Route 66 Chronicles - Part 4, The Final Frontier (RV world)

Part 4 – The Final Frontier….....

We left off last time camping in yet another casino …this time in an official RV park adjacent to the casino. We planned to take a cultural tour of Sky City in NM and view ancient Indian cultures and sacred grounds.

The visit was interesting and packed with history and folklore. Ahh.. the American Southwest!

Upon departing the sacred city we decided to trek back east toward Albuquerque on old Route 66. While not “recommended” in our guidebooks, we decided to do it anyway! About 5 miles into this lonesome and desolate road, the pavement suddenly ended and we dropped onto a gravel road that was more “washboard” than navigable terrain. We had a choice to make – go back and take the REAL highway, or just keep going and take in the adventure! By now you should know that we picked the 2nd option and stayed on the road. Somewhere in the next 20 miles there MUST be blacktop…!

Ok… so now we’re in our big-ass RV taking in the scenery while everything is shaking and rattling and falling all over the place cuz we are getting the HELL pounded out of us on this friggin’ road. NO ONE is anywhere in sight except for an occasional horse, cow or bull. We did however, notice that the road was covered in horse shit all along the sides and in the middle so clearly, we were not too far from some form of civilization. On the plus side, the views, the colors the rock formations, the sky and everything around us was spectacular to see and heavenly in its own way. So we decided to just keep going and bear under the incredible racket from this bus being rattled back into its component parts by the “road”, if you can call it that. I was sure I was in Costa Rica…

So, now the doglet, who has had a prominent perch on my lap for the entire trip, likes to look out the window. She occasionally barks at a rock. We begin approaching a huge herd of bulls… I mean some very big-ass bulls grazing along this deserted patch of old Route 66. My “cute” dog begins to show her authority to these 1-ton creatures – all 8 lbs of her. She barks at them! And keeps barking. And barking. The bulls begin to notice us. We could see them beginning to turn there giant heads toward our RV. Understand, we are driving about 2 miles per hour and surely a bull can overtake us if he wants to! Or charge at us or something. We see them lift there heads and give us that big bull eyeball angry stare. OMG. They are LOOKING at us - and holy whatnots, they don’t like this nippy little dog. We realized we were alone out there and quickly shut up the dog, closed the windows and got the hell out of there!

Finally, after 20 miles we got off that gravel road and back to something more sane! What an adventure. Little noisy dogs and wild bulls don’t mix well.

We dropped by a little local bar and had cocktails with some of the locals who gave us a lot of rich history on the area and the demise of the golden years of Route 66. It was one of the few incidents that gave us a sense of what had been lost when the American highway system bypassed Route 66 and literally destroyed the richness of this great historic route to California. We passed many boarded and abandoned up gas stations, motels, diners and other landmarks that spoke of another time. Now it was basically a photo montage of life,, families, businesses and traditions that have disappeared or moved on. For better? One wonders……

The final days of our trip were calm compared to the “Griswold” start. Except for the final night and the last day. By this time it was really getting cold and not liking this weather, I was getting a little tired of the RV setup routine…. Freezing my hands connecting water hoses, draining sewage and generally being outside in winter…camping. So the last night after connecting electricity, water and TV, I just decided that, even with the planned freeze I was not going outside in the dark to disconnect the water. Nope.

The last day, we needed to de-camp, clean the RV and get on a plane home. Simple! I get up early and it is sunny and tolerable…as in perhaps mid 30’s in temperature. I did not expect to see the complete MESS I had outside from the night’s freeze! Oh NO!! The hose had burst and frozen ice covered the side of the RV and all the connections were in solid ice!! I nuked some hot water in the microwave and was able to thaw and detach the hose. Then I took it to the shower building to run hot water on it to get the ice out so I could store it. Gads. That done, I then needed to do one more DUMP of the sewage, the gray water and such. The RV was about 2 inches shy of the sewer drain pipe in our parking spot. I pulled on the plastic drain pipe to make the connection and ripped the end of it off! Oh no. Now sewage was running all over the place and the frozen water was still there from the fresh water flood of earlier. I just DUMPED and ran and hoped the minor sewer stuff would disappear by spring!

So long Route 66, RV camper and Albuquerque! What a great adventure! I would do it again in a minute – but NOT in the WINTER !!!

Thanks Kris for a fabulous 60th birthday bash!!! It was maaahvelous!!

Epilogue:

We got the RV back in halfway decent shape and left for the airport where Kris discovered her return flight was actually set for a week later! What??? After much ado, she got herself on a plane home to Mpls and giggled all the way home.

Back home now, we see that ARE the Griswolds!  ...or we became them for a short period of time!

(The Griswolds.... recall the relatives in the Chevy Chase Vacation movies....)