Being a running account of our trip to
Colorado, blogged in real time by rlp. What a geek!
Note: This was originally posted in two days
with the latest entry at the top of the page, blog style. I've compiled it into
one entry and in chronological order for the sake of clarity. The original
comments may still be seen at the September 8th and 9th postings.
Friday, 9-8 - 11:10am CST
We're on the road and my treo connects to the Internet just fine. Well, it's
about like a dialup connection. I didn't realize how spoiled I was having used a
cable modem for a few years now. This first entry is just a test. I'll be
looking for interesting Texas sites to show you. I'll connect to the Internet
right in the car and blog as I go. I'm geeky enough to think this is way cool.
I'll also drop into the chat room off and on
while Jeanene is driving. It will give me something to do. Maybe I'll see you in
there.
Friday, 9-8-06 - 12:45pm CST
I'm writing from Pepe's Cafe in Ozona, Texas.
We stopped for lunch just before we turn north. Here's some advice for you. Get
off the Interstate, dammit. We did and asked a local where to eat. There's only
one place, she said. Pepe's
Great food. Our last Mexican food for a time.
Colorado doesn't do Mexican food very well. I speak from experience. Amazingly,
Pepe's had free wireless, so we ate and I wrote this while Jeanene looked
around.
Gotta hit the road. Catch me in the chatroom
later.
rlp
Friday, 9-8-06 - 5:25pm CST
I have one word for you - Panhandle.
Yeah.
Flat, boring, nothing, nada. Even the town
names are flat. We just left Levelland, having passed through Lamesa, which is
certainly derived from the Spanish "La Mesa," but is pronounced "La-Meesa" by
the locals. One town tried for a splash of color - you know, just to be
interesting. Brownfield. Be still my fluttering heart.
Highway 385 just north of Levelland
- not that anyone cares.
Okay, in the time that I wrote that we have
reached Littlefield and have turned West on highway 84, which will take us right
into East Central New Mexico. The view isn't going to improve until tomorrow,
but when we reach Taos, things will be cool. And I can tell you about the time I
met some women from Taos who were convinced they were from a planet circling one
of the stars in the Pleiades. True story.
That's Taos. That's for tomorrow.
I think I'll drop in the chat room to see if
anyone's in there. Hang on a sec...
XYP
is in there. I'll go chat a bit.
later,
rlp
Friday, 9-8-06 - 9:15pm Mountain Time
At the end of a long day we ended up in
Santa Rosa, New Mexico, right on historic
Route 66. To stay with the spirit of this place, we had dinner at a
classic diner right on 66.
Tomorrow we'll follow the pre-1937 route 66 up
to Las Vegas (New Mexico). From there we go up into the mountains and over to
Taos. I'm bushed. Will take pictures of any classic Route 66 stuff I can find.
rlp
Saturday, 9-9-06 - 12:15pm Mountain Time
We left Santa Rosa, New Mexico
this morning, heading for Las Vegas NM. We'll end up going into Colorado this
evening. We're traveling roughly along historic Route 66.
In 1937, Route 66 changed. The new
route went straight from Santa Rosa to Albuquerque and then on to Gallup, going
west. Before 1937, route 66 meandered north from Santa Rosa to Las Vegas, over
to Santa Fe, and then down to Albuquerque. When the route changed, dozens of
towns were cut off from the main traffic flow. It was a sad precursor to what
would happen to all these towns when the interstate arrived some years later.
We drove the old, pre-1937 Route
66. There is almost nothing left along the way. The little towns are mostly
forgotten. Dillia, Los Montoyas, Romeroville, and others.
Old 66 (pre 1937), now hwy. 84 from
Santa Rosa to Las Vegas
Dillia
Los Montoyas
We're going to follow old 66 to
Santa Fe, then head north to Colorado. I'll post pictures and some commentary
later today.
rlp
Saturday, 9-9-06 - 5:45pm Mountain Time
We're currently on hwy 285 north of Antonito,
Colorado and heading toward Alamosa. While I'm writing this, I can't get online
because I don't have digital phone service. So it may be later before it goes
live. Note: 9:30pm - I couldn't get online in Colorado until we got to the
house where we are staying. One of the neighbors has unsecured wireless access.
Heh.
It's been a long day. We decided to follow the pre-1937 Route 66 until we
got to Santa Fe. It was rather disappointing. There was nothing there. No towns
to see. I don't know if anything used to be there, but there isn't much to see
now.
I do enjoy the feel of Route 66, as opposed to
the feel of the interstate highways. The road is narrow and the scenery is close
on your right and your left. You feel like you are a part of the scenery. I snapped a picture
that might give you a feel for this.
Outside of Pecos we found the ruins of some
pueblo dwellers. The settlement had an estimated 2000 people living there at the
height of their era. There was continuous population there for 500 to
1000 years. At the end, there were 27 people left. They gave up and walked away.
The place was empty after that.
Pueblo Ruins
There was a mission, of course. In the
1500s, Franciscan monks founded a church there. The native people burned it to
the ground, but the monks built it back again. Somehow a good bit of it is still
standing.
Mission Church
I know it's popular these days to be outraged
at what Europeans did in the past with regard to the "New World," as they called
it and with regard to native peoples, as we call them. What they did was clearly
an abomination from our point of view and looking at it through our filters. But
from a historical perspective, the Franciscan monks that built this mission
truly thought they were saving the savages from the fires of hell. These
missions were seen - at least by the monks and priests who lived and worked in
them - as humanitarian efforts. The government officials and church officials
were doubtless as corrupt then as now and wanted gold and power. Some things
never change.
Interesting side note: Near the pueblos they
found evidence of earlier inhabitants who lived in pit houses. The ones who
built the pueblos drove them away and took their land. Probably killed and
tortured them. You know how it is with people.
As we left route 66 and turned north to head
toward Colorado, we passed one last retail establishment that looks as though it
has been out of business for a good 30 or 40 years. Sometime before 1937, this
place was jumping with business as people headed west. Route 66 changed
and their way of life died.
Things change, roads change, people change,
perspectives change. The pit house people had their day, and they are gone forever.
The pueblo people lived their way of life for hundreds of years, but their way
of life is gone. The monks came,
had their time of power, and faded away. The people who worked the businesses
along Route 66 had their chance too.
Now is our time, yours and mine. We will make
whatever we will of it. Some of us will be good people, some of us will be bad
people, and most of us will be somewhere in between. What happens to us seems
very important, but time moves on. Someday people will read about us and shake
their heads in amazement at the mistakes we made in our ignorance.
This will be my last real-time entry. After
this I'm in Colorado, and I plan to mostly live and only blog a little if any. I
might post one or two things. We'll see.
see ya soon,
rlp
