On the road by 9:30 with our
bellies full of hotel breakfast. It’s weird but the institutional scrambled
eggs served at hotel lobby breakfasts are hands down my favorite. I know
there’s not a cook back in the kitchen breaking eggs to scramble over a hot
stove; I assume the eggs are either pre-cooked and delivered to the hotel where
they are heated and chunked up or are the result of an egg mixture poured from
a carton into a microwaveable dish. No
matter…I like them. But on this trip,
every hotel has offered egg patties instead of regular scrambled eggs. And they’re so uniformly round that they have
to be pre-made, frozen and heated when needed. I prefer scrambled over the patty. Just an observation…
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No snow in Texas…no snow in New Mexico. Partly sunny sky with temperatures on the rise:
when we left Dalhart at about 9:30, the temperature was 13o with
Picacho clocking in at 47o.
An hour later, Picacho was registering 56o. Looking forward to it!
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Watched the eagle cam at odd moments today, but most of our time was
spent listening to the Harry Bosch book.
I lose track of the story if I multi-task. Today, the few minutes I watched I could tell
it was Bella on the nest; she has a larger head than Scout.
And she was sprucing up the nest so I guess they do split the
housekeeping duties.
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Our route today took us through Vaughn, NM. Every time we come through that little town,
I look for signs of revitalization. But
nope! It still looks like a ghost town.
There are 4 viable businesses that can be seen from the main road: a diner, a hotel, an Allsups gas station in the middle of town, and another gas station at the edge of town. Vaughn was established as a railroad town and
sits at the intersection of two railroad lines as well as a couple of US
highways. US 60 is an east-west corridor
and US 54 runs on a diagonal from the northeast corner of New Mexico to
Alamogordo; both run through Vaughn and are heavily traveled by semis. Apart from the four above businesses, the other
buildings along the main street are rundown and abandoned looking. There is a
residential area but even that doesn’t look modern. I wonder where the residents buy
groceries.
Somewhere along the line, Vaughn fell into disrepair and the census
shows that the population fell from 1356 in 1950 to 286 in 2020. Makes me wonder which came first, the businesses
closing or the downward trend in population.
The whole plot of the movie Cars is how small towns suffered when new
highways bypassed them; but Vaughn has a highway running right through it bringing
lots of traffic through the area and it still seems to be suffering.
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Ate lunch at The Four Winds Restaurant in Carrizozo, NM. And because I thought to look on the geocaching
app, we headed over to the town caboose for a geocache opportunity. Found it, logged it and jumped back in the
truck to continue on our way.
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Heading down US 54 toward Alamogordo and a call comes through the truck
from Joe Vogelheim, asking if Klooster Rd is plowed. Well, that’s a rather random question. We’re in New Mexico, and we don’t know if the
roads back home are plowed. He explained
that his snowmobile got stuck while riding the powerlines, he'd called Christie
to come pick him up, but needed to know if she could get through on
Klooster. Power lines on Klooster
Rd.? There are no power lines on Klooster. Finally got his location straightened
out: he was over by Pops Rd which intersects Klooster on the other side
of Marion Center Rd, which meant that we were of no help to him.
We hung up, resumed listening to our audiobook, and 10 minutes later got
another call from Joe. After Kim greeted
him, he jubilantly exclaimed, “It’s plowed!! Christie made it and now I have to
get out to the road to where she is, but it’s tough going. The snow is about 3 ½
feet deep.” Before our call ended, he wondered
if Marshal was available to help him; I didn’t know but I texted Marshal’s phone
number to him.
About 7:30 p.m., I get a call from Marshal, who says, “I got a random
call today and you’ll never guess who it was.” Oh, I betcha I can…😏
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Made a stop at Pistachio Land on the way to Alamogordo. I could call it a Roadside America stop
because it is listed on New Mexico map; but really, it’s a required stop if we come through
when they’re open. I really like their
ranch flavored pistachios…it’s just that simple.
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Also drove through White Sands National Park, which as it turns out is
also on the Roadside America
map. But
that’s not why I suggested it; I just enjoy driving through the park. Not that I would remember specifically how each
dune looks from year to year, but I know that they’re always changing due to
the constant wind. Today, with the dark clouds approaching from the east as a
backdrop to the white dunes, it was easy to imagine that it was a snowy
landscape instead of a sandy one. Further down the road, one of the big parking
lots which is typically open was closed due to the 4-foot sand drifts lining
the opening of it. The drifts showed evidence that the sand had been plowed,
not blown, into that location. And from a distance they looked just like
snowbanks; up close, not so much. We
didn’t get out of the truck, but I did have my window down. It was windy but warm.
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Staying in Lordsburg, NM, which is near the
Arizona state line. Got in the trailer
today to trade in my winter shoes for my Keen sandals; thinking tomorrow I may
have to trade my jeans for shorts or leggings. I also checked the chicken when
I was in the camper. Still frozen.
However, it warmed up nicely throughout the day and I think the nights won’t be
as cold as they have been. Only 200
miles to go and now I’m wondering if the chicken will make it.
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