Hybrid cars
I’m really enjoying this little Toyota Hybrid Prius [?> – don’t ask me about make and model numbers, unless you’re inquiring about certain topics that I know – usually in an intimate way. Certain marquees of European motorcycles, early 1970’s Lincoln’s, Ford’s 300 cubic inch inline six, like I said, unless the inquiry fits in that narrow realm, I’m pretty much useless. It’s a car or it’s a truck, and it’s got wheels, probably has a motor someplace. Ignition, accelerator, brakes. Gas tank.
I filled the car up just outside of Tucumcari, NM. Spinning into the rising sun, pointed east. I stopped at Midpoint, then Cadillac Ranch, then the Amarillo tourist information site, seeking directions to the Adobe Walls historical site. I trucked around in Amarillo, sort of looking for coffee, but then, sort of just drifting along, and finally I rolled on out to the highway, and back towards East Texas.
It wasn’t too much further south and east of Amarillo that I hit {{popup goodnite.jpg goodnite 320×240}}Goodnight, so named for the ranch and cattle baron, but sadly from the highway, these days, not much more than a historical plaque and sign.
I’ve driven this route numerous times, but it’s been almost ten years since I was last along this way. Not being bullied for time, no pressure to be anyplace at an appointed hour, I was able to finally do things like stop in Memphis, tour around the fading town square, and what originally caught my eye was the hardware store. No, they didn’t have what I was looking for, but I did get a chance to chat with the owner, been a hot one this summer, at least up there. And the rain did save the day, but the town itself was losing all their young people to places where they could find work.
It was that same old tale, slowly dying town. Not much farther along the road, I stopped in Childress, at a donut shop. I was too late for lunch, and even my charm couldn’t wing a sandwich out of the girls. But I did get a shake and a donut. Over in the center of the place’s “dining room,” such as it was, there was a round table with a half dozen elderly gentlemen, holding forth in the finest, time-honored tradition. For that one town, the afternoon gathering spot had changed from the DQ to the donut palace. I wonder if this an influence from the classics like Homer?
