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Writer's pictureAlana

37. Tucumcari, NM to Adrian, TX

Updated: May 29

May 20, 2024

Today I reached two milestones: Texas and the midpoint of Route 66. I also managed to find myself once again climbing I-40 in 109 degree heat with a headwind. Some people never learn.


I was feeling a little woozy when a gas station that was not on my map, but which I am 99% sure actually exists, arose from the desert floor. I walked in and a kind Armenian woman asked, "Banana shake?"


"Oh hell yeah, sister, hook me up with all the bananas and all the shakes right now thank you very much please oh yes bananas! Shaking" I thought. But I probably said just, "Yes."


Woman saved my life.


The next gas station food server I encountered further down the road was not as simpatico. When she learned that I'm from Memphis, the woman told me a story about how scared she had felt in Whitehaven, a predominantly African American neighborhood in Memphis, because, as she put it, "The folks there aren't white." She also shared that her son, who lives in Memphis, had gotten a DUI rather than walk home because, he claimed, it's too dangerous to walk in Memphis.


Gentle reader, in case you don't know me, let me tell you straight up: This racist bullshit infuriates me. So I launched my intervention. First, I shared that I had never felt afraid for my safety in Whitehaven and routinely walk around Memphis at night. Why exactly was she scared?


Just then, though, the shop manager came in with a big ol' gun on his hip and started barking orders at her and another employee. I gleaned that this was not a good time for a sensitive.exploration of this woman's racial beliefs.


So I scooted out the door an on to the only motel n Adrian, the Fabulous Forties. There, I chatted wih a young trumpeter named Nathan who was driving home from college in Denton, TX.. He had never seen"The Rocky Horror Picture Show," which is set in Denton ("Home of happiness"), so I did my citizen's duty and earnestly beseeched him to watch it.


I guess that's some sort of social impact.


Distance: 65.60 miles

Climbing: .96 K feet

Totals: 1,721.39 miles, 62.67 feet

Song: "All My Exes Live in Texas" by George Strait


1 comment

1 Comment


ni.perla
May 29

I love this story of the banana shake from the Armenian woman in the middle of the desert of New Mexico!

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