Michael Bushnell
Northeast News

From Amarillo, Texas, we continue our westward journey along America’s Main Street. Roughly 175 miles west of Amarillo, past Tucumcari and Newkirk, is the village of Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

Home to the Route 66 Auto Museum, this is one of three such auto museums along the entirety of old Route 66, the other two being in Springfield, Missouri and Sapulpa, Oklahoma respectively.

The sign for the Santa Rosa museum is an actual chopped and customized, lemon yellow 1930’s vintage hotrod, complete with racing slicks and tinted windows, crafted in the same style as the ’32 Ford Deuce Couple in the hit film “American Graffiti.” They called it a different shade of yellow in the movie though.

As Route 66 heads west through the high country of New Mexico, the route goes through Santa Fe and Albuquerque and on to Gallup, just like in the Nat King Cole hit song about getting your kicks.

This week’s linen-style postcard shows the Navajo Hogans and home to the Gallup Chamber of Commerce. The description on the back of the card reads: “A unique Navajo Hogan (home) built by Indians serves Gallup, New Mexico, The Indian Capital, as headquarters for its Chamber of Commerce and famous inter-tribal ceremonial held annually in Mid August.”

Tiny homes might be all the rage these days but let’s pay homage to the Hogan as one of the original tiny homes. It’s a basic, domed, one-room dwelling that dates to the early 1400’s.

Next week we’ll continue our westward journey to a town made famous by a 1970’s super group that penned a song about a girl, a corner, and a flatbed Ford