Tucumcari

The Pythagorean theorem states that for a right triangle with legs a and b and hypotenuse c, a2 + b2 = c2.
Our plan had been to drive on Interstate 35 down from Kansas City to Oklahoma City and then go west on Interstate 40. Oklahoma City was the right angle.
Our alternate route, Highway 54, was the hypotenuse ‘c’ in the equation.
Using geometry learned in high school, we deduced not only how many miles we save by cutting across Kansas; but, we also created a formula comparing our current speed with how fast we would need to travel if we had gone through Oklahoma City.
“According to my calculations, though our speedometer says we are driving 75 mph, we are actually going 103 mph,” I said, after some quick figuring on the back of an Arby’s roast beef bag.
Yes, I am a nerd who does things like that. If you were riding in a car going from Guymon, Oklahoma to Tucumcari, New Mexico and points West, you would find ways to occupy your mind as well.
We laughed as my son raced the car past 110 mph, relatively speaking.
“Tucumcari (Two-Come-Carry) Tonight” read the weathered signs.
At one time Tucumcari, New Mexico, claimed to have 2,000 motel rooms. In my youth, I remember motels shaped like tee-pees, and I wanted desperately to stay in one.
Tucumcari was a stopping point on the famous Route 66, the “Mother Road” according to novelist John Stienbeck.
EVERYONE HAS, OR WILL, SLEEP IN TUCUMCARI AT LEAST ONE NIGHT IN HIS OR HER LIFE, wrote somebody in a rip-off of an earlier saying about Times Square in New York
Tucumcari is an old railroad town clinging to Route 66 nostalgia for its meaning.
Just outside of the town is Tucumcari Mountain. It has an interesting story.
The Legend of Tucumcari Mountain has supposedly been handed down “from mouth to mouth by Indian tribes” reports travel writer Dan Phillips.
An Apache chief knew he was about to die and ordered two young rivals to fight for the right to become Chief. As an extra-added benefit, the Chief proclaimed the winner would also marry his daughter, Kari.
And so it was that Tonopah and Tocom fought for the hand of Kari, the daughter of Wautonomah. But Kari loved Tocom and hated Tonopah. When Tonopah killed Tocom, Kari revenged Tocom by killing Tonopah. Kari, lovesick and distraught then killed herself. When the old chief sees his daughter is dead; he plunges a knife into his heart, crying in agony, "Tocom-Kari."
“The old Chief's dying utterance lives on today with a slight change to "Tucumcari," and the scene of the tragedy is now Tucumcari Mountain."
We are pleased to leave Tucumcari and drive west toward Gallup and then onto Flagstaff, Arizona. My son, who is on his way to start law school in Tucson, Arizona, is driving. I am awed by his manliness to drive six hours without stopping, but my 54-year-old bladder is screaming. At a fast-food restaurant I am so dazed by it all, I hand a kid a $50 bill thinking it is a $5. My son catches the error and scolds me.
“Just remember, old man, the first time I see you drool; it the old folks home for you,” my son says. It is a very old joke between us, and we laugh.
We are driving almost 14 hours today and the car is quiet. I watch the mile markers roll by and feel the loss. Each mile takes us closer to the end of this great trip –this time I share with my son.
We are in the same car, going the same direction; but my son is still beginning, and I am going the other way.
No fancy math, or “thinking thing” relieves the mile-by-mile and hour-by-hour in the car, but it is a fitting metaphor that we are driving into the desert
We get our first glimpse of the great saguaro cactus on the last leg into Phoenix. Zach says that each arm of a saguaro takes fifty years to grow. Saguaro, some 20 feet tall with up to five arms, stand like crosses welcoming us to the Valley of the Sun.
That night in Phoenix we stay with relatives and rest for the final push into Tucson. I see on the Internet that the bloody story I read about Tucumcari is entirely false, made up by marketers. Tucumcari Mountain was actually named from an earlier Indian word which meant woman's breast.
Tomorrow we go to Tucson.