November 7, 2010
After a day spent crawling around Monte Verde decided to hang around Cortez on Sunday. I soon discovered that as the saying goes they roll up the sidewalks on Sunday. Since I’d done my shopping on Saturday after my visit to the park and filled my gas tank I had nothing left to do but relax for the remainder of the day after a walk around town.
November 8, 2010
Set out early for the 250 mile drive to Albuquerque New Mexico. After the mountains I’ve traversed the hills that ran between New Mexico’s Mesas and Buttes as I drove through Indian Territories were gentle inclines. There is little to be seen from the highway other than fencerows, the occasional herd of cattle, and gently rolling desert plains. The only trees are near the rare creeks; the only roads mark large ranches. At the junction with I-40 the city of Gallup stands shaded by a Mesa to the north amid a dusty plain. The El Rancho Hotel in all its extravagant splendour remains much as it did when the likes of John Wayne and Ronnie Reagan made it their home while they shot iconic Western Movies.
Interstate 40 in New Mexico parallels Historic Route 66 though with the reduced traffic the new highway brought businesses along that byway are rapidly closing up shop the recent downturn in the economy sounding the death knell of many. Arriving from the west I had an easier time finding American RV Park on its frontage road site. It doesn’t help that Microsoft’s maps place it on the wrong side of town and Sandia Mountain to the east still serves to confuse my sense of direction. Alas, the Sandia Tramway which ascends the 2000 ft peak was down for maintenance. It does the heart good to return to a campground one liked last time and find afternoon pop corn, complimentary day-long coffee and breakfast at 8. Everything else about the place is great save for the internet squelching their Wi-Fi server initiates if it feels you’re using too much bandwidth. Two days later I delayed my departure and had a shower while I waited for breakfast.
November 10, 2010
Today I headed East on I-40 leaving the Interstate at Santa Rosa to set off cross-country on lesser State Highways. At Fort Sumner the remains of Billy the Kid may or may not be entombed. The border town of Clovis is notable for the air force base to the west and in town the recording studios where Buddy Holly laid down tracks. I was too late to tour the model railway centre at the old town Depot. The large grain elevator just east of my campground poured forth grain dust night and day the wind changing in the night to bring it my way. At least the fireworks for sale next door didn’t catch fire.
I spent November 11th driving through North-West Texas. The city of Lubbock actually was Buddy Holly’s home. The roads today were flat and the fenced in fields were bristling with pump-jacks sucking sour gas oil and fields of cotton. Didn’t know Texas had so much cotton grown here. There was so much being harvested the medians looked like they had snow drifts. The other surprise was the fact that the area has the largest concentration of wind farms in America. The Abilene KOA is indeed located in a former Pecan Grove though the majority of the trees are gone now and the park itself has seen better days. I find it hard to forgive a park bad Wi-Fi, the washrooms are cramped, the campground is small, and the receptionist was not friendly. And, as usual, the location was noisy. I did manage to collect a half bushel of pecans.
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