"Get your Kicks on Route 66"

Any one remember that song by Nat King Cole in the 60's ..."Get your Kicks on Route 66"
We started the morning in Dalhart, Tx with the usual continental breakfast and were on the road by 8:30 and headed towards Tucumcari, New Mexico which still has many of the historic route 66 vintage motels with the neon lights and restaurants from the 30's and 40's. The sun was out and the sky was blue and the road was clear with very little traffic... About 45 mins into the drive we heard on the radio that the storm coming through western New Mexico may close I 40 and in fact all the 2000 hotel rooms in Tucumcari were full. This seemed strange as the weather and roads were terrific. We got to Tucumcari and flashing signs said I 40 closed find shelter for night. This was at 10 am ......WHAT!  We continued on and soon found semi's trucks, cars, motor homes all stopped along the side of the highway and every off road. We kept going in the one lane and the stopped vehicles were now 2 deep. Many people sleeping in car or walking around, talking to others. We kept going...let them stop us!  We finally got up to the barricades and police and stopped and asked WHY? In an unfriendly voice he said ice and snow possible. We asked if we could get off and he pointed to an off lane ahead.... We headed back to the town and that route was full on both sides with bumper to bumper stopped vehicles. We figured there must have been thousands of cars and semis just sitting on the highways for miles and miles that we could see.....
We passed many older motels etc and they did not look full.....What do we do...We finally found a K Mart and walked around and talked to a few people who said that the road from Tucumcari to Albuquerque can be treacherous if there is a heavy snowfall and crazy drivers cause many accidents and deaths, so instead they just close it down until danger is past..... Well it soon started to snow and we figured instead of sleeping in the car we would try for a room. We got one the first try.....I think it may have been exaggerated about no rooms. So at high noon, we are sitting in a hotel room seeing our hopes of reaching our winter home before Christmas melt before our eyes.We had a sleep and at 3:30 we woke to a beautiful sunny afternoon and a very busy I 40 off in the distance. Those people sitting on the highway were right. Sit and wait it out. So we had a complete wasted day as these woozy New Mexicans have no idea how to handle winter weather....Come to Canada and learn how to drive in the snow....and that was OUR kicks on Route 66.