Vomiting, coughing, congestion forced a one day postponement of our trip west. But ever intrepid, Dennis took to driving eight hour shifts in stride while Cynthia provided directions interrupted only by bouts of hacking. Arriving in Shamrock, TX they found themselves in the Trip Advisor #1 rated hotel. Even with this recommendation Dennis insisted on seeing a room before booking. Our host seemed a bit puzzled by this insistence but he hasn’t experienced some of our homes away from home. Dennis loved the purple and green color scheme accented with rusts and browns in the Shamrock Inn’s decor. Our friend Mary would not be able to stay here but then I don’t imagine she would ever be caught anywhere in the panhandle of Texas. It’s a friendly little town doing the best it can do with what’s still here. It seems to have suffered the fate of much of small town America—a gutted main street supplemented by a Dollar General and a Family Dollar store. There have to be many stories here and we will catch only a few.
We met a number of people in Shamrock, all of them willing to be helpful, wanting us to like our stay in their town. The first of course, was our motel host, Erin. His motel is very clean and offers much for a very reasonable price, including a generous breakfast. As we explored the town we stopped at a convenience store to see about buying a bottle of wine for dinner. The young man only sold beer but helpfully gave us directions to the town’s liquor store. There we met Lynne who highly recommended the Mesquite Canyon Steakhouse where she used to work. At the restaurant we met a friendly staff from within the kitchen and on the wait staff. Our waitress Rosa moved back to Shamrock from Amarillo to care for her parents. She was joined by her retired husband but they kept their house in Amarillo and now she stays there when she takes her mother to the doctor and her granddaughter stays there long term. Her dad was a migrant farm worker who was eventually asked to stay and work year round on a local farm. On Saturday afternoons her dad would bring them all to town where the Main Street held all kinds of treats including a movie theater and an ice cream shoppe. Now the Main Street is filled with abandoned or nearly abandoned buildings. Eventually her dad became the projectionist at the theater. When he was diagnosed with cancer he refused treatment and she and her sisters took turns caring for him and promising future care for her mom. We did talk about food too as I was curious about Texas steaks which seem to be much thinner than what we are used to at home in either a restaurant or a supermarket. She explained that in Texas they like their steaks thin because they find them more tender. So my expectation for a big thick steak in Texas is unrealistic.
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| It’s not Stonehenge... |
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| It’s the Cadillac Ranch! |
On the final leg of the journey to Albuquerque we stopped in Tucumcari for lunch on Old Route 66. Our waitress there was a former wind turbine technician. Dennis asked her what brought her to Tucumcari. She explained that she came to be trained to work on the wind turbines which she did for about 8 months. There is a lot of travel involved and it was difficult for her with small children. Then one day she was on a turbine climb when her partner fell. She explained the procedure for lowering a worker to the ground and how they have to sit up slowly and pull their legs up to their chest as the circulation is cut off by the safety harness as they are lowered 350 feet to the ground. They both resigned. And who could blame them?
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| The Cowboy |
A summary from the D Marv point of view—
Our blog is up and running again. We left for Arizona at 8 AM on January 31st. We planned to leave on the 30th but decided to allow Cindy one extra day to recover from an illness that involved coughing, vomiting, and other eliminations too awful to mention (editor’s note: he did mention them but I don’t get paid to type that stuff). Diapers were not an option.
Our first night was spent in Little Rock, AR. After driving nine hours we had a delicious meal at the Subway up the street and then went right to sleep. Our second night found us in Shamrock, TX at the Shamrock Country Inn Motel. I’m not saying Shamrock is small but we got into town at rush hour and had to fight the other two cars traversing Main Street. We had now travelled 1,100 miles. Day three found us in Albuquerque where we now abide. We love ABQ. We’ll be here for three nights at a lovely casita we’ve rented before from our friends Jill and Marty. As I write this, I’m sitting on a bench overlooking the Rio Grande which is a short walk from our casita. Sun’s shinning, it’s around 65 degrees and beautiful. Stick with us on our journey. We’ll keep you filled in—
Den & Cindy
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| Dinner at High Noon |
