To Albuquerque - and Beyond

The fog we encountered on Interstate 15 heading south out of Escondido cleared by the time we got to Interstate 8. And although I'd spent a lot of time in the desert prior to this trip I still clearly remember how lovely it was heading east out of San Diego on that December day in 1969.

I remember being surprised at all the vegetable fields in the Imperial Valley around El Centro. (That's supposed to be desert...) And the sand dunes on the east end of the valley were instantly recognizable as the "Sahara" from all those Hollywood movies... Then we crossed into Arizona... We'd never been there before - the southern Arizona desert can be indescribably beautiful in the winter...

We eventually stopped for lunch at the Space Age Restaurant in Gila Bend. The decor was classic early 1960's kitsch - aliens and spaceships everywhere. It was a flashback to the days before the interstates - when the journey mattered as much (or more) than the destination... There aren't too many things I get nostalgic about but sometimes I almost cry when I remember traveling the highways back in the day... (Our house in St. Louis was less than 2 miles from Route 66.) We threw away such an amazing part of our heritage just to get there quicker... Total bummer... But I digress...

We passed through Tucson just before rush hour and it was starting to get dark when we got to Lordsburg, NM. We headed though town on the "business loop" but didn't see any place we particularly wanted to stay - it was all rather dusty and a bit run down... So we headed on to Deming and that's where we spent the first night.

OK - This isn't particularly relevant - but: I was in change of making sure everything was OK with the trailer whenever we stopped and there was a bit of an issue. The trailer hitch was a "universal" type that clamped onto the back bumper. But the bumper on a 65 Mustang isn't particularly strong so every time we stopped I found that the clamps had deformed the bumper slightly more and needed to be re-tightened... We didn't have any problems with the trailer but by the end of the trip that bumper was in pretty sad shape...

We were awfully tired after that first day and didn't get a particularly early start the next morning. And that's when it started getting weird... Karina had never been particularly excited about our intended destination, and as we headed east out of Deming she started lobbying for going straight to El Paso. I have no earthly idea where that came from. I don't know if she thought El Paso sounded cool or if she just wanted to be close to Juarez (drugs?) or what... But mom said we needed to a least have a look at Albuquerque before making any decisions so we turned north at Los Cruces.

It's almost incomprehensible just how little there is between Los Cruces and Albuquerque. I remember driving past the signs for Radium Springs and Truth or Consequences but never saw anything nearby. I don't recall where we stopped for lunch - maybe a Stuckeys? ... There sure weren't any sizable towns along the way :-)

We got into Albuquerque at around 6PM. It was already dark by then and as soon as we got off the highway and headed toward downtown it "hit the fan". There had been a major accident - traffic was backed up for miles - emergency vehicles everywhere. And after 15 minutes of stop and go we decided it must be a "message" so we turned around and went back to the freeway. I seem to recall we had intended to head south but mom ended up going north. We decided maybe that was a sign too so rather than turning around we continued on to Santa Fe and stopped for the night.

You know - mom never did call the prospective employer to tell him she'd changed her mind. That bothered me for a really long time... But regardless - that's the story of how we ended up not living in Albuquerque :-)