It was a chilly, sunny morning in Albuquerque….but warming up even as
we took a quick walk and then went about getting ready to pull out.
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Reasons to travel US 40 to get to Arizona:
1. Starting west from Kentucky made it the logical route
2. US 40 would allow us to travel more of Route 66
3. The Musical Highway.
Yes, there’s a musical highway just outside of Albuquerque. As soon as Kim showed me an video about it, I
immediately put in on our ‘Must Do’ list.
It’s a specially engineered rumble strip that plays a song as a vehicle
drives over it. There are websites that
give a great deal more technical detail; this excerpt from a 2016 article on smithsonianmag.com gives the basics: Two years ago, the
New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT), along with the National
Geographic Channel, had the idea to make a roadway that
sings----literally. Enlisting the help
of San Bar Construction Corp., a New Mexico-based company that design and
constructs traffic control devices and signs, NMDOT created a length of roadway
between mile marker four and five that plays music whenever a vehicle drives
over it. But there’s a catch---the tune,
in this case “America the Beautiful,” only works when cars are traveling at
exactly 45 mph. The road’s purpose is
twofold: to encourage drivers to stay the speed limit and to bring a little
excitement to an otherwise monotonous highway.
So we drove over this quarter mile marvel this morning….twice! We were keeping lookout for the signs, but
didn’t realize that the rumble strip started almost immediately; that caught us
by surprise and we didn’t get the full impact of the experience. So we turned around, went back and rode it
one more time. I used my phone to record it…didn’t videotape it, though,
because we thought the song would be clearer if the phone was on the dash. So I have the audio of us driving exactly 45
mph to get a section of Route 66 to play America the Beautiful. One has to pay
attention and listen careful because it only sings for about 35 seconds. But for someone who thinks Roadside America
is a wonderful guide to travel, it was 35 seconds of awesomeness!! J
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There were 3 routes suggested by Rapunzel (code name for my phone’s
map app) for getting from Albuquerque to Picacho, AZ. While the mileage of the 3 routes varied by
about 90 miles, the time for each route was within minutes of each other. That’s because the shortest route actually
was the twisty road down into the Salt River Canyon that we drove last year,
which was not a fun run with the trailer.
The next shortest route would have taken us through Phoenix, which is
farther west than Picacho. So we chose
the southern route from Albuquerque to Picacho, which was 90 miles longer and
only 6 minutes slower. It also had many
points of interest along the way. There
was the town called Truth or Consequences, the Big Pink Pig and the Macho
Springs Solar Facility, just to name a few.
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Since Truth or Consequences was a TV show hosted by Bob Barker that I
watched as a kid back in the 60s and 70s, I had to find out the history behind
using it for the name of a city. This is
what Wikipedia told me: In
2012, the population was 6,411. It is
commonly known within New Mexico as T or
C. It has frequently been noted on
lists of unusual place names. Originally
named Hot Springs, the city changed its name to “Truth or Consequences”, the
title of a popular NBC Radio program. In
March 1950, Ralph Edwards, the host of the radio quiz show Truth or Consequences, announced that he would air the program on its
10th anniversary from the first town that renamed itself after the
show; Hot Springs won the honor, officially changing its name on March 31, 1950
(the program broadcast from there the following evening, April 1st). Edwards visited the town during the first
weekend of May for the next 50 years.
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Along US 10 between
Hatch and Deming, NM, we encountered acres of solar panels with about 30 wind
turbines on sight also. About midway
through this solar garden, there was an identifying sign…we were looking at the
Macho Springs Solar Facility. This is
what epelectric.com tells me: Macho Springs
is located on almost 600 acres of land, or about the size of 300 football
fields. It generates power from 704,160 photovoltaic solar modules manufactured
by First Solar. The facility was interconnected to EPE 345-kV
Luna-Springerville transmission line via Macho Spring Substation and began
commercial operation in May 2014. It is the largest solar project in New
Mexico.
Over
704,000 panels?! No wonder my attempts to take a picture didn’t do justice to
what we were seeing!
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Almost 500 miles to drive to get to Picacho, AZ, today. The road was open and long, so I turned to my
favorite travel guide Roadside America. Oh, look, it says here that there’s a giant
pink pig in Hatch, NM, causing some controversy. It’s not very far off the highway. Can we stop…huh?huh? can we stop? Actually, it didn’t sound like begging to me
but it might possibly have sounded like it to Kim. J So we take the exit to the little town of
Hatch, NM, proud or not so proud possessors of the Big Pink Pig. Story is: Teako Nunn owns Sparky’s, a restaurant at the edge of town...he buys a giant pink pig, positions it next to the restaurant and hangs a sign on it as an advertisement...it comes to light that this is against some little
known ordinance...some residents feel that a big pink pig welcoming
people to town isn’t the message they want to send…campaign started by Nunn and his wife to ‘Save
the Pig’. Well, the controversy
surrounding the giant pig must have been ironed out because not only is that pig
still across the street from the restaurant, it is now surrounded by many other
bigger than life statues. Except the
Statue of Liberty…that isn’t larger than life…it is, however, taller than
me. Just some of the many things that amuse me in
life.
 |
| Larger than life size....I fit under Yogi Bear's upstretched arm. |
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We’ve been hearing from various sources that March has come in like a lion back in Charlevoix…in the form of about 12” of heavy, wet snow! So while that’s happening back home, I’m traveling down Hwy 10 in New Mexico in the sun and warm, thinking I’m overdressed in t-shirt and jeans. Yes, indeed, it was a great time to get away!!
We’ve been hearing from various sources that March has come in like a lion back in Charlevoix…in the form of about 12” of heavy, wet snow! So while that’s happening back home, I’m traveling down Hwy 10 in New Mexico in the sun and warm, thinking I’m overdressed in t-shirt and jeans. Yes, indeed, it was a great time to get away!!
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No wildlife sightings
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