As promised, here’s today’s brief installment.  First off – I want to thank several of you for contributing to the Put Sparkle Back Together Again Fund.  I really, whole-heartedly appreciate it.  I’m deeply touched by your enthusiasm, emotional support and generosity.  It confirms that what I’m doing is appreciated – and that, hopefully, more of these roadside places will be recognized, valued, and preserved.  If you still want to drop some coins in the bucket, you can do it through this page — or simply use the agilitynut account at PayPal.com.
http://agilitynut.com/donation.html

While Sparkle’s getting her front end repaired, we did a bit more exploring of our new neighborhood.  I found a nearly dry riverbed for the dogs to run around in.  We’ve been there three times already today.  It’s rough living with athletes.  I could leave the seniors back in the room – but they also enjoy the sniffin’ around.  Grip, even though she’s blind, still finds crunchy bits to munch on.  Bones from discarded KFC or bits of roadkill or – I don’t want to know.

If you’re feeling mid-century deprived since The Accident, the Drifter Motel does have a restaurant with roof diamonds.  Turquoise paint jobs are, uh, very big in New Mexico:

 

And there’s another building down the road with mid-century details:

 

Just another typical and random beautiful New Mexico style building.  There must be a name for it – “adobe style”, “casita”?  Shamefully, about the only thing I know is “vigas” which are the log-like projections below the roofline.  Note the killer clouds and sunny weather.  Sure wish I was driving and shooting today:

 

And some random beautiful plants & flowers.  I think the tall guy is a yucca – but not sure:

 

An interesting arty mural.  I don’t know the story.  It’s hard to do Google research here in the parking lot – but something about the hot springs and a bottling plant destroyed by fire:

The bottles and bottle caps are in relief.  Very cool, nicely done:

 

I checked out the local pet store and got Nik a new toy.  He loves Cuz toys and this was one I’ve never seen before:  a Mummy Cuz.  And some “floaties” – my name for small dog treats that float in water and get Grem & Fix to swim and cool off.  The brown bag contains my lunch:

 

Don Juan’s Burritos is my fave discovery in town.  This is the “order” side of the building.  You drive around to the other side for pickup.  Or if you’re a lowly pedestrian like myself, you ring the buzzer for service:

The bean & cheese burrito was pretty dull.  But the chile relleno burritos are great!  I’ve had two now.  Spicy and homemade – REAL burritos like I grew up with in SoCal.  In New York, they think spicy means with jalapeno peppers or, if they’re imaginative, hot sauce.  But it’s not the same as these which seem to have neither but are far superior:

 

And here are the kids and the deluxe accommodations of The Drifter Motel’s Room #218.  It’s really not that bad if you look past the obvious stains.  The shower was hot and I’ve been watching some local public access channel about all the doings and geologic history of Silver City:

 

My mechanic says Sparkle might be ready tonight.  It’s 3:30pm right now – so we’ll see.  He said something about “patching” of brake lines and other stuff which makes me nervous.  I might make a stop soon to get things looked over for safety concerns.

Hopefully, there will be more exciting subjects tomorrow.

 

5:30pm update:  The mechanics (yes, two now involved — this is gonna cost me!) were nearly done before discovering a cracked master cylinder reservoir (brakes).  They’re pretty confident that some fancy epoxy stuff will repair it — and I’ll be rolling sometime tomorrow morning.  The part can’t be found anywhere — not even El Paso.  So, let’s hope it works.