The Interstate Highway System, developed and built under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the mid 1950’s, traverses the continental United States from top to bottom and left to right. It is estimated that the cost of the project exceeded $119 Billion ($220B in 2020 money). Proclaimed to be completed in 1992, interstate highways continue to be maintained and upgraded per the original federal plan. But the execution of that plan has been left up to the individual states.
I40 from Santa Rosa, N.M. east to the border with Texas, is one lousy road. We drove it today, towing our 14K pound Fifth Wheel. In places it is so wavy that I have to believe that the State of New Mexico is planning to make it an amusement ride. There are pot holes that threaten to swallow small Fiats whole. It is so bumpy that all of the eggs in our refrigerator are scrambled well before breakfast tomorrow. There were rare stretches of resurfaced road probably near the home of one of the State Senators.
Then one comes to the border of New Mexico and Texas and viola, the roadway becomes a smooth ribbon of roadway. The road is just as old but now its smooth concrete and blacktop. I grant you that I live in Texas, and may be a bit biased, but the transition of highway from New Mexico to Texas is dramatic. Somehow Texas is finding a way to keep the road up to date and a pleasure to drive upon. New Mexico fails dismally when it comes to maintaining its portion of the interstate highway system. Too bad…I like New Mexico.
We had a short travel day today – just two and a half hours on the road. Moving is moving, but a short drive day means we are a bit less tired at the end of the day. We drove through a veritable forest of power grid windmills on the plans west of Amarillo. Of the hundreds of towering windmills, only about a half dozen were spinning. It was not exactly a windy day, but obviously there was enough breeze to stir the blades of those few. I wonder why the vast majority were not moving. They can’t all be down for maintenance or broken. I wonder how many houses could have been powered by that endless field of wind generators had they been moving and how much fossil fuel would have been saved.
The land here is flat. I mean dead flat. I know I have mentioned that before, but it is still new to me and I find the endless vistas both beautiful and unnerving. Those suffering from Agoraphobia need not come here.
We have been tracking along the old Mother Road for bits of this trip. US Route 66 stretches (or stretched) between Chicago and Los Angeles and before the interstate highway system, it was one of the primary routes one took driving east to west or vice versa. Growing up I used to watch the TV show “Route 66” which told the story of two guys driving along in a Chevy Corvette and solving the problems of strangers along the way. Those guys never appeared to pay for anything. The merchants along old Route 66 showed a lot of imagination and ingenuity when attracting customers to their stores. It would take days to drive from end to end and the many roadside businesses battled for the long distance driving dollar.
I can’t help but think about what life was like back in the days when Route 66 was an east-west artery. Big cars with bigger fins. Girls with big hair and guys with $20 burning a hole in their pocket. Going out to eat at a Marc’s Big Boy, or at a Howard Johnsons; or at that new fangled golden arches place. Hot rods were hot and easy to spot. Music blasted from a single speaker in the front dashboard and it came mostly from the hiss prevalent amplitude modulation radio band. There is a reason that this is a very popular era for film making.
Route 66 is mythical. It has had songs written about it “Be sure to get your kicks…on Route 66.” It has appeared in many TV shows and films. No home garage is complete without a Route 66 highway sign on the wall. Every year there are tours of classic cars, Recreational Vehicles, and other vehicles which follow the old highway showing off the many sights along the way. Motorcycle clubs and auto brand enthusiasts sponsor rides along the highway at all times of year. Just as its kinda fun to stand upon the corners of four states at one time it is the same kind of fun to stand astride the old Mother Road and watch as it disappears into the setting sun.
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