| Ruidoso, NM |
New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico.
(Although I think I stuck a toe in Kentucky too)
2200 miles covered. Several million bugs killed by the Veloster.
Not bad for a week’s worth of vacation.
And so, now it really begins.
The West.
We’re going to talk about the West and the National Parks, and about what’s coming over the next few weeks, but before we do that, let’s talk about what happened last night in Shamrock, TX.
Shamrock is a bit of a speck in the road. A mere drop of water in the ocean that is the State of Texas. Located in the Northern part of the state, near the Oklahoma panhandle, it, like many prairie towns has definitely seen better days.
In my travels I’ve visited a fair amount of small towns like this and I’ve always had an affection for them. Though sadly, most of them tell similar tales. Jobs lost, young people moved away, empty storefronts on a traditional Main Street. Closed stores, shops, gas stations, etc.
It’s sad really.
Mainly because I feel like there’s a sense of community lost in the past, and a great deal of that community was lost in places like this.
Think of town squares, mom and pop shops, front porches and the very fact that you often actually knew your neighbors. How many of us can say that today? (Certainly not me)
Instead of strip malls, you had Main Street. Instead of social media, you had actual real-life conversations with friends and neighbors. Instead of Tinder, you had sock hops.
Now, let me be clear. Perfect it was not.
Unless you were a white male, you were often considered to be a second class (or third class) citizen. So certainly we’ve made loads of progress as a society. None of which I’d want to give back to go back to that simpler time.
But I do feel as though there’s something there to long for and to respect and I do feel that the sense of community lost in towns like these would be very well received in the present. Especially given the rank animosity, division, and disrespect we all seem to suffer from in today’s society.
Sigh…
Well, I’m proud to announce that I found a small slice of that community at dinner, at Big Vern’s Steakhouse.
Upon entering, I was promptly seated and pleasantly surprised to find that they’d have live acoustic guitar music that evening. A personal favorite of mine.
Moments later, Jackie, one of the owners arrived at my table, we struck up a conversation and she asked where I was from. Curious, I asked her how she knew I was from anywhere.
She advised that number one, there were only 800 people in town and number two, most of her patrons were tourists or otherwise passing through. You see, Shamrock is on Route 66. Yes, that Route 66.
In addition to that, it lies at the intersection of two routes that run the length of the country from north to south and east to west!
So I told her I was from outside Buffalo, and of course, there was a loose Buffalo connection when she advised she’d been through the city about five years ago on the way to northern Canada.
She then volunteered to teach me the history of Texas; an offer I absolutely would not refuse.
So we walked the restaurant, the walls of which were literally painted with the history of Texas. From the Alamo, to Santa Anna, to the Mexican American War; it was a living history tour of my home state for the evening. A rather remarkable find in a small town restaurant.
A more genial person than Jackie would be hard to find.
After the tour, we talked at my table for a good 30 minutes and she was warm, outgoing and friendly in a way that made conversation easy. It felt like talking to a years-long friend.
In addition, moments into our sit down, she’d asked me if I wanted to sing a song with the gentleman playing for the evening; an offer I gladly took her up on. She made the arrangements with Tye, our resident musician for the evening before unfortunately had to resume her duties as owner and proprietress.
So I enjoyed my sandwich, listened to the music – which included a rather good growly imitation of Bob Dylan – and I myself sang a rather mediocre version of Ring of Fire.
After Tye was done with his set, he came over to my table and we talked for another 45 minutes or so. And with that I had my second wonderful conversationalist of the night.
Tye grew up in the area, and though he had brief stints living elsewhere, he kept coming back home to Shamrock, because of it’s small town feel, and values.
He told me of the area, it’s people and the farming around it; including a very sad story of a young cowboy and his wife who perished trying to fight off a grass fire. Which are apparently somewhat common in the area.
It also turns out that he himself was the person who had painted all the wonderful restaurant Texas murals. You see Tye was not only a musician, but a wonderfully talented artist as well.
He painted these murals, others in town, and even some in nearby towns. All by hand, and all without the benefit of formal teaching. It’s simply something he enjoyed doing, and always had a talent for, and I couldn’t help but think how kind he was to share that gift with so many people.
I really enjoyed the conversation and we wound up talking until the restaurant lights were off, the cleanup was done and we were holding the rest of the staff up from closing up for the night.
So we broke it up, said our goodbyes and parted ways.
These interactions are a big piece of what makes travel so amazing.
I met two wonderful people and had two engaging, intellectual conversations.
None of it was planned and in fact none of it would have happened had I not, totally at random, selected Shamrock as the place I’d lay my head that night. It was a good six or seven hour drive from my base in Western Arkansas and had a very inexpensive hotel room, so Shamrock it was.
And how happy I am that I picked it.
It’s amazing what can happen when you meet people and are open to, as I hinted at before, actually talking to them.
Which is certainly something I’ll continue to enjoy as this trip marches on!
Next on the agenda…
I pushed to get out here and probably made better time that I might have initially expected.
Now that I’m here, the driving will slow down and the hiking and outdoor’ing will begin.
I’m finishing this post in the morning before heading North of here to the White Mountains for the day. Tomorrow brings a hike to the South and a visit to the White Sands National Monument.
And from there it looks like I’ll likely start a roughly clockwise loop West into Arizona, Southern California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. I’ll spend the bulk of the trip out here, as these are the places and states I really wanted (and maybe needed) to see.
Destinations to include numerous national parks and forests including the big ones such as: Grand Canyon, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Yosemite and more.
All in all, I’m very psyched and will try my best to bring you along with me, as much as one can through an online journal.
Let’s do this.
The Long Road 