Greetings from Lubbock, TX!
Yesterday started well when Judy and I made a trip to Old Town Albuquerque and found a beautiful turquoise ring! The search is over! Hurrah! I found a fabulous jeweler (www.tannerchaney.com) who gave me a quick lesson on turquoise. Did you know there are only two turquoise mines in New Mexico? The rest are in Nevada, Colorado and Arizona. The stone I purchased is from Mt. Pilot in Nevada. I was told the owner of the store could tell what mine a stone came from just by looking at it. Cool! The next time I'm in Albuquerque and I have more time for site-seeing, I'm going to visit the Tuquoise Museum to see what they have to offer. It sounds fascinating, but then again, I always did love geology. I think I'll also check out The Atomic Museum the next time I'm in town. Actually, there are a ton of things that I want to do in Albuquerque. It's a very cool town.
After that wonderful experience, the rest of the day just flew by. New Mexico is so gosh darn pretty. I got a map listing the highlights of Route 66, and decided to check out Glenrio, which is a Route 66 ghost town. It's half in New Mexico, and half in Texas, and straddles two time zones. It was a major stop on Route 66 until Interstate 40 came through about a quarter of a mile away and now it's just a bunch of mid-20th century ruins. There are a couple of deserted strip motels and a crumbling gas station. One small, square buildling was the post office, but now it is just a shell. It's all very sad considering these places were most likely thriving in 1960, but now are barely standing. We got some great footage of the area, and with the resurgence of nostalgic interest in Route 66, I'm hoping that someone fixes this cute little place back up to its hey-day glory. it's sad to think that the few buildings that are left in this town will disappear in the next few years, but that's the way it seems to be going--rapidly.
TEXAS! The land of land! (Also the land of low gas prices: $1.85/gallon in Amarillo! No wonder the President lives here.) Everything here just seems so...clean. I guess that's because there's less dirt and mesas than in the past few states we've been to, and lots more fields and cows. The sky is amazing. When the sun set last night, the eastern sky glowed with horizontal strips of deep pink, purple and blues. I've never seen a sky like that before and I think I got it on tape, although the footage is probably rather shaky. It's hard to film and drive at the same time, but at least out here the roads are pretty darn straight. Lubbock seems like a great town. We had dinner at a local sports bar/restaurant and found it to be a rather quiet and intimate place. Since the parking lot was packed, and the building looked enormous from the outside, I was wondering why there was no noise until I went into the "game room" and saw dozens and dozens of people playing poker. How incredibly cool is that? I also ordered a "glass" of beer, and when I was brought a fishbowl with a pedestal filled with a lovely amber brew (see photo above), I asked, "Are you sure that's a small?" The waiter said it was the only size they had.
I like Texas.
Read the post from October 16 (Austin, Texas)
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