were afraid to slow down because someone would hit you from behind and we didn't want to run into someone ahead of us. At one point it looked like the flames were going to jump the two lanes right in front of us. Two pickups pulling trailers stopped on the side of the road and may have been the cause - once we got by them there were no more fires. It was truly frightening and we later learned they closed both sides of the freeway shortly after we got through.
And I thought there wouldn't be anything to write about on a big travel day - just that we had traveled in four states. Ha!
Tucumcari was just great. During Route 66's hey days, it was one of the most heavily promoted towns. Now it's pretty sad but there are several miles of the original road and we stayed in one of the popular motels, the Safari. It's been updated with good beds, linens, flat screen TV, and lots of great design touches but was still the original motel. A really fun place to stay.
Tucumcari is also home to the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum which has an extensive collection of skeletons and bronze representations of dinosaurs, fossils, and replicas of prehistoric creatures, many of which were found a short distance from Tucumcari. It's part of a community college which also has a bronze foundry where students cast the remains that have been found there so you can touch them, etc. It was fascinating. We were fortunate in having the man whom we believe runs the program follow us around the museum and give us a very informative personal tour.
And where else but Tucumcari will you find the Rocking YYs Cafe and truck stop for our last Southern influenced dinner? Chicken fried steak with cream gravy and choice of two sides! My green beans were swimming in butter with lots of real bacon for flavor. Even though it's in New Mexico it's so close to Texas it was Southern all the way and I loved it.
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