We left the Canyon area around 4/5pm the day prior and started heading immediately towards home. We were going to head back south to Flagstaff to jump on 40 heading west with the goal of making it to Albuquerque, NM by nightfall. We'd then stop and get a hotel and then keep pushing the rest of the way. I also had hopes of finding a University of New Mexico Lobos cheerleading shirt. I was again thwarted and left with sadness. Really nice campus. We ate at the Frontier restaurant. I'm spoiling things before we even get into the photos. Here they are:
Pretty sure this is heading down into Albuquerque.
Go Lobos
We checked into the hotel and this looked to be the only place open and there were a lot of people in there. Usually a good sign. They close down for just 4 hours nightly. Maybe 2am-6am if memory serves.
I ordered the Santa Fe burger, which comes with green chile,some guac I think and other southwestern deliciousness.
So this is how the rig was setup. I realized at this point in the trip I hadn't taken much in the way of photos of the carrier 'in use'. The orange home depot bucket housed rock salt/ice melt for traction and snow control. I've got a bed-mounted fire extinguisher. All of my own garage-done wiring has held up nicely, but this is extra piece of mind not only for my own tendency to ignite myself, but in case we ran across another motorist imperiled. The carrier latches with a barrel bolt and also I affixed a safety chain that is attached to an eye-bold that I drop into a hole on the fixed portion of the bumper. The rolling Stanley ABS plastic chest is where I kept our clothing and personal effects that we could just roll into a hotel. The box is not entirely waterproof. Our belongings are stuffed inside 6 mil contractor cleanup bags. It rained that first day and not a drop got inside of the box or on our personal effects. Space was a bit of a premium. I packed the tent and two sleeping bags just in case. As you can tell from the photos of Jenn and I, she brought a wardrobe and I was reduced to the space for a hodgepodge of non-matching portions I could wear repeatedly to cut down on space. The carrier I would typically chain to one of the uprights supporting the toolbox in the bed of the truck so no one else could just wheel it away. The setup was secure, but a bit cumbersome to contend with nightly. Another 'burden' was how I secured the tire (and carrier) to the lower receiver hitch. In the event a weld failed and the swing portion of the bumper sheered off, I wanted to have it still be attached to the truck to prevent it from making contact with another motorist. I would otherwise just secure the tire to one of the uprights. But because of the connection between the lower hitch and the upper carrier, I had to continually unlock and relock a second cable lock in order to swing out the carrier, to lower the tail gate, to unlock the rolling case to then roll it inside. It was a bit...involved. And we still ended up having stuff strewn across the backseat which I really have been trying to avoid over the course of these three road trips so far. The setup is getting better, but it is still very much a work in progress to achieve the right balance of convenience and utility.
Now, what follows is going to be a real treat for any auto enthusiast. I clearly am in love with my truck and my truck alone (and my wife). My dad is more of the car buff. You could show him a partial snapshot of just a car's headlight and he could tell you the make, model, and year within maybe 3 years. He's pretty good. I'm going to show him these pictures and test him on it. I tried to get the little labels describing the cars in the shot too so they could be blown up and we could read them.
I asked Jenn to look up what there was to do in Santa Rosa, NM as it looked from the GPS that we would be passing through there right around the time that I'd need to gas up. Route 66 Auto Museum showed up and we plugged it into the GPS to check it out. $5 per person gains you admission to take a trip down memory lane. Now, they ask that you DO NOT open any of the doors or manipulate any hoods or such. I would have otherwise LOVED to have gotten some shots seated behind the wheel. You can appreciate the concern though. Some jackalope gets in behind the wheel of some cherry Ford Mustang and leaves his own keys in his back pocket. Rip! That custom restoration of the leather interior needs to be re-restored.
There's about 30 or so cars and trucks on display, many of which are for sale. I won't tell you which one I was eyeing. The price was just right. If I can just hit the lotto (not even a jackpot) and have an extra 10K or so on hand, I'm going back to NM to claim my ride. Now, others came with a much higher asking price. But this one was right in my range.
This was NOT the vehicle I was speaking of, but I'd want to pick up one of these too if I was rolling in Jay Leno dough. This thing is a dag-on land submarine of a truck. It's like the original crew cab with a true long bed. That bed is like 10 feet long.
This is clearly where I started gravitating towards the trucks.
We did not eat here, as we were needing to makeup time and (we had spent a good amount of money eating out as it was). So we crossed the street to more familiar fare after snagging this photo.
Still no McRib.
Back into Texas...this time heading towards Amarillo
Now, I had posted some things on Facebook about my hunt for the McRib. Others shared there insights and efforts towards tracking it as well. And then Gerard chimed in with a reality check: Jenn and I were traveling through the land of AUTHENTIC barbecue. Maybe we should stop chasing some mass-produced, novelty in favor of finding a taste of the real thing. And that's what lead us to Big Daddy's. I got Jenn to check ahead on the iPad while I drove us towards what her search hit upon. She really started to get into the role of navigator at this point and was helping us to find some great places to stop and sights to see.
Jenn got chicken and I got sliced beef barbecue. Deliciousness ensued. There was also sweet tea and cornbread and a brownie. I borrowed a move from Steve and started taking pictures of the food.
Recent accolades won by Big Daddy.
We actually got to meet Big Daddy himself. He came out of the kitchen midway through our meal to meet the "feller from DC and ask [me] about the zombies." To be honest, I had wanted to inquire about the whereabouts of the namesake proprietor. I saw photos on the wall of him...and he is a large man and was up in years. The combination of these two factors and his penchant for BBQ made me think better to inquire as not to invoke some sad homily about him having ascended to heaven a decade ago. Well, Big Daddy thankfully was alive and well. We talked about wind mills and power lines, the black man named Jim who has a truck line that travels to support oversize load transfers, and his work in the community which had him, at present, preparing to smoke not less than 30 turkeys to aid a church that had lost it's chef. It was a Spanish church. Big Daddy was sure to clarify that point. He had to leave us as some of the turkeys had arrived frozen solid which was going to be a complication to his smoking operation. I wanted to take a picture with Bid Daddy, but I didn't want to be patronizing.
Big Daddy's was off the beaten path a bit. I just followed the GPS as we headed away, but it didn't take us back the way we came to the interstate. We were driving along some desolate farm roads for a while. Now the farm roads in Texas are actually well-paved and maintained thoroughfares with striping and allowable speeds of 70mph. Its just a bit unnerving that they stretch for miles on end and die off into the horizon or are only sporadically intersected by another farm road either terminating into the horizon or onto private land. I didn't know how long we were expected to make it by on these roads. The real hazard to me was nightfall was looming and there was no clear indication of when we'd be back on a main road where one could expect a service station. Right before returning to civilization, we came past this Tyson's plant and also Amarillo Cotton. I snagged photos of both and happily jumped back onto 40.
Oklahoma City was next. We weren't going to stop for any appreciable period of time as Jenn and I had both been to Oklahoma City back in 2003 long before we started dating for the women's NCAA basketball tournament. The matchups were held in nearby Norman, OK, aka Sooner Town USA. But OKC was going to be our next stop for fuel and food.
They love God out here...a lot. For scale, that was either a one or two story building to the left of the cross which is absolutely dwarfed by the immensity of the crucifix.
This restroom doubles as a tornado shelter.
That was another thing that was a bit nervewracking about being on those farm roads. It looked to me like I could revisit the buildout of the truck to make it a storm chasing vehicle and we would be all set on the backdrop of the sequel for Twister 2.
I got a picture of a guy taking pictures of my truck. It wouldn't be the last.
This outlet mall had a Coach store. Jenn had exercised great restraint up to this point. I thought it was only fair to unleash her on this outlet. She got a bag.
We got into town and went to the Bricktown section to visit the Mickey Mantle restaurant. I was thinking bar scene, but we got seated in the upscale, fine-dining portion. It was a bit embarrassing as we were definitely casual. Very casual. All the same, we were treated nicely and the rookie server even parlayed a free dessert for us as first-time diners at Mickey Mantle. I left her a sizable gratuity and thanked her for her conscientious service in spite of our attire.
These got left off and appended here for some reason. So here they are.
Recent accolades won by Big Daddy.
Leave a reply here :)
ReplyDelete