Santa Fe to Tucumcari, New Mexico

There were no “Nightmare’s on Manhattan Avenue” on our last night at the Pueblo Bonito B & B in Santa Fe. (Read the last blog post if that sentence makes no sense to you.) We were up and packed early for a long day. Our plans were to drive over 500 miles to Oklahoma City. But before we could leave, we had to sample the home made tamales and the green chile stew the Pueblo Bonito serves for breakfast.

I was too busy eating and talking to take good photographs and I was using my small underwater camera so please excuse the quality. Caroline filled her plate with tamales and passed on the stew. I decided to try it all. Tamales were great and I could have eaten more. The stew was fine but I think I would have preferred this at noon or dinner. Now I am on a search for a local restaurant that serves these authentic tamales–delicious!

Appetites satisfied, we were off for the next weird and wonderful stop on our way to Oklahoma City. We found the quickest way to I-40 on which we would travel all the way to Memphis, Tennessee. Interstate 40 replaced the well-known Route 66 which began in the east in Chicago, Illinois and terminated in the west in Santa Monica, California. Prior to the signing of the Interstate Highway Act by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 the road was one of the most well known and well-traveled in America. John Steinbeck called Route 66 the Mother Road in his book The Grapes of Wrath. It has also been called the Main Street of America. Gas stations, restaurants and souvenir shops were built along the road during the height of its popularity and use.

All along I-40, we noticed abandoned businesses and villages which appeared to us as Ghost Towns. Tucumcari is the largest city between Amarillo, Texas and Albuquerque, NM. Old Route 66 runs right through the center of Tucumcari. There are several motels, restaurants and souvenir shops with huge vintage signs built in the thirties, forties and fifties which are surviving but appear to be barely hanging on. It is sad that this once thriving town in which many of the scenes of the show Rawhide were filmed starring Clint Eastwood has become so worn down.

One business still in operation is the TeePee Curio Shop. The shop is unmistakable with its concrete wigwam fused to the gift gallery–a perfect reminder of life along Route 66.B

Caroline and I chatted with the store owner who was happy to see us. It’s quite possible we were his only customers for the day. We enjoyed looking at the tchotchkes available for purchase. Several of our family members received beautiful jewelry purchased here for Christmas gifts.

There were several other vintage businesses we would have enjoyed exploring but with more than 350 miles to go to Oklahoma City, we had to get going.

Joy