NOB HILL, ALBUQUERQUE—After spending much of the last two months on the road for “Off the Road”, I have been amazed by much of what I saw.. Here is a short list of what I thought were the very best or most interesting or funniest things I encountered. ❤ BEST Read more…
ISLETA & BRIDGE SW, ALBUQUERQUE—Most of Albuquerque is laid out in a grid with main streets being about a mile apart. This is not really the case in Albuquerque’s South Valley. Oh, Bridge Blvd. runs east and west in a straight line all right. But Isleta Blvd. doesn’t follow those Read more…
PETE’S CAFE, BELEN—I met Rhona Espinoza, Belen’s Executive Director of its MainStreet Partnership, for lunch. There are two things I have to say about that: 1. Pete’s Cafe was packed, but Rhona knew absolutely everybody in the place…well, except one person and that person was me. 2. I have seen Read more…
MAIN & CENTRAL, LOVINGTON—I gave Tabatha Lawson a questioning look. “Red Dirt Music?” “Yeah,” she said. “Red Dirt. Texas Country. That’s what they play.” She was talking about the band Reckless Kelly. I hated to display my ignorance, but I had not heard of Reckless Kelly, Texas Country or Red Read more…
11TH ST. & MAIN, ROSWELL—Sometimes it’s hard to find a place to visit where there actually is something for everybody. Roswell is just such a place. What excites the kid inside all of us more than little green spacemen crash landing here on earth? Once, on a train from Chicago Read more…
RATON, NM—I rattled into Raton and immediately headed for the old downtown area looking for a hotel in the historic district. The historic district is not that big, and it quickly became obvious that there were no hotels in the area at all, so I did what a good many Read more…
EKLUND HOTEL, CLAYTON—It would not be true to say that the Rockabilly 4-day party chased me out of Tucumcari. No, I left of my own accord…although every room in the three motels I looked at were rented for the entire weekend. Sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, there was plenty Read more…
SOUTH 2ND & CENTER ST, TUCUMCARI—The Odeon Theater lights up South 2nd St. in Tucumcari. The rest of the street is pretty dark. This is not on Route 66 that has the world famous neon signs…signs like the Blue Swallow Motel and the TeePee Curio Shop. No, this is old Read more…
Let’s talk about math. Today on the high plains of eastern New Mexico we rode four hours. Hills: sure. Headwinds: of course. We rode four hours through it all working like two friends who had survived everything weather could throw at us. But again, let’s talk about the math. In Read more…
SANTA ROSA, NM—Good weather finally showed its sunny face today…with a tail wind. Add another plus: elevations went from about 6400 feet at Las Vegas to 4700 feet in Santa Rosa. Not that there weren’t hill, steep hills…it’s just that there were good, long downhill runs. In fact, even being Read more…