Route 66 NM / AZ / Day 1

We are standing in the middle of old Route 66 in Tucum, Tucum, was it Tucum, Tucum Carey? Tucum Carey. Tucum Carey, New Mexico. That's a little hard to pronounce, but man is it full of flavor. Let's get this vlog started. What's going on TJ? Hanging out at Tucum Carey. Tucum Carey. That's right y'all we are in Tucum Carey, New Mexico. We stayed at the most rad Americana type place last night right here at the Blue Swallow, which looks like something you could have a movie scene. It's perfect. It's something out of the movies. Good people. He started a fire for us, told us where to go eat. Really, really just a cool spot. Definitely recommend y'all stopping by here. We'll show it to you in a minute, but I wanted to talk to y'all about my friend TJ. You're going to be seeing some of him with me over this next week. TJ's from Arkansas. What part of Arkansas? I'm actually from Harrison, Arkansas, but we we met at Eureka Springs. Right, we always connect in Eureka Springs for the spring fling out there at the Cat House. Yep, Cat House. And uh we did it last year, we did again this year. The night before I left for this trip down old Route 66 all the way up to Laughlin River Run, I looked at TJ and said, man you should come with me. I was like, oh come on man, seriously? I don't know. And it was Saturday night. It was Saturday night. We had all of our people sitting around the table. Yeah. Having a good time. And I said, yeah. You did. I said, what's the longest road trip you've ever taken? And I was like, I've rode an hour and a half. And it's all in hardtails. And uh so. I think an hour and a half on a hardtail is the same as 20 hours on the new road bike. I agree with that now. Totally agree. It's the ornery one on Instagram. Yep, that's right. Never even been out west. Oh no, this is, I'm looking around like what the, you know. And I'm taking it all in. It's new. Smells are different. The feel is different. Of course the scenery is different. People's look different. It's uh a lot to take in. It's been uh, and we're just halfway. Halfway. We're at the halfway mark. Excited. Yes. Way overboard excited. Well listen y'all, there's nothing I like more than sharing this road, sharing the adventure, sharing a road trip with good people. Um I think that's a great segue for us to start sharing this Blue Swallow Motel with y'all. Come see it. Let's start with the front of the building. Iconic Blue Swallow Motel neon sign. When it lights up at night it's just so, well here take a look at it. Yeah. Yeah that's absolutely beautiful. And that my friends is how you spell I believe I'm saying that right. Old Hudson parked out front. I mean it's just cool. It's just old school. Even when you walk in the front door. Let's walk in and see what's going on. Sorry just showing your place. Hi. That's the owner right there who welcomed us with great uh finesse. Ah thank you. I'm Kevin. Kevin Mueller. We uh my wife Nancy and I own the Blue Swallow Motel built in 1939. Glad to have you guys here. Glad to be here man. It's just cool. I mean I came in to sign in and the old cuckoo clock's going off. I mean just it's uh it's Americana at its finest. We work hard to keep it going you know. You can even get Route 66 sodas. Let's go take a look at the rooms. Let's do it. Another cool Pontiac. I just love the old cars. I mean it just really sets it off. This is so cool right here. Check this out. All the art. They're all painted up. Cars. Mural stuff in all the garages. So you can yeah you can park your vehicles in here if they fit. It's actually called a motor lodge. Motor lodge. Well we had to put our bikes in. Had a door. Didn't have to unload nothing. Just grab our clothes and go in. Another mural. Oh yeah. Oh easy rider. Easy rider. Man check it out. VW. VW old hippie. Oh this is cool. Okay y'all so this shows the actual entire Route 66 all the way up. So it starts in Chicago and it ends in Los Angeles. We're going to be going to right about here. But if you ask me from Amarillo to here is probably the best part of the whole thing. Yeah this is mine. Oh you want to go in? Okay so it's neon looking which is so cool. Which I love the Indian head. But so we just roll up in here. Shut the door. Bam. Done. No unloading the bikes y'all. Not unloading the bikes is a huge huge huge bonus. Look at this. Y'all got some gear on there. All right I'm gonna bring y'all inside our room real quick because there's some pretty neat features in there. All right this is the room. We got videos uploading over there. So the old school curvature of the of the walls is really really thick plaster. Look at how thick that plaster is by your hand there. Yep. Laid it on. I mean this was this they call this the new part. So it was 1942. Yeah the new part. And the rest of it was 1930 something. So this is the new edition. The new edition. But this what do y'all think is in there? I think this is probably the coolest part of the whole place for me anyhow. Look at that. And pristine. Old TV. I think that's the oldest TV I've ever seen. What about you? It's the oldest one. I thought it was just gonna be a refrigerator. Yeah something like that. No it's the TV. Old school boob tube man. All right guys there's a lot of Route 66 out there and TJ and I are gonna go check it out. So I think we should get this day started. Let's roll. Let's beautiful thing about running around on Route 66 and 40 is all these old abandoned signs and buildings and sometimes it's cool just to sit and take it all in. Yeah I mean when we're going down the road it's just constant taking all this in. It's just it's so different out here. It's uh everything's uh been here for a while right? Yeah look at this open space man. I mean just as far as you want to see. How's how's the bike running for you? Flawless. Go go go. It's there. It's a machine man. Although you said you're having a hard time keeping up with mine. Yeah I am. We take off onto the on-ramp. You're gone. I've got to get at it. I still can't catch you. Stage five. Feels sounds good. I know it feels good. It does feel good. So I know a lot of you've been asking me about reviews on my uh how it is on the stage five upgrade we just did. For those of you that are new to my channel we just put the Screaming Eagle important polished stage five kit on there. I'm gonna do a 1,000 mile review. So after we get through Laughlin I'll have a thousand plus miles on the new engine and I'll do a review and uh break it down of all the things I love about it. Maybe some of the things I would do differently if I had to do it again but I'll fill you all in after. Let me get a good thousand plus miles on it first. It looks like a little gas station over there. So let's go look at it. I wonder how many of these buildings you'd find out through here because you know we've seen how many? Dozens. Yeah dozens of everywhere. They just get destroyed and people just come in and kids probably wreak havoc on them. There's some tagging going on. Yeah you know it's a fixer-upper. You got an open view plan here so you can do what you want to with it. Lots of potential. Yeah it's here. I think the roof's gonna need some work. But skylights well yeah I mean over here. What's in here? I don't know. Oh I see the bottom. I didn't think we would. It's got a ladder trust it. I'm out. How beautiful is this? You see that is right there? Petrified wood. Petrified wood. I mean I don't know how much that thing weighs but it ain't light. Drop that on my tongue. You been eating your Wheaties? Sure. That's a tomahawk. That's a tomahawk equivalent for your beard. Dear god. Anyway let's see what's in there. That's cool. How's it feel? Feels good. You guys having fun? We are having a great time man. This is beautiful country. Isn't it Tommy? It is truly. Dressed up my man. So he was saying it was built in 19. Yeah 1965. 1965 they built it right on the New Mexico and Arizona line and that's Cheap Yellow Horse. He built it and it's all made from timber. They harvested right from the top of that rock we just looked at. Look at these old sheriff badges. Railroad police, Indian police, marshal. We found the jackpot. What's up little guy? Oh and your buddies too. You're gonna get in here and get some of this. Oh hell yeah buddies. Oh man. Oh gosh. Riding the back of a bike. Laying on my boot huh? Just lay there on my boot. Get a little belly scratching. Oh yeah. Really exciting. Lots of petrified wood huh? Yeah. Isn't that crazy to think that this all used to be forest and these were trees and this used to be lush rich forest land. Bucket. Oh blood. Street. That's one thing I don't want on my bucket list. It is time to eat. We are in Holbrook, Arizona and this here is Joe and Angie's cafe which I think is going to be the right choice but they do have direct competition across the street. Romo's Mexican and American cuisine. Direct competition. I say we try this one. Give it a hill. Oh yeah this will work. So it's not always glamorous. Always. Not always. Not always. That restaurant wasn't very glamorous. No. No it wasn't. So we're gonna get back on the road and see what we can catch before the sunset. I was trying to figure out a way to finish this vlog and I thought bringing you to the corner in Winslow, Arizona would be a fine way to finish the vlog. We're in Winslow. We're in Winslow and that right there is a corner. Stand on a corner. Stand on a corner. Winslow, Arizona. No kidding. Come on what's the next line? Such a fine sight to see. What's the little girl? It's a girl my lord in a flatbed Ford slowing down to take a look at me. Yeah man this is it. Usually they got like a Ford pickup truck parked here but they just have it on the wall in the background now. Girl in a flatbed Ford and there he is standing on the corner. I didn't realize he was so scrawny did you? Great ride in man. Beautiful ride in. So that the mountain that I see. That was Flagstaff. It was. We'll be riding that tomorrow. It was all outlined like pink. Beautiful right? Oh that was a heart stomper right there. It was. That was cool. And there's the big Route 66 sign. Very cool. We'll get your picture on it. Pretty cool right? Yeah. Y'all have to go to his Instagram to find the picture. I'm about to take of him right now. It'll be up there. Uh listen y'all uh we are not quitters. We are the Americans. We didn't quit today. We had a great day. It was a great day. Beautiful. Gorgeous scenery. Good riding. Looking forward to tomorrow. Only thing better than the scenery was the company. Oh I got good company. Good company. I'm better looking. He is better looking. Good thing he hides it behind that beard. Yeah that's it. Otherwise there'd be no show. You'd be stealing it. Alright man. Listen y'all. Thank you so much for riding along. Uh tomorrow's gonna be a great big day for us because we are going to be going to some of my favorite things. I'm not going to tell you all what it is but I can't wait to show it to this man right here because he's gonna love it. Alright man. Until the next vlog.