The Blue Ribbon Goes to US 550

Cortez couldn't have imagined he'd be remembered by this little town's name. At the crossroads of Mesa Verde and Four Corners (sort of), and the last stop before climbing seriously into the Rockies. The altitudes are deceiving though. This morning I was seven and eight thousand feet high with no mountain roads. Just New Mexico's high country mostly still occupied by the descendants of the first North Americans.

About 10 miles from New Mexico'a border the Texas landscape gave way to this, and a very subtle climb began.

The best roadway so far this trip is US 550 starting about 10 miles past Albuquerque running northwest until Farmington where conditions deteriorated, but not quite to the abysmal, low maintenance/repair standard I've found elsewhere throughout this trip on our beleaguered National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. It seems dizzyingly daft to cut taxes until we can't fix roadways (and everything else we all need). Champion of our highways, President Dwight Eisenhower, must be spinning in his grave.

Reminds me of the poem, "For want of a nail..."

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

I wonder what dolt told the king to keep cutting taxes until nobody had a two-penny nail left anymore.

My pony Subaru and I keep honing our pot-hole, crumbling-roadway driving skills. Hi-Yo-Subaru! Onward!

It was a single minute's moment when Shiprock came in sight just as a dust devil danced into view...

The vistas in New Mexico are compelling, but Shiprock was special today.

This last from the restaurant window in Cortez.

On The Road Again

Route 66 was a busy roadway years ago before it segmented into Interstates or was bypassed. The motel where I am is near I-40 on a bypassed section of Route 66. Back when, no one even heard of wifi. Here the old, old motels have the service and it's a little wonky--and slow. So we'll see what happens as I go along here.

As I resumed my travels, this day was a smile of good memories of visiting Jim and Nancy. Boy, we did a lot!. Jim doing yeoman service at the wheel of his Prius these several days. Saturday morning he took a break so he could join friends for his regular bike ride while Nancy took me to a fun emporium to shop. In the late afternoon we all went into Dallas for Mediterranean food, Sunday we returned to Dallas for a leisurely look at the sculpture garden, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the new greenway established above a freeway. All walkable. More good food happening all the time finishing with a delicious, outdoor  meal at a Mexican place not far from their home.

And, it got hot!

The artist James Turrell closed down his sculpture that had a sky view feature when some Luddite built a huge glassed in skyscraper next to the Museum that interfered totally with his concept--that and the loss of the lawsuit. 

Busking drummer at the "freeway" park.

We walked along through a community garden back near Jim and Nancy's in the evening on our way to the Mexican restaurant. There we saw sculpture of a different nature.

Spiderman guarding onions.

Darth Vader scaring away crows.

I haven't seen Frost yet, but Nancy told me this is a character from the movie.

In the late sun kids and everyone else were enjoying the fountains...

A few days ago I received this from the family, and wasn't able to post due to some transfer difficulties. But it's not too late to have a congratulations to Cello Man for looking good during this performance...

...and for making Student of the Month at school!!! ...

...and congratulations to Keoni for another acceptance--CIM!!! 

Tulips

Early Friday afternoon Nancy traded her lawyer outfit for walking shoes and jeans while Jim fixed a malfunctioning pullout tray on her desk...

Looked like a role reversal to me.

Their lovely daughter Laura in her office across the hall where she practices law.

We piled in Jim's dandy hybrid and went to the Dallas arboretum, lured by the news that the 500,000 tulip bulbs that were planted in the Fall had bloomed.

The arboretum lies across a lake from downtown Dallas...

Dallas skyline.

When you are in Texas it isn't easy to forget.

The tulips were everything you could want your eyes to feast upon...

I can only imagine all the work involved to grow these half-million bulbs into such a display.

We came upon a photo shoot, and soon another one of two separate young ladies' quinceaneras...

Que bonita! Two lovely very young women during their special debut.

There were many other lovely spring plantings. The weather here was completely cooperative and stimulating all the leaf buds to soon make an appearance. In the meantime, the trees were stunning in their beautiful shapes contrasting with the color around them...

There were water features everywhere. 

While waiting for an empty electric cart we rested for a bit. The carts were all full so we finished out the walk ourselves.

A highlight of the evening meal out was going to the very first ever Black-eyed Pea restaurant. I was a faithful patron of the one in Tucson until its doors closed. Happily, I enjoyed the fare one more time. Great fare and company.

Today, while Jim biked in near-perfect weather, Nancy and I went to Sam-Moon emporium to browse the very interesting merchandise at a leisurely pace. While Nancy cheered granddaughter Jessa to six goals (go Jessa!) of the nine scored to beat the soccer opposition this afternoon, I did up my laundry and began the plans for the next leg of the trip.

This evening the buffet we ate was Mediterranean and featured a favorite of mine: lamb shanks and all the veggies I could eat. Oh, my. Oh, stop.

Vast

Western United States often has often reminded me of the word vast. Yesterday, the term came to mind as Cousin Jim drove me about this enormous suburb of Dallas where 500,000 souls of Dallas-FortWorth Metro-Plex 7 million live. Jim and Nancy's lovely, comfortable home is tucked into the 15 x 7-8 miles of suburban Plano life...

They have seen their town develop from a village surrounded by farms and ranches into today's shape; pleasant, clean, attractive homes with businesses clustering at nearby major intersections.

Jim says that since the homes all include walls, neighbors seldom see each other. From Nancy I learned she's discovered their neighborhood people have put themselves on Facebook where local lost dogs and cats, iPhones, glasses (hers), and much else can be sought and found; plus, a quick posting happens when something or someone unusual appears in the neighborhood. It's interesting to know that people are using social media to overcome the restrictive presence of fence walls to achieve neighborliness. Society will out!

The area is very walkable which was a pleasure in the Spring air while Jim gave me a walk tour of the local park, bike trails and schools. Later, we made a visit to Nancy's law offices where her daughter has joined her with her own practice--quite nice to think we have a mother/daughter law practice happening in the extended family.

Vast again comes to mind when Jim and I stopped at a brand new, pre-opening opening of Nebraska Home Furniture Mart, an enterprise of Warren Buffet's, that has its own highway interchange. Jim estimates that four or five IKEAs would fit inside the store. Neither of us were fond of the merchandise offerings and omnipresent sales people until we sat down with a Subway at Nebraska Home Furnishings' soda, and were both struck by the one thing we both liked--the Kitchen Aid display with the biggest array of mixer colors we've ever seen...

Jim had to get a picture of it, too.

Before going to a supper out with Jim and Nancy's daughter Laura, son-in-law Joel and granddaughter Jessa, I accompanied Jim to pick up his granddaughter to go feed the "muskrats" who are really nutria, or sometimes nutria-rats, with the stale bread we brought along. Jessa--outgoing, energetic, charming, Kindergartner--burst out the school door to greet her granddad and wasn't a bit bashful to meet me. We drove over to a nearby park creek where the "grands" rewarded six nutrias' brazen interest in bread chunks.

Visiting the JFK Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas yesterday and standing next to the window where it all happened in 1963 was riveting. The small-scale museum in the Book Depository is really well done. It brought back memories as I read, looked at the photos and listened to dialogues. We of that generation still ask each other "Where were you when it happened?"

Wish this had turned out better of Jim. That is the DART train behind him that we road into Dallas from Plano.

I continue to be well and graciously housed, abundantly fed with ample time to read the paper in the mornings, or anytime, really. Their main fare of the day is often at restaurants so I am getting a large sampling of Plano and Dallas gastronomic offerings which will soon send me to the Walmart for vast sizes if I don't watch out.