Captain’s Log, 072021
Welcome back to the second day of our adventure. When I say adventure, I mean avoiding trucks full of onions trying to pass each other at 55 miles an hour while the rest of us who can do 80 are stuck behind them. This went on all day. Every time we exited the interstate to view some amazing site, they got back in front of us, passing each other…again. We could have arrived at our second location two hours earlier if not for them. Except for those stinky road blocks, it was a wonderful trip. I am no longer going to order onions on my hamburgers. That will show them.
Today was a day of full blown tourism. We stopped at the Meteor Crater in northern Arizona. A giant hole in the ground in Arizona that isn’t the Grand Canyon. Winslow, AZ to see the statue’s “Standing On The Corner” based on the Eagles song “Take It Easy.” Thank goodness they don’t dedicate statues to all songs. What would it be for “Dead Skunk In The Middle of the Road?’ We also stopped at the Petrified Forest but no sign of Humphrey Bogart or Bette Davis anywhere. Ok, old movie buffs, figure that one out. Tourist traps all, and actually fun to see. The weather could not have been better, considering it’s July in the desert. We did get to experience a couple of more monsoon events later in the day but not too bad. When we arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico it was as muggy as Florida. My clothes were soaked but at least it wasn’t raining. A couple of cold stouts helped me forget about the humidity.
One other thing, the pizza I had in Albuquerque was an affront to humanity. As a native Chicago area guy, there should be a pizza crimes tribunal to prevent such embarrassments from seeing the light of day and pass appropriate sentences to prevent anymore of these horrible concoctions from being produced. I hope I wasn’t too subtle. The two stouts helped soften the blow of the pizzas.
While the northern desert of Arizona is magnificent, it is nothing compared to New Mexico with its mesas and bluffs. The red soil is striking and the horizons beautiful. You can also tell when you leave Arizona and enter New Mexico. The highways suddenly became much better. There is also a lot of construction along the way. Why? Because New Mexico bothers to take care of their roads.
We did spend some time on old Route 66, the former main drag between Chicago and L.A. It’s so famous, they wrote a song about it. Unfortunately, it is a shadow of itself and since Interstate 40 carries the heavy load of traffic much of the luster that once graced Route 66 has faded. Maybe the old route should be reserved for onion trucks. They should be isolated from proper society.
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