Leaving Bloomfield, NM.. landing in Holbrook, AZ.

Last night Buddy and Di asked us over for dinner. BB Spare ribs, hot sausage & brisket. Everything was delicious (garden salad, Potato Salad, baked beans, slaw and fruit.) Great food, topped only by good friendship.

They have a wonderful Cocker Spaniel, Charlie, but he isn’t allowed to eat off the table.

He is old and deaf like me but absolutely the sweetest loving dog, I thought of the retriever, Brandy, Mel’s loving dog, up in WI. Different breeds, but the same nature.

We talked the evening away had a wonderful time. It is hard to face, but most likely this will be the last time I see Buddy. (I told him, unless he comes to my funeral! we both got a good laugh.)

Our lives are thousands of miles apart now, but being with him it was like we were not apart for 50+ years.  The icing  would have been if Von Dale and Rose could have flown out.  Anyway, in life we take what we can, and this was great.

It was hard to leave them, but in the morning we must go see “Mr. Cummings Diesel” then head for Las Vegas. But we will never forget this time with Buddy and Dianne.

This morning Mrs. Cummings asked what was wrong with the engine. I said, “I thought you folks had the magic machines and could plug into the coach brain and find out.”

She said they did, but liked to know what a human thought. LOL

After the diagnostics, it was the fuel filters.  so they changed both of them. Played with some other mysterious parts and things, and we departed with a nice Cummings Hat for Veterans and $388 dollars lighter. ()

Then we Headed down through the Navajo Reservation to Gallop, NM. I am a sucker for the out croppings in the desert areas:

 

It always amazes me the enormity of these. My mind keeps asking, how did this happen?

Ah, we are being passed. This Native American can do better than a dog in his pickup!

You drive for miles seeing desert as above, then all of a sudden there is a green oasis below.

And then there will be another out cropping I have to shoot!

We are enjoying this, when there is a road block. A Native American, road worker, walks over to my window and says we will have to make a right and go over to 12 then south.

He did not mention that we were going from the desert floor up some steep green mountains.

The coach ran hot. I had to stop and run a hose to cool the radiator down. These MTS are steep. But we did get to see the inside of the reservation. It also started raining, Di said it has not rained here this year. I hope they got some.  The rain was good for the over heating.

The detour and a missed road my me, caused us to miss the scheduled stop, we never saw Gallop. So once on I-40 and into Arizona the dreaded ‘LOW FUEL’ light came on. We did find a truck stop run by the Hopi Indians. So we took on 90 gallons of diesel at $3.86 per. We were down to 10 gallons.

The Arizona country side…….

WE are overnighting in Holbrook, AZ

Nite Shipslog

PS:

We did enjoy the scenery on the detour.

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Leaving Bloomfield:

Bloomfield, NM

We are here because for some reason, a guy born in NC, and a teen age friend of mine is out here. When you get old you look around at what is important, FRIENDS and FAMILY rate high.

I am a pastor’s kid, so we moved some while I was growing up. When you move around you do not develop a boat load of friends. Before my teen years I can think of but one friend and one acquaintance. The acquaintance is Sonny Turner. The friend is Von Dale. Of my teen years there are a few, but Buddy sticks out. During the teen years it was Buddy, Von Dale and I.  That may not be the way they saw it, but it was the way I saw it.

My first real Sweetheart was Margaret. After a year of so, She suggested we drop our ‘love’, she was 13, I had just turned 16. Wasn’t long until my ‘friend’ buddy was going with her. I found love with Sherry and Von Dale had settled down with Martha. Martha and Sherry were good friends so we double dated a lot.

Above on the left is Martha, I put her single picture because of our crowd she is the only one who has passed away. On the right is Martha and Sherry. Below is Margaret and Martha.

Our cars were ‘straight-drive’ cars, so if I was the driver, I had ‘Sherry-a-matic’ (I clutched and she changed gears, because my right arm was around her.) If Von Dale was driving, he had ‘Martha-a-matic’.

All three of the girls were friends. This picture was taken just after Buddy had taken my girlfriend away. Margaret (2nd from left standing, my ‘friend’ Buddy beside her). You can tell he is a little fickle, he has his arms around 2 girls..

Von Dale’s heart throbs were Martha center front, and Rose, peeking over her sister’s shoulder center. Von Dale married Rose, they have been married over 50 years now.

Buddy’s dad (like my dad, was a preacher)  moved from NC to Mississippi, so that broke up those two. I had already joined the USMC, Sherry and I were married already (I was  grown, 17). Buddy later joined the USAF and on assignment in the UK, met his beautiful Di. They were married.

That is our young and old love lives. 

Above is the three boys. All pretty savvy, and all successful in their own right (as old men).

This reunion would have been an even more fun time if Von Dale and Rose could have flown out here. They would have, but their schedules didn’t fit our time frame. They are working in a youth camp in NC. 

Thanks for coming this way and listening to the love life.

Nite Shipslog

PS: I have learned that for us older folk, remembering our teen age years together, and sharing our lives, is entertainment.

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The ‘56 Power hawk, Studebaker.

(Stay tuned for Buddy and Di in the morrow!)

Beautiful trip from El Paso to Bloomfield, New Mexico

Driving thru El Paso on I-10 you can look across the border to the city of Juarez.

The writing on the mountain in the picture on the left is above the city of Juarez. Foreground is some of El Paso Sky line.  El Paso is a pretty city.

More of Ciudad Juarez. On the right you can see the large brown fence separating the cities here.

I always expect arid, dry vistas in New Mexico, but I was caught by surprise by the HUGE ‘Green’ Pecan groves.  Both sides of the highway.

I always love the jagged rough mountains in the back ground.

We enjoyed several of the huge water tanks painted with interesting western murals.

Below was an Immigration inspection station. We were always asked how many aboard and are you both citizens?

Side note. You cannot imagine the enormity of the task of securing the borders until you see the thousands of square miles of rough country in the Southern border. We saw hundreds of Border Patrol Vehicles.

There are always mountains in the distance, the roads were good.  And we passed by ‘Truth or Consequences, New Mexico’ on I-25.

This is why I love to travel. The formations along the highway are always interesting and welcome.

The colors are always inspiring.  I-25 is a new route for us, a new wrinkle in our horn. So the rest area below, having small compartments for picnic tables was interesting to say the least.

I had to check inside. you can see our home out in the parking lot. You would be very surprised, I was, it was actually cool in this open space. Families  could picnic out of the blowing sand and hot sun.

OH, yeah, backing up to first entering New Mexico, I was shocked at the humongous number of dairy farms. This is a 1% sampling. They are not too clear but those are black & white cows.

Being a builder I always look at architecture.  Flat roofs are used out here much of the time. Not a good idea where a lot of rain is expected. So no problem here.

Near Albuquerque we had two warning lights come on. One was ‘Low Coolant’ the other only said: ‘WARNING’. I slowed down the lights went out and we made it to our turn off toward Bloomfield, 150 mi away!

We went slow and babied the coach up highway 550.  Thru several Reservations, crossed the Rio Grande twice, and saw much more beautiful scenery.

We got in late. parked Called Buddy & Di to let them know we were late but here. We Ate at “Sonya’s American Cooking” seemed appropriate because out Tennessee Sonya is always showing great food. The food was vey good.

We talked the evening away with old friends until the early morning. Except for the dash lights, we had a great trip.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

How refreshing it is to visit with dear friends.

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1937 Hudson Terraplane.  Some beautiful things from 1937,,,,,…….