After Tucumcari, Samosa's for Lunch

One of the delights of travel is a variety of cuisine. We do a lot of cooking and I have a propane BBQ which we take on our treks. The Roadtrek has a two-burner propane cooktop, and a microwave convection oven. We added a small toaster as we are very particular about our english muffins in the morning; we prefer them crisp. Balancing this with a variety of restaurant stops, we are well fed and quite happy on our treks.

One item I have on my "to do" list is a carbon steel dutch oven. I like to do some cooking over hot coals, and that includes cobbler, stews and so on. Corn bread baked in a dutch oven is scrumptious. For an outdoor treat, I like to make donuts in a wok.

An urge for samosa's 

A samosa is a fried or baked pastry with savory filling, such as spiced potatoes, onions, peas, lentils and also with ground meat (lamb, beef or chicken). After leaving Tucumcari, we headed northeast and were hungry. G spotted a billboard advertising Indian cuisine at a truck stop ahead and had a desire for Samosa's. So in pursuit of a samosa lunch we went. They were delicious.

After our snack we continued on our way.

Route 66 and Tucumcari

Taking a long distance trek provides opportunities and requires decisions. We decided to travel to Tucson using both U.S. Highways and the Interstate system. Of course, if one is going to travel the U.S. Highways from Chicago in a south-westerly direction, one should consider Route 66, and we did!

As the sign above implies, there is the current iteration of Route 66, and then there is the "Historic" Pre-1937 route. We traveled portions of both.

Travelling Route 66 took us to Tucumcari, NM and we stayed in a campground nearby so we could see the town and its famous murals in the morning. At this time of year, there aren't a lot of vacationers, and so we had a quiet stay. We arose in the morning, had breakfast and then prepared to see the murals and continue our trek.

We were not disappointed and enjoyed the murals. Of course, this being winter many tourist establishments were not open, but no matter. Our Roadtrek is very self-sufficient with the larger 5 cu. ft. refrigerator, generator for power and bath facilities. And, there are any number of eating establishments nearby. So we toured the town and weren't disappointed. The murals were everything we expected.

I had presciently purchased a Route 66 hat so I could do this in the appropriate style.

Here is a sampling of the murals, I suggest the interested traveler schedule some time in Tucumcari, NM so all can be seen.

There were a few surprises in Tucumcari, but I leave these for the traveler to discover. I don't want to give it all away and the trek was worth our while. I was impressed by the pride of the local establishments and a school. Definitely a lot of home town pride.