thehefner | Photos: Route 66, Day Five (Tucumcari, NM, to a sleazy truck stop just over the Arizona border) (Reply)

Tucumcari, NM, used to tout itself as the "Land of 2,000 motels." Since Route 66 was turned obsolete with the big freeway opening, it's become "Land of 1,200 motels." That's still a lot of fucking motels to be working alongside one another down a single strip of six miles, still operating right alongside the ones that... well, aren't.

From there, I hit up the town of Santa Rosa, to visit the Route 66 Auto Museum. Now, I'm not a car person. It's one of those many big manly guy things that absolutely does nothing for me.

That said, I think this museum made my balls drop just a weeny bit.

Here's a poster advertising a movie with Hollywood's NEWEST TEEN STARS! Including Frank "Hink-A-Do-La" Gorshin!

It looks like a Chevy Bel Air pickup truck!

Look at the hood of this thing. You could have a picnic on it!

And in the "I don't know if it works but it's brilliant" department:

A gasoline-powered blender.

The tank is helpfully labeled "gasshole" and it's theoretically started with a lawnmower pull string. Magnificent.

That wasn't all that I saw at the museum, but the crowing touch deserves a post of its own. But before I get to that, let's continue with the day's pictures...

Another ruin along 66 toward Albuquerque. And speaking of Albuquerque, I sadly neglected to hit up

fiveseconddelay's much-vaunted Frontier Restaurant, possibly because I was still reeling from frustration after

fishymcb told me he got two passed for Darren Anarofsky's upcoming Mickey Rourke epic, THE WRESTLER, with a Q&A from the director, and lamented that I could not come along.

Thankfully, I was able to drown my sorrows at the Rattlesnake Museum. They have rattlesnakes!

It was also nearby a 300-year-old colonial church, San Felipe de Neri:

More roadside ruins alongside Route 66 on my way out of New Mexico.

Just over the Arizona border, I camped out at a truck stop. Truck stops were always supposed to be one of the places I could sleep in the minivan, but actually finding them proved to be few and far between. Are most of them just not advertised to everyone along the road? Are they hidden away, secret locations known only to the truckers?

Whatever the case, I was glad to see it, and felt a marvelous mixture of safety at being in a populated area, spiked with the healthy unease of sleeping alone in a sleazy truck stop. I still regret not taking a photo of the men's room vending machine, selling condoms and something called "Horny Goat Weed," for a dollar a capsule.

I did not, however, employ one of their showers. I got the distinct impression that using a truck stop shower would somehow make me even dirtier than when I went in.

As I was brushing my teeth in the parking lot, I had a late-night visitor pop by. A mewling, skinny orange kitty. I gave it the last of my good beef jerky, then wondered why I didn't use my crappy beef jerky, which the cat nervously then greedily accepted. A couple came by who had cats in their camper and brought some actual food for the kitty, replete with his own feeding dish.

It occurred to me that we were just conned, that this cat hangs around here not unlike the fabled truck stop hookers I kept my eyes out for (for research, you understand), and actually lives quite happily mooching off the sympathetic truckers. And I realized that I hoped this was true. I'd much rather this cat be an opportunistic little con artist, hustling me out of the last of my good jerky, then an actual lonely, freezing, starving stray cat among the couple of stray dogs and hungry morning ravens. I hope I was just a sucker, and I hope he's okay.

But in any case, it was time to rest up. Arizona was before me, where I'd spend all day in three national parks. I bet you can name at least one.