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Heading West on Route 66… (Part 2)

By RM | February 21, 2010 | Comments 1 comment

.. or to be more exact, on I40, which parallels much of the old Route 66.

Leaving Memphis, we continued west, blasting blues on the CD player in homage to Beale St. Having lost a day to snowstorms in Charlotte at the start of our trip, we hoped to make up some time, as we really wanted to detour to Monument Vally (for all those old John Ford Western vistas) and Arches. So we drove straight thru Arkansas and into Oklahoma. The Super 8 Motel in Sallisaw, OK? Yes, well this was the low point in our accommodations! Nobody expects luxury in a budget motel, but a clean bathroom would have been nice, and if someone had actually turned up in the morning to make the coffee and lay out the ‘included breakfast’, that would have been great too.

From Oklahoma, into New Mexico, and the snow started to fall again – and in fact I40 was closed East of Albuquerque, so we had an unscheduled stop in Tucumcari, NM, where the friendly Indian couple running The Gateway Inn showed how a motel should be run (hey, it’s not THAT hard)! Friendly check-in (hearing that we were heading for California produced wistful stories of student life in Chico), recommendations for dinner, and a breakfast that actually materialized!

Once the road was open the next day, we lead-footed it west, through a snow-speckled landscape of contrasts, the most dramatic of which was probably Laguna Pueblo, with its mission church founded in 1699, and a few miles further on a brand new Indian casino, with flanking “McDobe”…

Hearing that more winter storms were headed our way, we gave up our dreams of finding John Wayne still playing the Ringo Kid amongst Monument Valley’s monoliths, and hightailed it back to the Bay Area – Flagstaff to Oakland in a day was a long drive!

Crossing the country in 5 days was a tease! So many places to go back and explore on later trips… but it was a great reminder of just how large and varied the US is, and also how much fun a road trip can be – even in the dead of winter! And as for Monument Valley and Arches? Hmm, another road trip in April is sounding pretty good about now!

Heading West on Route 66… (part 1)

By RM | February 6, 2010 | Comments 0 Comment

.. or to be more exact, on I40, which parallels much of the old Route 66.

Taking a week off work to travel 2,850 miles from Charlotte NC to Oakland CA in the dead of winter may not sound like a lot of fun, but with the right traveling companion, some good music, and the right attitude, it can be a blast! We were snowed in before we even started out from Charlotte, and once again in eastern New Mexico, but that was all part of the adventure!

Leaving Charlotte a day later than planned, we drove 4 hours to Atlanta to stay with friends, enjoying great food and excellent company. From there we drove another 4 hours to Starkville, MS, where the owner of the Hotel Chester made us feel more like house guests than customers. After an afternoon spent visiting relatives, and a very comfortable night at the Chester, we drove north to Memphis.

Beale Street was a little empty on a Tuesday afternoon, but we had a tasty late lunch of ribs, with a side of Blues. It felt like an appetizer, and at some point in the future, we’ll have to return to Beale Street for a more in-depth visit, to truly savor both the food and the music!

A short 6 block walk from Beale Street took us to the Lorraine Motel, now home to the National Civil Rights Museum, and a sombre shrine to Martin Luther King.

The museum is closed on Tuesdays, and of course, that is when we were there. But on a chill winter’s afternoon, with period piece Cadillacs still parked in front of the Motel, and a wreath hanging from the balcony, it was easy to imagine James Earl Ray’s fatal shot ringing out from the window of the boarding house across the street.

MLK was shot from the open window opposite the Lorraine Motel