Black Coffee and the Sound of My Own Wheels: an Exploration of the Road West
So much of Historic Route 66 and Interstate 40 has changed in the years I’ve been driving them, like this rusted Route 66 sign in the Texas panhandle.
This is a companion piece to The Ring of Fire (link), my fall vacation through New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, and Somewhere in the Night (link), a Las Vegas getaway, so if you haven’t already, take a look at those.
I photograph these abandoned places both because they are visually intriguing, but also because I can imagine the day when they were new, when they were thriving.
I also know that man or nature will one day take these places entirely back, leaving nothing.
Early in my trip out west I spotted this almost-gone Fina filling station in the Texas panhandle. I had passed it up on numerous occasions, but this time I turned around at the next exit and came back to it.Man and nature have contributed to this Fina station’s demise.The signage was almost completely covered in graffiti.I wonder how much longer buildings like this will stand.Some of the graffiti was incredibly detailed.Once new, now nearly gone, these power boxes once brought electricity to fuel pumps and coffee makers.As the years have passed, I have seen less and less intact glass at places like this.This Fina station has been burdened by the hot Texas sun for decades.
As I came into New Mexico, I couldn’t help but think about how much my late wife Abby and I loved trips like this. My most recent trip out west before this was in June of 2021 with her.
I started my trips out west in 1999 in response to the demise of black-and-white photography, but after my first trip with her in 2003, those travels became ours.
Traffic was stopped for the better part of an hour on Interstate 40 east of Clines Corners. I only caught a glimpse of why as I drove past. I shot this with a point-and-shoot camera, since it was all I had at hand, and the afternoon sun created this fine art masterpiece.
She always wanted to bring the Chihuahuas, Sierra and Max, and if I suggested a hike, she immediately asked, “Can we bring the dogs?” On this trip, I asked my neighbors to look after my dogs.
As I drove, I saw and remembered so many of these places she and I loved together. When I went in to the store at Clines Corners, New Mexico to use the restroom, I could barely look up because we always got souvenirs there together: rings, hats, t-shirts. On her last visit just nine months before her death, she bought a pair of white beaded moccasins, which instantly became her favorite shoes, and she wore them almost every day for the rest of her days.
Was this trip part of letting her go? Was it a trail of tears?
By late afternoon I was in Moriarty, New Mexico, and made a stop to photograph this, which I have photographed many times before. At one time a lighted and rotating sign for the El Comedor steak house, this figure now presides over an antique store.The sky in Moriarty was typical New Mexico deep blue. I made this image as the sunset approached.This iconic Interstate-shield Route 66 sign in Moriarty is showing signs of age.The T/A Truck Stop in Moriarty is set against the setting sun.
Despite this being on my mind, I ended up having a great trip, and the reminders of her along the way were just wonderful memories.
Driving to Gallup was slowed by two long stoppages on Interstate 40, one east of Clines Corners, and one in the hills coming into Albuquerque.
I was up early in Gallup, New Mexico, finding this weathered sign as I left town. Although it looks abandoned, a man in a pickup seemed to be doing business in the connected building.
I took New Mexico Highway 602 south to Zuni, where I thought I might photograph the Zuni Pueblo, but forgot it was Indigenous People’s Day, so everything was closed.
Just across the border into Arizona I found what appears to be where all the kids go to drink.
I didn’t really have a specific plan, and thought I might go south through the mountains of eastern Arizona, but my calculations added up to about a 12-hour excursion, so I mentally bookmarked it for next time, and turned north on U.S. 191 to rejoin the Interstate.
I found this bus on a hillside by the highway. It wasn’t as run down as some of the other stuff, but no one seemed to be around.The other side of the bus and sign seemed more weathered, but it was still unclear to me if this business might still be a thing.Chair, gravel, shadow: am I the artist, or is the owner?I found these nice folks and their beautifully-restored cars gassing up at Sanders, Arizona. They told me they were on their way from California to Oklahoma City for a car show.
Several friends of mine had found and posed at the famous corner in Winslow, Arizona mentioned in the Eagles song Take it Easy, but I had never been, so I took the exit for it. Winslow appears to be run-down and impoverished except for the area immediately around the famous corner, which appears to have been cultivated as a tourist destination.
Your host poses with the famous bronze “Standin’ on the Corner” statue in Winslow, Arizona.The corner is fixed up, including a wall in the background painted with figures in windows.It was a beautiful, clear day in Winslow, but definitely warm.Travelers gather on the famous corner in Winslow to have their pictures made.There is also a statue down the block.True to the song lyrics, there is a “flat-bed Ford” on the corner.Some visitors work to get their picture made on the corner.More “Route 66” memorabilia, this in the form a the highway shield painted on the road at the intersection of 2nd and Kinsley in Winslow.I often find public additions to signs interesting.Yes, Route 66, Eagles; we get it.I’m not usually a food photographer or social media foodie, but, believe it or not, the best meal I had on the road or in towns during my week out west was Alaskan salmon at Denny’s in Flagstaff, Arizona.No road report would be complete without the driver’s point-of-view shot. I made this in the morning westbound on Interstate 40 from Flagstaff.The road north of Kingman, Arizona follows a long, dry valley, past the White Hills Wind Farm. The highway is U.S. 93, and is in terrible condition, but bears signs that say, “Future I-11 Corridor,” so maybe they’re holding off repairing it, thinking it will become a full-fledged Interstate highway.A quick frame out the window near Lake Mead shows the dry mountains of the region.Lake Mead, which is impounded by the Hoover Dam, is about 160 feet below full pool, showing it’s infamous pale “bathtub ring.”I have attempted to photograph Barber Peak in northwestern New Mexico for 25 years now, with little success. It may be time to make this a primary destination, just as a photographic challenge.I’ve been driving this Nissan Frontier Crew Cab LE 4×4 truck on road trips since Abby and I bought it in September 2010. It has been a perfect road vehicle.Up early in Tucumcari, New Mexico, I prowled a few of the many disappearing businesses, including an ice cream parlor with a phone booth, though with no phone in it.Before dawn in Tucumcari is a very lonely, slightly scary experience.I found these morning shadows in Glenrio, which is literally in both New Mexico and Texas.Sometimes graffiti is a very elegant art form, like the placement of these items in an abandoned gas station on the Texas side of Glenrio.I wonder what it looked like – night or day, winter or summer – while these paintings were made.Every available space has been tagged, and every available piece of glass has been shattered in this abandoned Glenrio, Texas filling station.I made this image as an homage (I guess) to a very similar image I made six days earlier.
My final stop for the week was at the “Bug Ranch,” an attempt to copy the kitsch of Amarillo’s famous Cadillac Ranch. I spotted the Cadillac Ranch on my drive west earlier in the week, but when I saw two food trucks parked there, I decided the Cadillac Ranch was no longer for me.
A man at the Bug Ranch told me they were preparing to move it, but it seemed so run-down and abandoned that I doubt it will end up being worth doing.
This overview shows the Hotel Café sign and what was once the “Bug Ranch,” a take-off on the nearby Cadillac Ranch.The first few times I visited the Bug Ranch, the bugs were yellow, but, like the neighboring Cadillac Ranch, these cars have extensive layers of different colors of paint.A small building next to the Bug Ranch is also graffiti painted.This isn’t a “Bug,” or VW Beetle, but has always been part of the Bug Ranch.I love that the broken window glass was spray-painted in place where it landed.There were also these tractor ties lashed together and painted.This sign reminds “DO NOT” paint on the sign, so I “WILL NOT” paint on it.A parting shot at one of the most bleak things I saw on the road: this shredded truck tire felt like a perfect end to this narrative.
All the classics, updated visitations, together with the new. I very much enjoy the greater number and depth of views.