RV There Yet?

We visited the Jack Sizemore RV Museum in Amarillo yesterday.  I will let the pictures tell the story for the most part.  Click on the pictures to enlarge as necessary.

 

This is the oldest and most traveled Airstream trailer known to exist. Click on the picture to see its history printed on the side. 

This trailer is from 1931. It was home built. You would buy the frame, the plans and a materials list from  the company and just go home and make one. Easy peasy. 

 

This is a very early (1931??) Airstream Torpedo

 

 

 

 

This 1948 Ford Sedan is all original and was driven from 

Dallas to Amarillo in 1991. It has 48,000 original miles.

We RVers teach our children at an early age. Here are some RV toys.

At the end of the tour, you sign a guest book and put a pin on 

the map indicating where you came from to see the museum.

This sign was not part of the museum, per se, but the dealership that keeps the museum has other interesting memorabilia, too.  People who live along the former Route 66 are very mindful of the role that highway played in the development of private automobile travel across the U.S. 

Yesterday's photos.

Well, I was disappointed this morning to find no wi-fi service AT ALL, even though I paid for 24 hours of service.  Such is the life of a blogger.  On the other hand, I am learning to use the personal hot spot on my iPhone. I was able to download Jill's photos from our trip yesterday, and here they are:

 This is a church building in Cuervo, NM, no too far from Santa Rosa.

 

If you use your imagination, you will see that this is a windmill farm. It went on for miles and miles.

 Here's another building in Cuervo, which looked like a ghost town.

 We were taken with the contrast of red soil and green plants.

 Sometimes I wish I were a geologist, so I could understand the geologic history of things like this.

 More interesting geology.

 And some more ghost town buildings. It appears the economy in northeastern New Mexico has been hurting for some considerable time. We learned, for example, that the median annual income for Santa Rosa, as of 2014 was $25,000.

Now that I have a method of uploading photos from my phone to my Macbook, I am hopeful about posting photos of the RV museum later today. So stay tuned.

Don't plan your vacation; let the weatherman do it!

Yesterday was Mothers Day, so I tried my best to pamper Jill.  We attended worship service at First Baptist Church.  This is a very friendly bunch of folks. The pastor bills himself as a redneck; the music is all recorded; the people all came by to introduce themselves and welcome us. They even invited us to stay for the Mother's Day potluck lunch. We politely declined because we would have felt like interlopers.

The worship service started with a funny but touching video about a couple of guys trying to do the right thing for their wives for Mothers Day.  Of course, in the end, the wives simply wanted to be appreciated for all the things they do as wives and mothers.

The video was followed by a contemporary praise song.  Then the pastor's wife divided us up into two teams and we sang "I've Got Something in My Soul."  The catch was, we had to do motions to complement the words, and the kids decided which team did the best job. What a hoot. Our team won, of course. 

Pastor (redneck) Beau, gave a very down-home but poignant sermon, full of y'alls and such, about the importance of unity in the body of Christ. We were moved by his words, but more by the way the congregation (I counted 43, including me and Jill) responded.  They asked questions and said their Amens, and then after Beau prayed for the congregation, many went forward and bowed down on their knees to pray.  There were laughter and tears, and it was apparent that the Holy Spirit was in attendance.  When we left, I said to Jill, "Imagine, having fun in a Baptist church!" If we ever are called to move to Santa Rosa, NM, I think First Baptist could become our new church home.

After church, I surprised Jill with a stop at the Santa Fe Grille for lunch.  Then we went home and relaxed and rode out the wind.  At dinner time, I called the restaurant in the RV park and ordered rib dinners delivered to our trailer! Jill didn't have to cook or do dishes all day, although, she sneaked in washing a couple of glasses in the evening.

Jill Facetimed with both of our daughters and with our grandsons, which filled her love bank to overflowing. All in all, I think it was a worthwhile Mothers Day for her...I hope.

We bid a fond adieu to Santa Rosa, NM this morning and headed east on I40.  We came as far as Amarillo, TX and checked in at the "Overnite RV Park."  It actually is a lovely little park; nothing fancy, but it has trees and shrubs and grass.  Pogo and Lulu are very pleased. 

Our original plan was to cross central Texas and visit the Piney woods of northeast Texas and northern Louisiana.  The weatherman had other ideas, as those areas have been pummeled with rain, flooding and super-sized hail and thunderstorms. So, instead of heading east toward Abilene, TX when we left Carlsbad, we headed north to Santa Rosa. The ploy was to see more of the countryside, while waiting out the weather, which seems to be very slowly moving east.

This afternoon, we watched a huge tornado (on TV, of course) rip through the area south of Oklahoma City, which due to weather has become our presumptive next destination. So far, we have managed to stay behind the weather front, but we are getting closer to the areas that have been devastated by these storms.

As of now, we are planning to head for OKC in two days, but we will let the weatherman have the last word.  As for Amarillo, we are very impressed with this north Texas city.  The area is beautiful, full of green trees and lawns; surrounded by agriculture and full of the friendly people we came to expect in Texas after our visit several years ago to Fredricksburg.

Tomorrow, we plan to visit an RV museum maintained by a local RV dealership.  From the pictures on their website, it should be very interesting, with RVs dating back at least as far as the 1920s. I hope to have some pictures for you, if the wi-fi cooperates. The Overnite RV Park has no wi-fi at the moment, but it is supposed to be fixed "some time."  In the meantime, we are getting service from the Petro truck stop across the road. Don' worry, it is a paid service, so we are legitimate.


In the morning, before the bandwidth is all gone, I will try to post some photos. Until then, stand by to stand by.

Whaddya gonna do...

...in a town of 2,700 population?  Well, if it is Santa Rosa, NM, you have a couple of options. So we did. Them. Both of them.

First was the Route 66 Auto Museum.  I know, I know, right?  This is becoming a thing with us; auto museums, I mean. There was the one in Reno and now this one. Well, the two are similar only in that they both have "old" cars.  That kind of stuck in my craw a little, here in Santa Rosa.  Most of the "old" cars in the museum were cars I coveted in high school. Many of the rest were cars I coveted in college.

This museum is run by a couple who apparently own the garage across the street, "Bozo's Auto Repair." They are very sweet and friendly. We enjoyed chatting with them. I am not sure, but I think Bozo restores some of the cars and then sells them through the museum. There are some cars, including a 1953 Corvette, that are in their original state, having never been restored.

Here's the front of the museum. One of the nicer looking buildings in town.

1949 Ford Station Wagon (woodie). This car was mostly restored, but the interior had been dolled up with front bucket seats and a custom center console made of wood. 

My pick was this 1931 Auburn, which you can buy for a mere $48,000. Except for paint, it appears to be all original. 

1956 Mercury Montclaire hardtop convertible 

(meaning no post between the front and rear side windows.)

1957 Chevy Nomad wagon with 454 CID V8. One of my coveted cars in my younger days.

This motor scooter was marked 1956. 

Carol Merrill Jill shows off a 1956 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. This one is mostly original. And it is huge.

There were a couple of early Mustangs, and notice all the memorabilia on the walls. 

That's a Plymouth Roadrunner second from the front.

 More memorabilia, and a 1979 Datsun 280Z, 

or as a friend of mine would say, "A 28 Ounce Datsun."

This is obviously a picture of a picture, but considering 

the trailer we are traveling in, I had to have a copy. 

Here's our little home away from home. 

This Ford is labeled "Bozo's Auto Repair."

And goodness only knows what this is! 1958 Edsel, I think. Perhaps the next picture explains it!?

This museum was a lot of fun and at $5 it was pretty cheap entertainment.  It seems to be one of the most prosperous businesses in town.  I recommend it, if you find yourself in Santa Rosa, NM.  In addition to this fun spot, I can recommend the Santa Rosa Campground and RV Park, our home-away-from-home in Santa Rosa.  They have a cafe attached that serves some very tasty BBQ. The young man (mid 20s) who checked us in is the chef, and I think the waitress is his fiancee.  They work hard and put out a good product. 

We wouldn't have known about either of these enterprises if it weren't for the persistent severe weather in the region. We are attempting to stay behind the severe thunderstorms and golf ball sized hail that are just to the east of us. Our original plan was to drive across mid-Texas, but a lot of that area has had storm damage, including flooding. Then we were going to head for Amarillo, TX two days ago, but the weather there is threatening, too. So, here we are in Santa Rosa. Nomads gotta do what nomads gotta do.

I said we did both of the things there are to do in SRNM.  So, the second was to go see the Blue Hole. This is a famed place that is one of the many natural "lakes" for which SRNM is actually famous.  It is a sink hole in the sandstone, created by underground springs and rivers.  It is prized by scuba divers, not because it is so big, but because it is so deep and the water is crystal clear.

There were, in fact, what appeared to be several scuba classes having lessons in the Blue Hole today.

So, that is pretty much the extent of SRNM's offerings. To be fair, there is a nice park in the center of town with a lake of about an acre in area that is very nicely appointed as a swimming lake.  At 10AM when we passed by, some local children were already swimming, in spite of the 25 mph winds we are experiencing today. (Remember my comments about weather?) The weekend is expected to be windy here, but the really nasty weather is heading east, and we hope to proceed to Amarillo next week.

In the meantime, we found the local Baptist church, where we plan to worship tomorrow.  It being Mothers Day, my hope is that there will be a good turn out. There are five churches in SRNM: two Roman Catholic, reflecting the historical origins of the town; a Southern Baptist; a United Methodist; and an Assembly of God. The internet suggests there is a Church of Christ, but we went to the address, and there are nothing but houses there. Perhaps, it is a house church, since the community is so small.  None of these churches seems to have any substantial web present. The Baptist has a Facebook page that was last posted on in August of last year!

So, now we are hunkered down riding out the wind.  There is a ball game on TV, so I think I'll just relax until we go out to dinner for some Northern New Mexico cuisine.  Tune in later for more in the exciting tale of Tom and Jill's Big Adventure.