This month, I’m writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. Today’s prompt asks to tell about a favorite cafe, diner, luncheonette, or coffee shop. One comes to mind before all others: The Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas on Route 66.
This little retro cafe is not what you’d expect. There’s a lady in there who makes the pies, and she’s the aunt of the young mom who was our server, who told us all kinds of stories about growing up right there and how she’s climbed the windmills before. She took the time to tell us about life in Texas and how she’s from a long line of Texans right there in that town.
I was listening, watching intently, savoring every sense of this place (especially the pie, the pie, the coconut cream pie) and thinking, even as I faced going back to school as an educator, that life right there is some sort of splendid destiny. How many people get to serve their aunt’s delicious pie in a cafe and meet people from all over the world, traveling to see a slice of America? It sounds like it should be the next Hallmark Christmas movie, really, this young single mother swept off her feet by a lost Texan who moved to Chicago to be some kind of an architect and got swallowed up by the CEO and business types but is called back to his home state to design new rodeo grounds and has a flat tire so he stops by for a piece of pie……or something like that.
That’s a place I need to return. I wish they shipped those pies and I could have a slice for supper. Best. Pie. Ever. And….did I mention that I don’t even particularly like coconut? Never have.
But that pie!!!!!
Chime in with your favorite cafe. I’d love to visit all the good ones and know just what to order.
Today for the second day of the July Open Write, Jennifer Jowett of Michigan and Deborah Wiles of Georgia are our hosts. They inspire us to write I Once Knew poems, using a process they describe at this link. Hop over and read some of the poems that will be eclectic and unexpected. This is one such random poem process that is, what I believe, makes poetry shine and sparkle.
turquoise and mother of pearl bracelet
Albuquerque, New Mexico
magical time travel stones
Old Town red door: WarPath!
revisiting our
Route 66
memories
on my
wrist
We’d just left the Gemini Giant on our trip along Route 66 when we rounded a curve and came into a town with motorcycles lined up along the street but no bikers anywhere to be seen.
I was instantly intrigued. We had to stop and check this place out.
“They’re all inside the biker bar,” my brother-in-law explained.
I pretended to be taking pictures of other things, as I sometimes do to disguise my true intentions, in case they were watching me through the window and felt like I was spying on their hangout – – which I was.
“Ah, look!” My brother-in-law announced. “Their secret door.” He pointed.
Sure enough, on closer inspection, there were two doors, not one. Next to the red door that appeared to be the entrance into the Rustic Saloon, there was a second door – – one with a peephole in it to allow a good look at the person seeking to come inside. The red one very clearly said PRIVATE.
All kinds of things started swirling in my mind about what was happening behind those doors at The Rustic Saloon. We’d started making up table stories about situations that left us wondering about things we knew nothing about, so I’d drawn some sketchy concoctions of possibilities, like the workers in Meg Ryan’s bookstore in You’ve Got Mail when they suspect that Frank might be the Unabomber, or that her secret email admirer might be the Rooftop Killer.
Playing shuffleboard wasn’t ever what I envisioned in my mind’s menu of shady things, but apparently that’s what they do in there. After coming home and checking The Rustic Saloon out on the review page on Yelp, I see now why they might want to have that peephole in the door. They’re checking for people with long arms to join their team.
My apologies to all the bikers in there playing an honest game of shuffleboard or darts and having a hamburger and a Coca-Cola. I shouldn’t have thought the worst.
Apologies, too, to the waitress in Illinois who claimed she wasn’t from the small town where we ate lunch and had no idea where the nearest convenience store was – we had quite a novel about her hidden identity written at our table by the time we paid the bill. Our imaginations ran a little wild with all the speculation about the world and its people from time to time.
And in my writer’s mind, I shrug it off. I was just coming up with a few new characters in some different settings, I tell myself.
To prepare for our own trip, I’d been watching YouTube videos of people who had traveled Route 66 and documented their experiences through videos, and that’s how I learned that there is a chunk of the Blarney Stone from Ireland right here in the good ‘ole US of A! There’s a husband and wife team who have a YouTube account called Yankee in the South, and they taught me all sorts of things about Route 66 that the travel books didn’t teach me – – including the bit about this Blarney Stone in Shamrock, Texas!
My brother-in-law kissing the Blarney Stone
Since my brother-in-law and his wife (I call her my sister-in-law, even though he’s the technical in-law) have loved their trips to Ireland, I thought this was worthy of a stop along the route. We had to do a little searching, but we found the Blarney Stone right along Main Street in Blarney Stone Plaza. Sure enough, it was brought here in 1959 after being knocked off the original stone and was ceremoniously installed in the town to bring the luck o’ the Irish to all who kiss it on this side of the pond.
I’m now one of the lucky ones, sprinkled with magical rainbow dust by the invisible leprechaun who dwells within the stone. (Side note: my husband was sitting in the car, waiting for us to return from all the kissing).
Me ~ kissing the Blarney Stone
There are other places to kiss part of the Blarney Stone in the United States, I have learned: Emmetsburg, Iowa; Irish Hills, Michigan; and at Fitzgerald’s Casino Lucky Forest in Reno, Nevada.
If you’re traveling through, make the stop ~ pucker up and luck on up!
We were taking an aerial tramway ride back down from 10, 378 feet above sea level from the summit of Sandia Peak to Albuquerque, New Mexico over the Cibola National Forest when I spotted a hawk that appeared to be riding the cable up to the peak.
How ironic, I thought. I’d been birding at the peak, counting my species and entering them into eBird, using Merlin ID to help lead me to the trees where they sang their identifying birdcalls. I’m always on the lookout for larger birds. I’d seen a Road Runner under a picnic table seeking shade from the brutal heat in Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Texas the day before, and after peering into all the trees and in the air for signs of these majestic soaring birds of prey, here was one comically riding the cable up to the top as I descended.
That’s my mama, I chuckled. She comes to me on wings. A bird in the depths of a canyon one day, and a bird in the heights on a peak the next. Three vultures when I’d prayed for the reassurance of an eagle at her burial.
“Is that a bird riding the cable?” I heard someone ask the tram operator.
“Oh, yes. That’s our resident hawk. He likes to ride the cable,” she explained. “When wildlife below falls beneath the shadow of the tram car, it scares his prey out of hiding. They run, and he swoops down for a fast-food-lunch. Makes his hunting easier.”
He gives the drive-thru a whole new perspective from the avian angle.
He also demonstrates his experience and intelligence. Here’s a bird who has figured out how to let a shadow do his heavy lifting while he sits and waits.
I’m inspired to think of all the times I make things so much harder than they have to be, when perhaps some creative thinking and a little patience would serve me well.
Which may be exactly what Mama was showing me.
On the top of Sandia Peak in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Our buddy Nick celebrated his 66th birthday the week before we drove half of Route 66 from Chicago to Albuquerque. He asked me to send him a few photos of Route 66 signs and to “take notes” to share with him, since he plans to drive Route 66 sometime before he turns 67. I assured him I would take “copious notes” – – which turned into my ChroNICles just for Nick. In case you plan to travel Route 66, these may be of interest to you as well.
We embraced a slow form of travel by only traveling half of the route on this leg of the journey. We flew into Chicago, rented a Ford Explorer one way from Chicago to Albuquerque, and flew home from there. Every point in between was filled with wonder of our nation, so it’s fitting that on this Independence Day as we celebrate America, I can look back and share 12 slices of what I learned along the highways and byways of Route 66.
Take the road trip! There is no better way to celebrate our great nation and to experience the changing landscapes of America than by taking a drive. Ever since I was a child, I have loved going different places to broaden my horizons and explore a variety of cultural flavors! I’d visit a place – Paris, London, Berlin, Orlando, Asheville, Nashville – – thinking I’d seen France, England, Germany, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee. Boy, was I wrong! Worse: I hadn’t truly “seen” any of those cities, either – just a landmark or two at most. I realize now what John Steinbeck meant when he said, in Travels with Charley, that “We don’t take a trip. A trip takes us.” To see a slice of America by car, watching the changing landscapes from state to state, is the way to experience the diversity of our land and its people. We find it in the roadside diners, in the conversations with waitresses and other travelers.
Get in touch with your inner criminal graffiti artist self with the situation allows! Buy more than one can of spray paint from Wal-Mart in Amarillo, where they keep it locked behind the glass and will have to help you get your colors. Go for the yellow and black, and add the white and pink. Then drive on over to Cadillac Ranch and paint. But do not – I repeat, DO NOT – wear a hat. The wind is so fierce, it’ll lift you off the ground at times and take your hat with it.
Look for the things no one tells you about – There’s a place somewhere near Albuquerque that plays America The Beautiful if you drive along the teeth of the roadway. We missed that. When we start leg #2 in California and drive back to Albuquerque, we will find out where this is and drive on the teeth on the very end of our Route 66 adventure, coming sometime in the next year! We had deep discussions about the things we don’t see.
Stay on the path, but stray from the path, too. Build enough flexibility in your plan to be able to throw it all out and do something spontaneous. We had planned to go to Meramac Caverns, but after going up in the St. Louis Gateway Arch, we wanted to see it from the river, so we took a river cruise instead, then planned a different cavern the next day. We saw signs in Uranus, Missouri for the Uranus Fudge Factory, where they claim that “the best fudge comes from Uranus,” and the t-shirts were too inappropriate to pass up. We built in some iconic landmarks, some quirky stops, some experiences in nature, some retro diners and some ice-cream-for-dinner nights, some chain hotels and some back-in-the-day motels, a peak and a canyon. We wanted the sampler platter of America, and we savored every bite! We were early to bed and early to rise so we could take it all in and still have some energy to enjoy it all.
Keep your eyes peeled for the unexpected – – you just might see it! Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I’d see a Road Runner and remains of a Mohave Rattlesnake on the trip, but I did! I saw Prairie Dogs, too, and we watched them playing from our room overlooking their playground. The simplest moments turned out to be some of the most memorable ones.
Take the time to talk to the servers! If you’ve never eaten “the special” breakfast in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a hole in the wall cafe with a waitress who’s the Queen of Bling and has a red tattoo of a Q and the shape of diamond right next to her left ear on her cheek to prove it to anyone who doubts it even after seeing the bracelets that line her arm from elbow to wrist and then, when you ask if she’s from Tulsa, she coughs the raspy smoker’s cough and emphatically says, “HELL no, I’ve lived here for 40 years, but I’m from Wisconsin,” as if you’ve offended her, you might want to try it. She may have gotten a few double-takes from some traveling diners, but I realized I was in the midst of my kind of people when I sat down and heard the blatant honesty spew forth from her lips, telling us about a recent storm she’d endured. And talk to April at The Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas over a piece of pie and a cup of coffee. She’s a single mother in her young 20s but knows the whole history of her corner of the world and would climb one of those tall windmills for $56.00 an hour if she could repair them. This is how Steinbeck wrote Travels With Charley – from the lively conversations with his fellow Americans!
Pack light, but bring home some souvenirs and mail some postcards! Memories are the best souvenirs – – photos, journals, blogs, and t-shirts help bring us back to those moments. We have a rule: if it won’t fit in the carry-on and personal bag, it doesn’t come home with us. We pack a 3×3 for a week’s trip – 3 bottoms, 3 tops. That makes 9 outfits and leaves plenty of space for bringing back some new socks, t-shirts, bracelets, and other small things that will fit in our bags.I even found room for a Texas Longhorn and a Highland Bull! I found a turqoise and mother of pearl bracelet in Old Town Albuquerque in a store called Warpath with a red door that reminded me so much of my mother I had to have it. It keeps her on my mind and keeps the memories of the trip close at hand, too.
Wear a great pair of shoes and carry the best water tumbler you can find. My inner hippie couldn’t drive Route 66 without my trusty Birkenstocks, but for getting out on the peaks and in the canyons, I relied on my On Clouds. Even though it’s a road trip, there’s a lot of walking and stair climbing in parts. The water tumbler: I filled it with icy water at every single restaurant and hotel along the way (except one, where it smelled a little funky), and it cut down on the amount of bottled water I had to buy and kept me cool and hydrated.
My new bulls, and a wine cork noted with the date, people, and place of savoring.
Make a countdown list of the things you need to do so you can leave at peace and embrace slow travel (without stressing) at its finest. The most challenging thing for me to remember is holding the mail, but the USPS makes it easy to arrange online, so even if I remember at the airport, I can still make it happen!
Leave something behind – a time capsule, a signature on a sign, some graffiti. We left a styrofoam cooler, inviting someone else to use it and give it a new life, then share it with us if they felt moved.
Eating Lupper (supper off the lunch menu) at The Big Texan in Amarillo
Take a group – you’ll share fabulous company and financial costs, but whatever you do…..don’t talk politics. It can ruin a trip. Enjoy the moments without splitting hairs over differences. We met a couple from New York, who dove straight into their political stance as we all sat outside at The Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. When they realized all of us were not in agreement with them, my husband broke in: “What you’re looking at right here in the four of us is a wide part of the political spectrum. From the moderate to the conservative, we have a wide gap.” They were amazed, and asked, “How do you do this, traveling together?” My husband was quick: “We talk about other things besides the POTUS. We talk about the places, the food…. we respect each other’s opinions, and we keep it that way.” He wasn’t afraid to speak the truth we could all agree on….and when we returned from dinner, the couple was sitting elsewhere.
Research, read, and explore ahead of time so you’ll appreciate all the things you’ll see. Get the Roadtrippers Plus app for planning the journey, and print a hard copy of your planned-but-flexible itinerary to take, along with a hard copy of a travel book and a map in case you don’t have good cell service.
Happy Birthday, and enjoy the Route 66 Experience, Nick! There’s nothing quite like it!
We made our way to Tucumcari, New Mexico yesterday along Route 66 and stayed at the Blue Swallow Motel, said to be the most iconic motel along the entire route. It’s a neon dream on the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of the only remaining true motorcourts in the United States today. Guests park their cars in the little garages next to the rooms. Each garage has a theme – ours is the movie Cars. The rooms are decorated with vintage lamps and furniture, right down to the chenille bedspreads, shower fixtures, bathroom tiles, and the working rotary telephone.
The current owners moved here from Chicago after losing their jobs during Covid 19. They sold everything, cashed out their retirement, and rolled the dice on a whole new life. It paid off! They live right here on the premises in the same flat where the original owners lived, right down to the furniture, and run the place themselves. Originally, The Blue Swallow was a wedding gift for a bride on her wedding night, and these first owners ran it for decades before they died.
There are 14 rooms at this hotel, and you have to book well in advance to get a reservation. During the season, they sell out each night. We understand a lot more about the charm of a simpler life after spending one night here.
Our Texas neighbors’ Porsche at The Blue Swallow
We walked around the side of the motel to the little courtyard where the colorful metal chairs awaited us and were joined by a couple from New York. He is a retired school superintendent, and she is a school guidance counselor one year away from retirement. We sat in the shade of the trees sharing all our favorite places we have traveled and our views of the world. We represented the gamut of the political spectrum, respected each other’s opinions, and enjoyed our time together so much ~ if there were more places just like this one, we might realize world peace. Or at least be more neighborly in a politically-charged world! This couple is selling everything they own in the coming year and will begin renting short-term units and traveling around the country to experience life in different places. What a dream! I’m excited for them!
Today, we will travel to our last stop on Route 66 on this trip – – Albuquerque, New Mexico. We’ll look for a fabulous piece of turquoise jewelry for my sister in law and visit the Sandia Peak Tramway in the Cibola National Forest.
I’ll post pictures later in the day!
We invited someone to take our cooler on a journey and share an email describing its life beyond our time with it. We left it by the ice machine in our Albuquerque hotel.
I’m not a fan of day-of-the-week pill organizers when going through airport security. These handy containers are fine for storing vitamins and medicines when I’m camping or at home, but in the absence of their labeled bottles, I fear suspicion by airport officials, which may lead to my detainment and a missed flight. I worry that I’ll be the one whose vitamins get taken to the lab for analysis while other passengers glare at a girl…..standing there with a suitcase…..just trying to keep mood swings at bay and find some energy in B12 and B6…. like I’m some kind of criminal drug dealer.
I was texting with my friend Glenda, a fellow traveler in my writing group, who reminded me that along Route 66, we’ll be passing CVS Pharmacies and stores where we can buy first aid items and medicines if we encounter the need for them, unlike what we would be able to do if we were on a cruise or out of the country. She suggested a few of the basics – some antibiotic Band-Aids and Tylenol and any prescriptions we normally take. I agree with her. Since we will only be taking carry-on luggage, every square inch of our luggage space is prime real estate.
I’m using a quart-size Ziploc bag for our travel first aid kit. Here is my list of items I plan to take:
Tylenol
Band Aids infused with Antibiotic Ointment
Prescription medications
Zyrtec
Bonine
Prilosec
Aquaphor ointment
Tums
What suggestions do you have for other items I should consider taking? I welcome all of your best first aid travel hacks!
Stanley Quencher 30 oz. in Rose Quartz – handle is too low to fit in my RAV-4 cup holderStanley Quencher tumbler 40 oz. in Fog
For the past few days, I’ve been reviewing tumblers for staying hydrated while traveling in the heat. Later this month, we’ll drive a little over half of Route 66, beginning in Chicago and ending in Albuquerque – and it’s blazing hot out west in June. As one who experiences heat sensitivity and is especially prone to dehydration, I need a tumbler that can keep ice frozen overnight and hold enough water to last me for several hours until the next refill. I’ve completed my reviews of the 40 ounce Hydro Flask and the 30 ounce Stanley Ice Flow. Today, I’m reviewing the Stanley Quencher H2.0 tumblers in the 40 ounce and 30 ounce sizes.
Each of these tumblers comes with a 3-position lid that allows the user to twist the middle bar so that it 1) seals itself shut, 2) opens to a small slot for drinking hot beverages, or 3) twists to the straw insert slot for drinking cold beverages. Each tumbler has a side handle that, when held in the user’s right hand, has the logo facing the user and straw emerging from the tumbler just above the Stanley logo if twisting begins at the 9:00 position. They’re ultra-versatile, and the lid twists on like a silicone-lined dream, sliding softly into a seemingly watertight fit on the rim of the mug. (This is where the Stanley Iceflow lid could use improvements to become more like its Quencher siblings in terms of the ease of the lid twisting).
And as if you didn’t already know, these tumblers can be accessorized. Go to any little league sports games where the mommies are gathered and you’ll see all the options – there are hand covers, pouch packs, and straps for shoulder carrying. If I could wear the same clothes every day for a week, I could go to Europe for a week with just a Stanley pouch pack as my luggage. These tumblers are practically more dressable than a new baby girl.
It’s easy to fill these tumblers with ice since there is no bottleneck at the top. The Stanley 40 ounce tumbler fits comfortably in the RAV-4 cup holder.No drink, really, ever fits in the RAV-4 front cup holder, except the Stanley Ice Flow 30 ounce tumbler (Toyota needs to redesign that one)
So here are the pros and cons of these tumblers.
Pros
40 ounce tumbler fits comfortably in my RAV-4 cup holder.
40 ounce tumbler holds enough water to get me from breakfast to lunch.
The color choices on both are a rainbow of possibilities.
No bottleneck makes both sizes easy to fill with ice.
The 3-position lid means these can also be used for hot drinks.
They both have good straw flow once you find the sweet spot just above the bottom of the cup.
They can be accessorized to carry phone, keys, cash, cards. Maybe even a small t-shirt.
They both come in a matte textured finish that feels leathery and looks gorgeous – I held mine that have this finish on the body and there is less slipping and better gripping if the cup gets wet.
Cons
If you want the logo to face outward to proclaim to others that you’re part of the Stanley craze, you have to hold the tumbler in your left hand and experiment to find the clockface starting twist position for the straw to be where you want it to be. Stanley could improve this by either imprinting the logo on both sides or making a handle that twists like the lid bar.
They both leak when held upside down in the seemingly watertight position. I have more than one of each of these Quencher model sizes, and they all leak.
The handle is a blessing and a curse. It makes the cup bulky and prevents the 30 ounce from fitting in either cup holder.
They are heavy – the water amount obviously adds to the weight difference between the 30 ounce and the 40 ounce, but the empty vessel, in each case, is weighty.
They don’t fit in the side pocket of a backpack because of the handle, so for those who strive to travel lightly and fit things in compact spaces, these cups are not sleek.
Tomorrow, I’ll share my overall winner decision and the reasons why I am choosing it as my preferred Route 66 Traveling cup.
Common Threads 