Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Tucumcari and beyond..

Tucumcari was kind of an interesting experience this time....  Renting the room was from the same gal that had the bad cold at Christmas time when I went thru town...

She was still full on with a head cold...   She even left her snotty kleenex laying on the counter between us....   And handed me a room key card with the kleenex in her hand...

I went immediately to the room and washed my hands and the key card in scalding hot soap and water....   Then I went to the store and bought a jug of Purell...  I brought it back and went over the room by squirting it in a washcloth and wiping everything..

I stopped at the pizza hut in town and had a small personal pan pizza, and while I was waiting a fellow pulled in with a 53 lime green Pontiac....  A straight eight two door with the lighted indian chief hood ornament....  He first got my attention while he was waiting for his take out pizza...  He was wearing bright green shorts with a pinkish red shirt, and penny loafers.....  Without socks...

Remember Tucumcari is on the mother road Route 66... and many of the motels and attractions are themed from the 1950s...  So this fellow was dressed to play the role...  And his car that started and ran like it was only 10 years old, not 60, fit that role as well....  Its just that you don't see folks driving old cars like that for a daily driver....

Back in the room after stressing over the cold germs, I was settled into watching the Canonization of the former Popes...  It was about 11 PM by then and the wind had picked up even more from earlier...  My door faced the outside and West...

The wind was rattling it in its frame...  It was blowing in hard enough to swing the curtains on the inside of the window....  The concrete block building fairly shook with the gusts....  I wondered how I would sleep...

Well in about 30 minutes, that wonder had a new element, as somewhere the power lines must have been blown together and things went slowly out.. First with low voltage like a brown out and then totally gone....

Looking out the window confirmed that the entire street as far as I could see was dark....  My laptop was on batteries, but the internet connection was gone and so was my mifi...

After a long while, the power did come back on so the lights were back..   But then the desk phone began to ring, and ring, and ring.....   Answering it didn't stop it ringing...  Still no cell phone or wifi or mifi...  And the TV would run but the programming on their cable system was gone...  No TV either...

None of these things rectified themselves for the rest of the night...  I pulled the phone wire out of the wall, and the alarm clock was one of those that flash a bright light on the ceiling to wake you up...  And I couldn't get it to stop or reset either...  So its plug was pulled as well...  So I and the 50 mph wind spent the night as it rattled the door on my room.....

Sunday

The lady with the cold was gone from the office the next morning, but a 30 something fellow had replaced her...  He looked as though he was up all night when I was checking out at 7 AM...  He told one fellow that when the electric went out and all the communications, it was time he went to bed anyway..... Nice..!

I grabbed some breakfast items from the coffee bar and hit the road...

I didn't see much of Texas...  Just a brown out dust storm....  At times I had to pull over and wait along the shoulder of the road because the visibility went down to zero...  The tumbleweeds were whipped up into a frenzy along with the dust... Some of them were small trees that had been broken free..  When they are so large, I try and dodge them as well...  Hitting them a 65 will leave scratches in the paint...

If I thought the wind was bad on Saturday, the wind on Sunday was much worse..    I arrived at the Wichita airport at 3 PM to haul the Honda home with the Jeep...  That will be the next post.

Retired Rod

9 comments:

  1. You really need to time your travels better with the weather. And that's another reason I love having our home with us - we don't have to worry about the motel room germs.

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  2. What a trip! I worry about germs, especially if the clerk is sniffling. One thing I rarely do any more is take any food that has been set out by someone I didn't observe. You know they don't always wear plastic gloves when putting out the bagels. I also don't ever eat from salad bars or buffets. I remember the days when no one gave it a thought. Glad you are safely home.

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  3. Oh my gosh, Rod, you are creeping me out with that story about the germ lady.... No consideration that's for sure .... Glad you wiped the place down .... The drive sounded like you had your hands full hour by hour .... Great you made it back, well at least to Wichita ...

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  4. My goodness, what a nightmare! First the person with the cold. Then the wind through the door frame. Then the power. When I got to the part about the flashing clock, I was thinking "enough already!" Tucumcari will always be a place you remember! And you ended up with even more wind in Wichita. Wow. At least we can guess that the story has a good outcome, since you are blogging! Thanks for sharing.

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  5. The only part of Tucumcari we have ever seen over the years is the parking lot at McDonalds. I wonder if they use rubber gloves there................

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  6. Remember, some people say it's the journey, not the destination. Some journey!!

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  7. The weather has been crazy windy here in Southern New Mexico - I'm actually getting a little depressed since it's been almost a week with no break. I actually tried to drive my motorhome to El Paso yesterday to have some shocks installed, but ended up turning around since the wind was so strong.

    Maybe the desk clerk had allergies - I know I do when the wind kicks up and the dust starts blowing. I don't know where you stayed, but someday I'd love to stay at the Blue Swallow - it's such a cool piece of Americana. http://blueswallowmotel.com/

    Glad you made it home safe and sound.

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  8. It's pretty clear the airport and motel are sending you a message that the RV is the ONLY way you should travel - even the Jeep seems sketchy at this point :-).

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  9. Sounds like a night out of a Stephen King novel, Rod. The only good part was the guy with the nice car.

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