New Mexico & Texas.....

(Notice: due to unfortunate circumstances (called leaving our camera at a museum) any pictures in this particular posting will be lifted from the internet)

On the way out of Winslow,there was a semi truck on fire on the interstate, so it took us about an hour to really get on the road "ballin' the jack". (That's trucker-speak for driving really fast).

All through New Mexico was filled with red rock mountains and were particularly beautiful as the sun was rising. Cactus and sand mixed with snow and some red and blue and pink splashed on the mountains.

We stopped off in Albuquerque and the trusty Walmart. My back pack holding my journal, book, lotions....you know....things needed on the road.

Back on the road and we made it to Santa Rosa which is a cute little Route 66 town. We ate in an old diner on the original route 66 that has been in operation since it opened in the late 50's. Great food, both "diner fare" (chicken fried steak, open face turkey sandwiches, pie, etc) and really good mexican food.

We were thinking of going to the R66 car museum next morning, but neither of us really like the old classic cars too much so we decided to get on the road.

We stopped off in a town called Tucemcari. (Tew-come-carry). There is a very famous motel, probably the most famous on R66, called the Blue Swallow motel.

The hotel is completely restored to it's Route 66 glory and is about to re-open to the public. We walked around the property and took lots of pictures. Travelling the way it used to be.....

After that, we were back on the road. We drove through Texas at the top and along side the highway just outside Amarillo is the Cadillac Ranch. A guy, in the name of "art" up-ended 10 cadilacs and cemented them into the ground. People come from miles around to this site just to observe, or scratch their names in the paint or even to pain a message on the car, sort of like some kind of funky, Route 66 Stonehenge or something.

Check back for an update: Visited the Oklahoma City Memorial, and fun through Arkansas.

Y'all come back now, y'hear!

Day 2 & Day 3

Hello Cats and Kittens.....

Travelling with a two year old and a cat in the van is no walk in the park. Actually, Andrew is doig suprisingly well. He really entertains himself in the back seat, between the DVD player in the head rest and a basket of toys by his car seat, he seems pretty content. Sometimes its difficult when we want to site see and he's deep in sleep, but that's life in the town, folks.

Anyway, Day 2 was considerably more exciting than the first day because we were covering new territory. We left Barstow and got on Interstate 40, the infamous interstate that replaced Route 66 and bypassed all those wonderful little R66 towns back in the 70's and early 80's.

The most exciting part of the trip was stopping in Seligman, Arizona. It was exciting for me because of a gentleman that lives there named Angel Delgadillo.

I first learned of Mr. Delgadillo by watching the behind the scenes documentary of "Cars". He was interviwed because he was part of a small group of people who worked together to bring Historical Route 66 (what it's called now that the highway was officially decommissioned) and put it back on the map. I wanted to meet him because I was so impressed, as a history major, how great it was that he worked to pass down a major part of American history to the world. He was one man with a few others that said "You will not bypass me. You will not pave over my town only to put up a Barns and Noble or a Starbucks".

Anyway....

We got to his barber shop around 1pm and his son-in-law was there. He and I got to talking about the lure of the road and he told me Angel was off that day but would be happy to ride his bike over and meet me. RIDE HIS BIKE. He's 80-something years old!!!

Sure enough about 20 mins later, in walks Angel Delgadillo. Roy tended to Andrew while Angel and I talked. We talked about so many things. He's a very sharp and wise man. We talked about how people just don't slow down any more, that while litterally, the "superslab" (interstate) means people don't have to slow down anymore and stop off in funky little towns with Cafes that have waitresses named Flo and you can eat a piece of pie served by the person who made it, figuratively, we have also become a society in which the journey is no longer the most important part of the destination.


We talked some more about life, the universe and other things and he told me "You know, Lisa, your visit really made my day". HIS day? I felt blessed to meet such a great man.

I found a goofy little R66 souvineer that I wanted, but he would't take my money. I said, "Angel, this is how we keep Route 66 alive" and he gestured between him and me and whispered, "No, THIS is how we keep Route 66 alive". (Referring to our conversation).

Here's a picture of me, Andrew and Angel. (never mind Andrew's interesting hand placement, lol) This is in his barbershop. He has postcards and letters from people all over the world who have come to visit him.




















After that, we headed down the road. We were staying in Winslow, AZ that night. Getting through Flagstaff was a little tricky. There was alot of snow, tho none on the road, so that was good. It was a beautiful winter wonderland.

We didn't do too much in Winslow. In fact, it was about an hour after we got on the road that we realized we forgot to go stand "on the corner in Winslow, Arizona" like in the Eagles song. (they have a monument for it.) oh well.

Entering into New Mexico, there were beautiful red rock buttes and mountains everywhere. it was so easy to imagine tribes of indians living on the land, riding their painted ponies along the hills and mountains.

Here's a couple pics

We'll be ending up in Santa Rosa New Mexico for Day 3.

tune in next time kids.

Day One: San Jose to Barstow, CA

I'm a bit late in updating, but....and to be perfectly eloquent: day one sucked donkey balls.

This weekend was pack and load on the moving truck. We had spotty help. We absolutely would not have been able to do this at all without the master logistical skills of Dave Leon (he was also the sinister minister that married us.) They should put his face on money, he rules that much.

Secondly, the weekend wouldn't have been as successful if it weren't for my best friend Jake. She watched Andrew so we could power-pack: pretty tough to do with a little one under foot.

Anyway, Sunday night, I went to Jake's house to do the one last load of laundry, since our washer and dryer was already packed on the truck. While the clothes washed and dried, we bawled our heads off. I'm not entirely sure I'm going to be able to live without Jake being less than 20 miles from me, but we'll see.

Monday morning arrived and it was time to pack and load the van (no time like the last minute) do a final mop of the floors before the landlords came and more tears with Jake and Dave Leon (who both came to help us with last minute things with the house.)

Anyway, I just realized this was getting ridiculously boring. Get on with it!!!

After a few stops to say some emotional goodbyes, we stopped off at Roy's mom's grave for an even more gut-wrechingly emotional goodbye.

Finally, on the road by noon. Thre's not any pictures of our first leg. I mean....it was San Jose to Barstow.... who here hasn't made that trip 10,000 times getting to Disneyland? And if you haven't, it's basically 5 hours through California's beautiful agriculture-rich central valley. Farms, ranches, fruit stands, etc. Andrew was being remarkably good. He just entertained himself with a small basket of toys I had wedged in between the seat and his car seat. It wasn't long before it was naop time.

We got into the Quality Inn Barstow around 6pm, had a little dinner and I went down to the lobby to log on and do some work. (Somehow, with all this travelling, I'm supposed to try and get some work done. Aaaahhhhgggg!!!! I may, in fact, go insane.

Tomorrow, we finally get into the Route 66/I 40 area and start seeing some of the towns I've been reading about.

The Mother Road

Route 66 is Steinbeck and Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie and Merle Haggard and Dorthea Lange and Mickey Mangle and Jack Kerouac. It's thousands of waitresses, service station attendants, fry cooks, truckers, grease monkeys, hustlers, state cops, wrecker drivers, and motel clerks. Route 66 is a soldier thumbing home for Christmas; annd Okie family still looking for a better life. It's a station wagon filled with kid wanting to know how far it is to Disneyland; a wailing ambulance fleeing a wreck on some lonely curve. It's yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Truly a road of phantoms and dreams, 66 is the romance of traveling the open highway.

- "Route 66 - The Mother Road" - Michael Wallis

Get your kicks...........

Welcome fellow (virtual) travelers. I say "fellow" because I hope you will keep coming back as I take you with us on our trek across the country-- from San Jose, CA to Nashville, TN.

What precipitated this crazy notion to pick up everything we own and transplant ourselves to Tennessee?

Well, after 10 years including a messy, emotional divorce for each of us, Roy getting sober after some out of control time, crazy, silicon valley treadmill jobs for me and a crashed economy putting a damper on Roy's job prospects add to that my family randomly relocating one by one out to Tennessee and Roy's mom passing away... it's just time to get off the merry-go-round and find a slower lifestyle and get a fresh new start.

The way this trip has unfolded has been interesting.

At first we were just going to have the movers load up our stuff and we'd hop on a plane and bing, bang boom be in Nashville.

Then we decided it would be fun to make it a family vacation and drive out there which then folded into the ultimate revelation that precipitated this plan in the first place.

Get off the treadmill.

Slow down.

Smell th roses.

Stop being in a hurry to GET somewhere and enjoy the trip getting there. We've all gotten into this big god damned hurry and just hop on a plane and end up at our destination....or take the fast, straight-a-way interstate that doesn't take you through any interesting spots...it just gets you to the destination, journey-be-damed.

One night, before bed time, Andrew wanted to watch "Cars" for the eleventy-millionth time. Not a bad idea. Keeping him enthralled for a little bit meant I could catch up on some pleasure reading and Roy could finish working on building a model tank.

Suddenly, though, allmost as if it was at the same time, the underlying theme of the movie strikes us.

It takes place in a almost dying town along Route 66 but the Cars (people) of the town trying to keep their town alive and keeping romance of the open road alive. The story talked about how the interstates just get you from point A to point B as quickly as possible. That the interstates move THROUGH the land, where as old roads like R66 move WITH the land....taking you through funky little towns. The lead character, Lighting McQueen, is a race car used to moving fast. He ends up in this funky little town and learns to slow down.

So this is a good time to interject and tell you that my whole life I've always wanted to travel down Route 66. Today, large part of the road has fallen to ruin, but part of it still exist and still other parts are being brought back to life.

Our trip was already mapped out. We're pretty much travelling along interstate 40 the whole way out. I40 was one of the interstates that bypassed R66 and it travels nearly parallel to R66 much of the way.

As I usually do when I'm about to embark on a journey, I buy a bunch of books to learn about the area. So this was no different. I purchased a small stack of books. My favorite and most thurough is "Route 66 - The Mother Road" by Michael Wallis. He's THE leading R66 historian. The book describes the journey starting in Chicago, IL where the road begins and ends at the Santa Monica Pier in California.

Between reading the books and both of us watching a series of DVDs Wallis put out about R66, the new journey was solidified: we'd be pullin off the "superslab" (I40) alot and heading through "Main Street, USA" (R66.)

A dream come true.

Making the JOURNEY as wonderful as the DESTINATION. As they said in the movie Cars:

People didn't travel Route 66 to MAKE good time.
They travelled Route 66 to HAVE a good time.

Unfortunately, many of the towns that were bypassed by the interstate died completely and there isn't much left....but renewed interest in the historical nature of Route 66 has brought back many towns and we'll be sure to stop off in them, stay in the hotels and eat in the restaurants. I'm defintely not going on a road trip only to eat in some lame-assed Applebees.

I think this is going to be one interesting travel blog. Oh....it may not be that exciting between now and when we leave, but I promise to take lots of notes and lots of pictures on the road.

Travel with me, won't you? On "the Mother Road" the road Steinbeck's Joad family (along with thousands of real life families) took to escape the dust bowl of the midwest to find new lives in the West, and travel the way we used to travel, through AMERICA.

Rock on!

New Theme for my blog

Going forward I'm using this blog to collect all my thoughts, the chaos, the excitement...everything that goes into picking up your family from the only home they've ever known and moving clear across the country to Nashville, TN.

Fasten your seatbelts....this is going to be a fun and wild ride......