As noted in my previous installment, I made a mistake and posted Day 5 before Day 4, Part 2. From here on, I hope to keep everything in its proper order.
Our first stop in New Mexico was Tucumcari. The name itself has a special allure for me because it is mentioned in Little Feat’s song “Willin’.” Motels, some defunct and some thriving, gift shops, and murals preserve the mythology of Route 66.
The Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari opened in 1940. Featuring a classic neon sign and several vintage cars, it now offers rooms with attached garages without doors, each presenting a mural and relics from decades past.
The Easy Rider mural reminded me of that film I saw as a surly teen, one of my inspirations for exploring Route 66. The movie chronicles the ill-fated travels of two hippie motorcyclists, Wyatt AKA “Captain America, and his friend Billy. During some of the movie, they follow the Mother Road, but many scenes were filmed elsewhere.
Linda and I had already planned to make a slight detour so we could stop by the other Las Vegas, the one not in Nevada but in New Mexico. I found the street where Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper’s characters in Easy Rider join a small-town parade on their choppers, are arrested, and later meet Jack Nicholson’s George Hanson, a lawyer who is drying out in the local jail after a night of binge drinking. It’s a small town thoroughfare, lined with buildings dating back to the early decades of the twentieth century and even before that, not much different from many places in America.
Las Vegas, however, has its notable distinctions. Once a Wild West town that harbored shady characters like Jesse James and Billy the Kid, it hosted scores of “Cowboy Reunion” events and served as the filming location for many westerns.
The town’s central plaza is a public park, and on the day that we visited several young women showed up that were wearing what we suspected were prom dresses. Spread out among the trees, friends, family members, and possibly even a professional photographer or two took pictures of them in their finery. Later some well-dressed young men also appeared and were photographed as well.
Bars, art galleries, antique stores, and restaurants line the streets surrounding the park. Curiously, the most crowded establishment specialized in New York Pizza, and the one noted for serving local cuisine was closed. On the other side of the park stands the appropriately named Plaza Hotel, which was built in 1882. Featured in many old cowboy movies, it was also prominent in several scenes from the 2007 Cohen Brother’s film adaption of Cormac McCarthy’s novel No Country for Old Men.
More recently Longmire, one of my favorite shows, was filmed in Las Vegas. Built in 1895, the Veeder building appeared to be abandoned, but the front door still indicates it is the base for Walt Longmire’s adventures, the Sheriff’s Office in Durant, Wyoming. Apparently, numerous movies and television shows supposedly set in Wyoming and other western states have been filmed in New Mexico due to generous incentives provided by local governments.
Initially pieced together from a hodgepodge of existing roads, some of them not even paved, Route 66 was the first motorway commissioned in the Federal highway system. Over the years, improvements were made, and portions were rerouted before the whole road was officially decommissioned in 1985. Prior to 1937, Santa Fe was part of the route, so Linda and I made the trek, and I was absurdly happy to see the southern edge of the Rockies. For many years I had been aware that where I lived and traveled on the other side of the Mississippi, the peaks of my own experiences were mere hills by comparison.
In Santa Fe, Spanish influenced architecture abounds, something else uncommon to us Easterners.
Linda and I dined at the crowded and renowned Tomasita’s restaurant. While we are big fans of Mexican and Southwestern food, our Eastern palates found the entrees excessively spicy and were glad that sopaipillas were provided after our meal, which we doused in butter and honey to help slake the fire in our mouths.
I had told Linda that part of the Route 66 experience is staying in unique old motels, so she graciously booked us into a vintage room, our most expensive at that point on the trip. It was authentically old school and funky, with exposed beams and Native American-inspired décor, but the air we breathed was laden with a perfumed fragrance that made her wonder about what was being covered up.
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