Editor’s Note: Part eight of the Route 66 column was inadvertently published ahead of part seven in the Oct. 16 edition of The Post-Journal.

Our recent trip on Historic Route 66 was the road trip of my dreams and I have been on many road trips! I find these United States to be just as beautiful and far more interesting than the six cruises, including a visit to Panama Canal, that my husband and I have taken in the last 3 years.

On the evening we arrived in Tucumcari, New Mexico, we had dinner at Del’s Restaurant where the waiters wore cowboy hats and where we pressed another copper souvenir. We retired for the night at the Historic Route 66 Motel down the street from Del’s. We found a clean, bright room with the original 1963 cement counters imbedded with colorful petrified wood for just $45.95. The motel had an attached coffee shop where 10 percent discounts were given to motel patrons, even though the food was already reasonably priced.

We met Mark Whittington while eating our paninis in the coffee shop late the next morning. His father built the Golden W Motel in 1954, a year before Mark was born and during Route 66’s hey day.

“My mother worked renting rooms while in labor and got to the hospital less than two hours before I was born. She had pictures of me sitting in a crib in the motel yard. Whoever came in the office, the maid, etc, would change my diapers.”

“Dad sold that motel in 1956. He built the 66 Builder’s Supply in 1957 and built the Sahara Sands in 1958-59 using his building supplies. He leased it for a couple of years and moved back in 1965,” says Whittington. “He put up a sign advertising two/$6 (two nights for six dollars) after so many motels were opened. They built more than 20 motels in Tucumcari in 1964. In 1970 they advertised 2,500 rooms in Tucumcari.”

He told about the purchase of the Pony Soldier Motel with his father just three days before his own wedding.

“We lost a portion of the motel, a gas station and my parents’ house in 1990 to the Highway 54 bypass. We ran it for 28 years before locking the doors and took it down in December 2006 and recently sold the lot.”

When asked about the demise of Route 66 he said, “Out here they just plowed it under and put I-40 over it.”

The people of Tucumcari were very friendly. Sadly, much of the town is comprised of vacant lots where businesses once stood; many of those had held the motels and hotels that over-saturated the city. Another of the few motels in Tucumcari that stood the test of time is the Blue Swallow. It opened in 1939 and is still going strong under new ownership and still has most of the original attached garages of yesteryear.

Since we aren’t ones to reserve ahead, because we don’t travel by a schedule and have no idea how many interesting natural, historic or quirky sights we may come upon, we could not stay at the Blue Swallow. Oddly, we ran into the owners three times on The Main Street of America, east and west of Tucumcari. Luckily, their son runs the business when they are away.

We thought we would breeze in and out of Tucumcari Ranch Supply one afternoon, but that didn’t happen. Business owners Stella and Jimmy Watson reinvented out of necessity, after Lowe’s moved in a few years ago. The couple has owned the store that was a hardware for 34 years.

“We sell men’s, women’s and children’s clothing. We used to carry Western wear. I was big in Western wear then tractor Supply moved in a year and a half ago and they carry Wrangler Jeans and Justine and Ariat Boots. I carried all of those, so now I carry the Wrangler items that they don’t,” Stella said.

Her husband’s family had a barbecue business in the 90s. After they moved away and when the drought hit ten years ago, Tucumcari Ranch Supply opened a barbecue restaurant in a room in the back of the store.

“We are still a hardware store. We sell animal health and lawn and garden and try to bring in things made in New Mexico. Two years ago we had moisture but since, not as good. They are talking that the drought may be returning. A lot of people had to come to town and get other jobs. They sold their cows and leased their property. A lot of the ranches in the state are owned by corporations. Out here it takes so much property to raise cows.”

“We’re not doing that here,” was her response to how the interstates had hurt the small towns.

“We have a lot of new people here, new blood. We also have Mesalands Community College. They offer programs unique to our area such as Ferrier Science. As part of that degree they teach equine dentistry and silversmithing. They have an amazing program in their foundry. It’s in their art program, metal art, bronze statues and things. They have a very competitive rodeo team that competes in the southwest region. The college also has a dinosaur museum. They have found amazing finds.”

“We met Jerry McClanahan, the author of EZ 66 Guide, four years ago when he came to the first ‘Rockabilly on the Route,'” she said. “He drew a logo on a napkin for us to consider using and put us (the business) in his book. The European tourists have found us and everybody else that buys that book. They tell us they found us in his book. We are eternally grateful to the people that reviewed us on Yelp and Trip Advisor.”

From the family business that we also had found in the EZ66 Guide, we went to the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum run by the college and learned the classes go out for 2 digs every year and have found three unidentified species within 25 miles of Tucumcari. This is the best area in the United States to find dinosaur fossils, with the exception of an area in South Carolina.

After we left Tucumcari, we traveled about 90 minutes when billboards started appearing advertising Flying C Ranch. This tourist stop has a long history dating back to the early 60s. It is part of the Bowlin Travel Center chain which Claude Bowlin started in his home in 1912.

“There are over one hundred billboards. This is the most remote location in the chain, but the biggest store size-wise and sales-wise,” says John Fitzsimmons, who is the store manager. “It is tough to give a location for deliveries, because we have a PO Box in Moriarty, 40 miles away. We drive to Moriarty to the bank. Our well is a mile away. This was once a small community and there are still remnants of sidewalks behind (the store).”

We spent the next two nights in Albuquerque where miles and miles of neon, art deco and Pueblo architecture are evidenced on Central Avenue. Old signs representing businesses that no longer exist are still planted beside the new businesses that have moved into the spaces. The State of New Mexico had been generous with grants to restore the buildings and to repair the neon. The business owners of Albuquerque have done a great job.

One such business is Standard Diner. The building was built in 1938 for Carothers and Mauldin Service Station where Texaco Gas and General Tires were sold. Years later the building was used as a classic car dealership and in 1991 when Matt DiGregory walked in to purchase a 1969 Cadillac convertible, he said, “This would make a great restaurant.” Fifteen years later, in 2006, he and his brothers, Vince and Cris, opened Standard Diner.

The restaurant not only has good food, but interesting decor. A display of 18 car hood ornaments hangs on a wall near the entrance. A large chandelier made from chicken feeders hangs near the bar and a vintage 1940s Art-O-Mat cigarette vending machine stands near the restrooms.

In 2008, Standard Diner was featured on the Food Network Show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” The show’s crew spent three days on location, with host Guy Fieri arriving on the last day to tape his segment. As I mentioned in an earlier installment about another restaurant Fieri visited, the famous red Camaro is trucked in on a flatbed. Fieri drives it around the corner, making it appear he has driven into town.

Over the years we have had many small world stories so we weren’t too surprised when we sat next to a woman from Long Island whose grandmother’s cousin was related to my uncle in Pennsylvania.

Along with all of the neon in Albuquerque, the overpasses have been decorated with LED lighting. Historic Old Town, which is comprised of adobe buildings dating as far back as 1706 and covering a ten block area, is located near the middle of the city.

During a very brief stop at my cousin’s home outside of Albuquerque in Rio Rancho, I met Terry McDermott, first run draft pick of the LA Dodgers in 1965 and who was later a sports caster. Knowing I was a tourist, he gave me some info he thought I may find interesting.

“Al Unser’s father moved the family from the Pike’s Peak area of Colorado to the western end of Central Avenue in the 40s because of Route 66. He knew if he had a gas station and repair shop, people would call him if they broke down.”

“After Al Unser (Sr.) won the first Indy 500, he was still towing for the family business. Al won four and brother Bobby won three (Indy 500’s). Their brother Jerry Unser was killed during a qualifying heat. Al Jr, has won two.”

I guess that explains why there is a street in Rio Rancho named Unser Boulevard.

To be continued …