{"id":1020,"date":"2018-09-12T16:47:46","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T16:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2021-03-16T14:03:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T21:03:26","slug":"long-way-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/09\/12\/long-way-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Way Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Highway 41. Falling safes and ACME dynamite country. Beep beep!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Highway 41 runs from the Gran Quivira ruins to Highway 380. Forty miles of easy dirt, (unless it rains), the road really doesn\u2019t go anywhere I need it to go but I still take the route if I\u2019m going north\/south to Santa Fe and have time to kill. I have lots of time to kill.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The consequences of not keeping your rig in shape?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are old ranches in New Mexico. This dry land requires thousands of acres to support cattle or whatever hybrid, cactus-eating animals they raise out here. Access to these ranches is via roads like 41. The road cuts through warning signs and fence lines working its way past lonely muster stations that no longer thunder with the sounds of hooves and bellowing cattle. Time continues to function out here, hour by hour degrading nails and planks, erasing the best efforts of past generations. It\u2019s a bygone landscape that appeals to a kid raised on a steady diet of Road Runner and Wiley Coyote cartoons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"
Highway 41. The red pin is Gran Quivira.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019d like to think I could have made a stand out here, been a solitary man roping and fence-mending in the bitter wind of a New Mexico winter, surviving by my wits and taming this vast, high desert. I would have mail ordered rockets and catapults from ACME, the cartoon version of Amazon. I\u2019d build windmills and log cabins. I\u2019d eat snakes and shoot quarters out of mid-air with a six-gun that I took out of a dead man\u2019s holster. Then I\u2019d write a Rustic\u2019s poem about the dead man titled, \u201cHis Noted Life Was Not In Vain.\u201d I\u2019d have all the trappings of America\u2019s western lore and I would have shouldered it in stride. A life without comfort or ease would be met with a steely-eyed stoicism that concealed deep emotions surging through my fully realized cowboy-self.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A time gone by.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Bring it on, and I’ll still be standing!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Highway 41 is remote, the kind of road that makes you worry about tires or if you have enough water. There\u2019s no cell phone reception and you\u2019ll want your rig in top shape to travel out here. I keep my rig in just-above-collapse shape. Clapped out with three broken engine mounts appeals to my cowboy-self. After climbing a small ridge, 41 becomes increasingly populated by ghosts. Bent and weathered power poles spread their arms, holding nothing. I should have brought more water and a jar of peanut butter.<\/p>\n

If you have the time, and the back road leads somewhere you don\u2019t really need to go, I recommend taking Highway 41. There\u2019s adventure in every movement. Joy in discovering a structure that still stands despite it all. America\u2019s private history is waiting to be discovered, starting with the insignificant bits first. It\u2019s on us to record the passing of the Old West. We can be witnesses for unheralded battlefields where stoic cowboys fell to Time and Nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Highway 41 runs from the Gran Quivira ruins to Highway 380. Forty miles of easy dirt, (unless it rains), the road really doesn\u2019t go anywhere I need it to go but I still take the route if I\u2019m going north\/south to Santa Fe and have time to kill. I have lots of time to kill. … Continue reading “Long Way Back”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[96,84,66,89,138],"tags":[272,273],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feel-good-stuff","category-guns","category-joe-gresh","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","category-new-mexico","tag-highway-41","tag-time"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12510,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/12510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}