Bob's Blah Blog:
WE ARE HOME!! HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGITY JIG!
P.S...we ate real Mexican food tonight. YUM.
Bobo
Friday, November 2, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
Bob’s Blah Blog:
Ok, where did I leave off? Oh, yes…New Mexico. We visited Santa Fe, NM. Corinne was there many, many years ago and ‘I have never have.’ We walked around the town square, if you want to call it that. It is bordered on one side by the Palaces of the Governors, shops on the others. Corinne left her “reglar” glasses in the truck, so we didn’t tour the museum. She said she wouldn’t be able to read the display placards. Funny, she and Moe never read those placards when they are in a museum. Know who reads them? Bobo reads them. The girls race through the museums and I take my time, finishing maybe two – three hours later, but so much more “smarter than when I starter.”
We had lunch at a very up-scale restaurant in the “La Henry Fonda.” Ok, it wasn’t La Henry Fonda, just La Fonda, but I call it Henry. Walking into the restaurant, it reminded me of going into Pea Soup Anderssons’ pea soup restaurant in California. Just the setup took me back in years to the famous pea soup place. At Henry, Corinne ordered her enchiladas and I ordered the Pueblozuela Combinationes which included a tamale, chile relleno, and an enchilada, all smothered in green chile sauce. Of course, both plates came with pasole, beans and rice, I mean pasoleo, beanos and riceo. Very good meals. We also had chips and salsa (kind of hot – YES!) and “sofapillows”… those pasteries that are hollow and you put honey into.
The waiter tried to serve me fajitas, but I didn’t order fajitas. He took it back to the kitchen and I had to wait about 7 minutes for my combinationes plate. But it was worth it. We also had flavored ice tea which the waiter deducted one of them to make up for his mistake of charging me for the fajitas. Net savings...$1.50. Now that’s how restaurants should reward customers for making them wait. I recommend LaFonda just for that reason.
Next we visited the Catholic Church across the street. Not because we were “stuffed monkeys” from eating Mexican food and needed a place to sleep, but because it is both a working church and museum. Very pretty church and interesting. Because it is a museum, Corinne hustled through it while I read stuff. At one point, I couldn’t find her, but then she poked her head out from behind a pillar and there she was.
We left the church and arrived back to the city-run parking lot we parked the big rig at. Cost was $1.80 per hour to park and I had paid $3.60 to park for two hours, not knowing how long we were going to be walking around. We got back to the lot 10 minutes past the two hours. I figured another buck-eighty was going to be due, but the lot attendant, (I think her name was Lotta Caros), just waved us through, free of charge. Net savings…$1.80. I recommend this parking lot just for that reason.
We next stopped at a post office to write post cards to home. I had found a card with four monkeys on it. One was riding a tricycle pulling a wagon (“You got three waaggons?”) with three monkeys riding in it. Each monkey was a different variety. I thought my mom would enjoy this card and wrote asking her to send bail-o money-o to Mexico. I signed the card for my brothers Charlie-o, Jamie-o, Danny-o and Pabl-o. Honestly, those monkeys looked just like my brothers and it was being redundant to write their names on it as my mom will recognize them, as any mom recognizes her primates..er, I mean “chillins.” (I will probably get my butt-kicked for this.)
We visited the National Cemetery in Santa Fe. Something peaceful about being in a military cemetery…so solemn.
We drove up to Los Alamos, NM to see the town. We saw the town and not much else. I think we were either in the wrong Los Alamos, NM or just not in the right place. We ended up going to a movie to see Rendition, which was not too bad a movie. Spy-stuff.
The next morning, we broke camp and headed to Arizona. We got as far as Winslow, which is amazing since we really didn’t leave Santa Fe, NM until around 2 pm when all is said and done. We stopped for lunch at an Arby’s because they offered free WIFI and Corinne needed to get onto high speed internet to finish some Lodge business. Two guys in suits came into the Arby’s and had lunch. I made them out to be Popo because they acted like Popo. I don’t know if they were feds or locals, tho.
In Winslow, we camped at Homolovi Ruins State Park outside of Winslow. We were one of about 6 campers. We had a great view of Winslow and the high desert. The worst part of this park is the access road into it. Some moron thought it would be good to install “poor-man” speed bumps every 50 feet or so. Poor-man speed bumps are slots cut across the asphalt. Some of these slots are wide enough to swallow up a small vehicle, in fact, I believe I drove over the top of a VW in one of them. Anyways, these slots really jolt the axles and wheels and cause folks to drive really slow if they don’t want to rattle all the fillings out of their tooths. I will make a phone call or write a letter to the Parks Department to complain about these grand canyon crevices. Totally unnecessary…the slots, not my complaining.
We visited the Winslow cemetery to find some more gravesites. We found almost all we were looking for. Corinne had a lot of family from the area, dating back into the 1920’s. One of her ancestor's headstone was just a 2 inch metal pipe sticking out of the ground with his initials etched on it. Interesting. Maybe I will cast some concrete and scribe his info into it and replace the pipe. His name was John Thomas McComas. Maybe some of you are familiar with the name as the book titled “Massacre on the Lordsburg Road” by Marc Simmons, a true story about Judge McComas and family being murdered by “Chato” the Apache, and his band of renegade cohorts.
Bob-servations:
I found a headstone which read “Guest.” No thank you, I’ll stay at a Best Western, please.
Saw a motorhome with a large swamp cooler affixed to the rear of it. Now that is high class. I am so jealous. Photo taken.
Movin’ on. Leaving Winslow we were headed home. We decided we just hadn’t had enough of being on the road, so we decided to spend one more night camping. Dead Horse Ranch in Cottonwood, AZ came to mind after I spoke with friend Bill Y from the House. Bill, this place is every bit as nice as you said. And, convenient to Cottonwood. We will have to come up here with you and Carol. PS…they have a nice group camping area if anyone is interested in having a round-up weekend sometime. We sat outside for awhile last night and looked at the lights of Jerome. A wonderful sunset with wispy clouds coming over the top of them.
Well. I believe Corinne is now up. I hear the shower running.
This will probably be my last blog for this trip…or not. I may summarize our adventure…or not. Anyway, we passed the 15,000 mile mark just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. It has been a great adventure. I couldn’t have asked for a better travel companion, (Corinne), and I’m 45.18% certain she feels the same about me. The friends we met and made along the way, the scenery we saw, the food we ate, the grog we drank, the humidity, the rain, cold, hot and warm. And of course, my “blogger posse” who kept me writing by letting me know they enjoyed my nonsense. Signed copies are available at a nominal fee…and Christmas is coming up. Makes a great stocking stuffer or gift for that hard-to-buy-for family member. Shyeah!
Corinne will post more photo albums as she has time.
Next week, we go racin’ at PIR, so I guess this adventure really isn’t over at all.
Happy tales…I mean trails.
Bobo, Corinne, and “the Queen”
Ok, where did I leave off? Oh, yes…New Mexico. We visited Santa Fe, NM. Corinne was there many, many years ago and ‘I have never have.’ We walked around the town square, if you want to call it that. It is bordered on one side by the Palaces of the Governors, shops on the others. Corinne left her “reglar” glasses in the truck, so we didn’t tour the museum. She said she wouldn’t be able to read the display placards. Funny, she and Moe never read those placards when they are in a museum. Know who reads them? Bobo reads them. The girls race through the museums and I take my time, finishing maybe two – three hours later, but so much more “smarter than when I starter.”
We had lunch at a very up-scale restaurant in the “La Henry Fonda.” Ok, it wasn’t La Henry Fonda, just La Fonda, but I call it Henry. Walking into the restaurant, it reminded me of going into Pea Soup Anderssons’ pea soup restaurant in California. Just the setup took me back in years to the famous pea soup place. At Henry, Corinne ordered her enchiladas and I ordered the Pueblozuela Combinationes which included a tamale, chile relleno, and an enchilada, all smothered in green chile sauce. Of course, both plates came with pasole, beans and rice, I mean pasoleo, beanos and riceo. Very good meals. We also had chips and salsa (kind of hot – YES!) and “sofapillows”… those pasteries that are hollow and you put honey into.
The waiter tried to serve me fajitas, but I didn’t order fajitas. He took it back to the kitchen and I had to wait about 7 minutes for my combinationes plate. But it was worth it. We also had flavored ice tea which the waiter deducted one of them to make up for his mistake of charging me for the fajitas. Net savings...$1.50. Now that’s how restaurants should reward customers for making them wait. I recommend LaFonda just for that reason.
Next we visited the Catholic Church across the street. Not because we were “stuffed monkeys” from eating Mexican food and needed a place to sleep, but because it is both a working church and museum. Very pretty church and interesting. Because it is a museum, Corinne hustled through it while I read stuff. At one point, I couldn’t find her, but then she poked her head out from behind a pillar and there she was.
We left the church and arrived back to the city-run parking lot we parked the big rig at. Cost was $1.80 per hour to park and I had paid $3.60 to park for two hours, not knowing how long we were going to be walking around. We got back to the lot 10 minutes past the two hours. I figured another buck-eighty was going to be due, but the lot attendant, (I think her name was Lotta Caros), just waved us through, free of charge. Net savings…$1.80. I recommend this parking lot just for that reason.
We next stopped at a post office to write post cards to home. I had found a card with four monkeys on it. One was riding a tricycle pulling a wagon (“You got three waaggons?”) with three monkeys riding in it. Each monkey was a different variety. I thought my mom would enjoy this card and wrote asking her to send bail-o money-o to Mexico. I signed the card for my brothers Charlie-o, Jamie-o, Danny-o and Pabl-o. Honestly, those monkeys looked just like my brothers and it was being redundant to write their names on it as my mom will recognize them, as any mom recognizes her primates..er, I mean “chillins.” (I will probably get my butt-kicked for this.)
We visited the National Cemetery in Santa Fe. Something peaceful about being in a military cemetery…so solemn.
We drove up to Los Alamos, NM to see the town. We saw the town and not much else. I think we were either in the wrong Los Alamos, NM or just not in the right place. We ended up going to a movie to see Rendition, which was not too bad a movie. Spy-stuff.
The next morning, we broke camp and headed to Arizona. We got as far as Winslow, which is amazing since we really didn’t leave Santa Fe, NM until around 2 pm when all is said and done. We stopped for lunch at an Arby’s because they offered free WIFI and Corinne needed to get onto high speed internet to finish some Lodge business. Two guys in suits came into the Arby’s and had lunch. I made them out to be Popo because they acted like Popo. I don’t know if they were feds or locals, tho.
In Winslow, we camped at Homolovi Ruins State Park outside of Winslow. We were one of about 6 campers. We had a great view of Winslow and the high desert. The worst part of this park is the access road into it. Some moron thought it would be good to install “poor-man” speed bumps every 50 feet or so. Poor-man speed bumps are slots cut across the asphalt. Some of these slots are wide enough to swallow up a small vehicle, in fact, I believe I drove over the top of a VW in one of them. Anyways, these slots really jolt the axles and wheels and cause folks to drive really slow if they don’t want to rattle all the fillings out of their tooths. I will make a phone call or write a letter to the Parks Department to complain about these grand canyon crevices. Totally unnecessary…the slots, not my complaining.
We visited the Winslow cemetery to find some more gravesites. We found almost all we were looking for. Corinne had a lot of family from the area, dating back into the 1920’s. One of her ancestor's headstone was just a 2 inch metal pipe sticking out of the ground with his initials etched on it. Interesting. Maybe I will cast some concrete and scribe his info into it and replace the pipe. His name was John Thomas McComas. Maybe some of you are familiar with the name as the book titled “Massacre on the Lordsburg Road” by Marc Simmons, a true story about Judge McComas and family being murdered by “Chato” the Apache, and his band of renegade cohorts.
Bob-servations:
I found a headstone which read “Guest.” No thank you, I’ll stay at a Best Western, please.
Saw a motorhome with a large swamp cooler affixed to the rear of it. Now that is high class. I am so jealous. Photo taken.
Movin’ on. Leaving Winslow we were headed home. We decided we just hadn’t had enough of being on the road, so we decided to spend one more night camping. Dead Horse Ranch in Cottonwood, AZ came to mind after I spoke with friend Bill Y from the House. Bill, this place is every bit as nice as you said. And, convenient to Cottonwood. We will have to come up here with you and Carol. PS…they have a nice group camping area if anyone is interested in having a round-up weekend sometime. We sat outside for awhile last night and looked at the lights of Jerome. A wonderful sunset with wispy clouds coming over the top of them.
Well. I believe Corinne is now up. I hear the shower running.
This will probably be my last blog for this trip…or not. I may summarize our adventure…or not. Anyway, we passed the 15,000 mile mark just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. It has been a great adventure. I couldn’t have asked for a better travel companion, (Corinne), and I’m 45.18% certain she feels the same about me. The friends we met and made along the way, the scenery we saw, the food we ate, the grog we drank, the humidity, the rain, cold, hot and warm. And of course, my “blogger posse” who kept me writing by letting me know they enjoyed my nonsense. Signed copies are available at a nominal fee…and Christmas is coming up. Makes a great stocking stuffer or gift for that hard-to-buy-for family member. Shyeah!
Corinne will post more photo albums as she has time.
Next week, we go racin’ at PIR, so I guess this adventure really isn’t over at all.
Happy tales…I mean trails.
Bobo, Corinne, and “the Queen”
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