Day 127 – Thursday, October 31, 2013

We had many errands to attend to today and Gallup has most of the services we needed. We stayed overnight at the USA RV Park that has full services, hot showers, laundry, wifi, and a store. Julie notes “It also has all the things my sister-in-law Kelly finds attractive in a campsite; it is located between a busy railroad intersection and switching yard and is practically sitting on the runways for the local airport, while situated right beside a major highway. But we are pretty accustomed to all kinds of outside noises now and I only jumped out of my jammies once when a loud small airplane zoomed over us approaching the landing strip just as I was entering that almost asleep stage.” Jim Bob o.g. says it dropped to a low of -6C overnight. After breakfast, hot showers, and laundry, email, and internet stuff, we headed into Gallup for lunch. We found Aurelia’s Diner on historic route 66 using trip advisor. It is an old style diner from the 50’s with lots of memorabilia and ranked #10 of 51. The food was all homemade and very tasty but probably not too good for you.

I found Gary’s Barber Shop for a much needed haircut. Gary runs a little hole-in-the-wall barber shop and is an interesting character. He may qualify as the slowest barber in New Mexico, if not all of the USA. There were 2 customers ahead of me waiting for cuts and by the time I was done it was at least an hour and a half. The 2 customers ahead of me and I do not have all that much hair – even less now. But it was an experience.

We found a Safeway to restock the RV and also a fuel station. Then it was back to the RV Park for happy hour. We decided to just make our own supper. It was cold so we used the little oven in the RV to roast a nice marinated pork loin and bake a yam, along with a can of Bush’s Honey & Bourbon Grilling beans and some fresh sourdough bread.

Aurelia’s Diner on Route 66.

Our waitress dressed for Halloween. Julie notes “She was a beautiful butterfly and metamorphed our orders to real food in no time.”

My Philly cheesesteak with fresh cut homemade fries. Julie notes “A couple of these fries accidentally fell into my mouth. Man they were so good! That was a good accident.”

Julie’s special of tacos and taquitos. Julie notes “Very tasty. Just the right amount of the ground beef, potato, carrot mix plus all the basics. I didn’t leave a crumb behind despite Brad’s eager eyes roving my plate after he had finished his.”

Notice Larry and Moe above me. That means I must be Curly, at least prior to my Gary’s Barber Shop haircut. Julie notes “Well in fact he looks more like Curly ‘after’ the hair cut. It’s ‘very’ nice and short now and it’s possible Gary uses Curly as his inspiration for hair styling.”

Gary’s Barber Shop.

Some customers need this after waiting so long for a haircut. Luckily, it is parked right outside his shop.

Safeway’s all have a Starbucks. Our daughter Kristin’s’ influence from her job at the Kamloop’s Starbucks is much more far reaching than we imagined. Her recommendations reach as far south as New Mexico. Julie notes “I had my easy to order venti non fat green tea latte, half the syrup, half the mache, low foam. This caused a bit of a conference because I guess sweet tea is not the norm here. But it came out perfectly. Thanks Kristin.”

The closest thing to a windmill that Julie found today. Julie notes “It’s a beauty ain’t it? Not sure if it counts since I wasn’t whizzing by it at 90 klics/hr. I see Brad did not post a windmill shot from yesterday. So I may have to check the archives for one and add it myself. He may lose his windmill man title if he doesn’t pull up his blades.”

Julie notes “Here is one from yesterday that has flipped his lid. Artist note is the reflection on the hood of the truck making it my money shot. (Plus the rest weren’t very good.)”

Which one is Julie and which one is the muleskinner? Julie notes “In our Kokapeli Halloween costumes.”

Our site at the USA RV Park. Julie notes “This tree drops giant pods that have beans in them that look like chocolate covered coffee beans. Lesson 127 “Don’t eat stuff off the ground. Most of it just tastes like dirt and not chocolate.” Luckily Brad had bought some M&M chocolate nuts ‘in case we had trick or treaters’. A couple of those will make your mouth forget the dirt beans.”

…over and out, the muleskinner and his sidekick

Julie notes “I missed not being home and decorating for All Hallow’s Eve but will not miss the clean up afterwards. Hope all the ghost and goblins out there, big and small, have an awesome night full of fun and frights and sweets!”