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I-40 east
Submitted by Mike McCrea <mccreapaddler@geemail.com> on 17/Nov/2016 in reply to Wow, thanks for all that, Mike! posted by Oci-One Kanubi on 16/Nov/2016
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Stuff along I-40 across northern AZ, NM and TX
Oh my, I-40 and Winslow Arizona. There is (or was) a great Least Heat Moon-ish 3 calendar diner (Grange, Feed Store, local insurance agent calendars) in Winslow. If you look out far enough back in time through the window you can see Jackson Brown thumbing a ride from a girl my lord in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to have a look at me.
Do stop. If they now serve quinoa on a bed of kale, drizzled with caramelized onion don’t tell me.
(My hitchhiking rides in flatbed Fords were always snaggle toothed geezers with a sharable bottle of driving whisky. I wasn’t complaining; old beater pick up = guaranteed ride)
Desperate for a newspaper I picked up the local Winslow rag outside that diner. The headline and photo were of the High School Prom Queen. Below the fold there was all the cow news fit to print. But as column filler on page 3 there this:
The Seven Deadly Sins (revised version)
Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle
(Mahatma Gandhi)
I have kept printed copies of that quote hanging in my offices (along with favorite quotes from Thomas Edison, Daniel Berrigan and Peter A. Jay) ever since, and in late 2016 it has never seemed more relevant.
Continuing eastward, Cibola Nat’l Forest in central NM, the further south of Albuquerque the better.
If you are still on I-40 in Texas do not miss Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Palo Duro is the (little known) second largest canyon in the US, a massive cleft in the plains that appears as if out of nowhere. Driving across the Texas plains you will not believe there is a 180 mile long canyon hidden below.
Google that.
Last suggestion (maybe not). There is enormous amount of Native America history and last holdout sanctuary in many of the places along your route. If nothing else bring a copy of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee along and re-read it, not sequentially, but for the area you are visiting.
I am envious. Safe journeys.
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