ZR-1 Corvette Road Trip to the Southwest and San Diego

[QB93Z]

Day 28 On Monday we visited Bandelier National Monument, in Los Alamos, NM. The monument preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest. Most of the pueblo structures date to two eras, dating between 1150 and 1600 AD.





The park's main feature is Frijoles Canyon. The canyon was formed by erosion of layers of volcanic ash about 1000 feet thick, about 1 million years old. The volcanic ash was composed on different materials that eroded and different rates causing a "Swiss cheese" appearance:







Frijoles Canyon contains a number of ancestral pueblo homes, kivas (ceremonial structures), rock paintings, and petroglyphs. Some of the dwellings were rock structures built on the canyon floor; others were cavates produced by voids in the volcanic tuff of the canyon wall and carved out further by humans:











The canyon is home to many different plants and animals. Lyndi got a nice picture of a butterfly we hadn't seen before:





to be continued....

[XfireZ51]

Jim,

Actually the picture u posted has Chile spelled incorrectly. Did u eat there?

[QB93Z]

After hiking in Bandelier National Monument, we drove south to I-40 and then east to Tucumcari, NM. We got off the interstate and drove through town on an original section of US-66. Tucumcari is a depressed town that resulted with the loss of auto traffic when I-40 bypassed the town. We found many abandoned building and also many restored and operating historic US-66 structures:
















We checked in to the Safari Motel. Built in 1956, the Safari has been restored to be a nice hotel with modern features, but still retaining its historic character:





Jim

[-=Jeff=-]

I think Tucumcari, NM was the town used for modeling in Radiator Springs in the Original Cars movie

[QB93Z]

Originally Posted by XfireZ51

Jim,

Actually the picture u posted has Chile spelled incorrectly. Did u eat there?

I guess they don't have the biggest chile in the world since the place in South America is a lot bigger than the one in Las Cruces.


Jim

[QB93Z]

Originally Posted by -=Jeff=-

I think Tucumcari, NM was the town used for modeling in Radiator Springs in the Original Cars movie

That makes sense. Tucumcari's "US-66" strip is one of the largest we have seen and the people here love their town.. It is a shame that so many of the buildings are decaying.


Jim

[Mr Blue]

Jim

Thanks for evoking memories. I visited Bandelier 34 years ago. An amazing place to say the least. Thanks for the travelogues. It allows the rest of us to live vicariously through you posts and pictures. Any encounters with the jackrabbits?

Be safe
David

[QB93Z]

Day 29 - We drove from Tucumcari, NM to Tulsa OK. We are on the home stretch of this road trip. We are planning about 450 miles per day. This gives enough time to sight see a little and still make distance down the track. Our route for the day is I-40 to Oklahoma City then I-44 to Tulsa:





One of my favorite things about I-40 is the effect of the prevailing wind from the south. Many of the trees and bushes have a permanent tilt to the north:







As we approached Amarillo, TX we saw a team repairing a high voltage power line using helicopter access:











Continuing on, we stopped at the Cadillac Range, six vintage Cadillacs half- buried in a field:





to be continued.....

[QB93Z]

There is a tradition the people add paint to the Cadillacs. We didn't have any spray cans but we did have Lyndi's acrylics so Lyndi Painted a tribute to our two Kitties:





Who ever built this water tower is probably looking for a new job:







I-40 in Oklahoma parallels the original US-66. We stopped in the town of Shamrock to see two fine examples of the vintage Route 66 attractions:








to be continued.....

[QB93Z]

A little north of Oklahoma City, we had the great privilege to visit Jerry and Karen Downey and the Inner Sanctum of Jerry's Gaskets.


Thank you Jerry and Karen for a wonderful visit and for showing us the new house you are building.


After visiting Jerry's Gaskets, I can heartily reassure all ZR-1 owners that the future of our hobby is in good hands. Jerry has a very complete inventory of parts and gaskets that we need and a very robust program to develop and manufacture replacement for parts that are no longer available.


Jim