ANOTHER ROAD REPORT

This segment will be familiar to many of you as it is a well-traveled route with a history, some highlights and spots worth visiting again. I have included a couple of reflections inspired by what I saw along the road.

We started in Henderson, NV, crossed Hoover Dam into AZ, on to Kingman, AZ and picked up I-40 eastbound. It’s the main route to the Grand Canyon and we stopped for lunch in Williams where trains run the 65 miles north to the south rim. I-40 also parallels the BNSF railroad and part of the highway is on the old Route 66. established in 1926 as part of the first federal highway system in the United States. It was built by connecting existing local, state, and national roads. It ran diagonally from Chicago to Los Angeles the a similar route to the railroad which featured the Santa Fe Super Chief now known as Amtrak’s Southwest Chief. Michael Martin Murphy wrote a song memorializing Route 66 by the same name. (Get your kicks on route 66!)

One stop that we particularly like in is Winslow, AZ and yes “Standing on the Corner.” Our choice down the same street is La Posada, a lovingly restored old Fred Harvey railroad hotel and the Turquoise Dining Room looking out onto the train tracks. Having worked on the railroad years ago, I have retained a fascination with track maintenance which we did with manual labor and is now all mechanized. We replaced ties, the steel plates on which the rails set, sometimes put in a new rail, lined the track by using jacks and steel bars so the measurement between the rails was exactly 4’8.5” otherwise the alignment was not safe for a train traveling a high speed. Lights along the tracks told the engineers whether to go slow over a section of track or whether it was safe to travel at the regular speed. The logistics or moving billions of tons of freight across the country in both directions on steel rails involves tremendous maintenance to keep the wheels of commerce turning.

On to Gallup, NM. This is where you can head north to Four Corners and the Navajo Nation, Second Mesa and visit an authentic trading post that’s been in operation since 1878 and is now a National Historical Site where you can buy excellent rugs and jewelry handmade by Native American artisans. Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado is 53 miles from Gallup. We once stopped at Richardson’s Trading Post in Gallup where a grandmother and granddaughter were selling a small Navajo wedding basket and I bought it from the maker. I should have gotten more of her story but did not want to appear or sound intrusive by asking questions. I expressed my thanks for her work and have had it in our collection for many years.

Then it was on to and through Albuquerque, where 30 years ago I was one of the founders of a community school and where I began to emphasize “Mission, Visions and Values” as our driving forces and purpose in educating both children and adults. Bosqueschool.org

I continued to use those operating principles in working with organizations and people the following years in many places.

Onward through NM, past Amarillo, TX and Palo Duro Canyon to Oklahoma City, our destination for the next week. Imagine my surprise to walk into Integris, a large hospital complex with many specialties, including a heart hospital where I had some work begun in 2018 and seeing on all their monitor screens “Mission, Vision and Values.” I felt like I had come full circle and was in good hands.

The last segment of this trip will be south to Laredo, TX, cross the border there and head on home to Ranchos Los Labradores in San Miguel de Allende, sometime next week. Thanks for coming along, hope you enjoyed the trip, and if you have the opportunity, stop along the road and visit one or more of those places, worth the time for a good experience. PS. We also took that train ride once from ABQ to L.A. on AMTRAK, an overnight and two day ride.