the road to Cuba, NM

When I walked to the street where I was staying, I looked up and down and didn't see anything on this stretch of Route 66 to take a picture of, so I didn't bother. I did see a couple of the icons that were in a magazine I had while I was driving out of the city.

About 10 miles west of Tucumcari, the landscape became more desert with buttes in the distance, which got closer. I must have been traveling uphill, but it was very gradual with no big mountains to traverse. Albuquerque is considered to be in a canyon - it has mountains all around it. Reminds me of Phoenix in a way. Las Vegas had mountains all around it, but they are further and the city is on flat desert. Remember that a "hole" is land with mountains all around, as in Jackson Hole? Why don't I hear anyone talk of Albuquerque or Las Vegas being a hole?

I had called Fleetwood MH Customer Service to find a service station so I could do some maintenance on Miss Daisy, and found that my only choice was Albuquerque. There is noting in Durango or southwest Colorado, and my next chance at civilization was too many miles over the time for my needs, so I spent 4 hours taking care of that business. While the MH was being serviced, I found a Best Buy to find out that my printer is no good and it costs more to fix it than to buy another one. I found a light printer/copier/scanner but they didn't have any in stock. I did find one at Walmart, though. I ate lunch/dinner at Boston Market and went back to get the MH. They didn't do the oil change because they wanted to ask me if I had a quick connect gadget for the oil. I didn't know what they were talking about, so they replaced that drain plug with a standard one. I had to wait for that do be done. I had noticed that my left front car tire was wearing down to almost no tread on the outside and thought about buying 2 new front tires now. The Ford dealer didn't have the right size and said they could get the tires in about 40 minutes. I didn't want to wait for that and leave Albuquerque at 5 PM, so I put it on my list to find a tire place in Durango.

I got out of Albuquerque by 5 PM and was traveling on the scenic route to Cuba where I planned on staying at the casino north of that town. 30 miles before it, my right front car tire blew out and the left one almost did too. I had to call my emergency road service and we found there was a car repair shop and towing service in Cuba. I am staying at "Off Road Car Repair" next the the State Police and local sheriff's office in Cuba for the night. I may have to buy a rim and used tires to get on my way, but I should still be able to get to my Colorado destination before dark tomorrow. Man, I should have stayed at the Ford dealer while they got tires for me! Hindsight! Oh, my tires have only bee driven 11,600 miles, so they shouldn't have blown out like that. Victor at the car repair shop thinks the problem might be that my towbar is not on straight, causing the tires to wear the way they are showing.

May 21, 2009

Show all 4 photos