Four Left Turns
One of the cool things about working in Hobbs, NM, as I did for seven years, was the relatively close proximity to Sante Fe, NM. Our family enjoyed great times on frequent trips to this quaint and artsy, ancient city. What a great city! Walking along the square in Sante Fe, you will find a colorful array of upscale art galleries, sidewalk vendors, café’s serving authentic Mexican cuisine and maybe 50 or so Indian families sitting on blankets selling authentic, handcrafted turquoise and silver jewelry and hand woven blankets. Several of our favorite restaurants, to this day, are located in Sante Fe, Pink Adobe, The Inn of Loretta and Bishop’s Lodge, just to name a few. Just outside Sante Fe, in Lamy, NM, was another of our favorite restaurants, The Sliver Spike, a really cool steakhouse, located in a turn of the century, wood frame train station, built next to the tracks of the Southern Railway. This is where this story actually begins.
I had a two or three day speaking engagement at Glorieta Baptist Assembly, just up the road from Sante Fe, and so I took Sharon and the boys along for the ride. Besides my speaking assignment, we had shopped in Sante Fe, played at Glorieta, hiked in Holy Ghost Canyon, had ice cream at the Chuckwagon, and now we were headed home. We had eaten dinner at The Silver Spike in Lamy and were preparing to make the lonely trip back to Hobbs. Now, typically we would take the state road out of Lamy, back to HWY 285, South to Clines Corners, then on to Roswell, Tatum, Lovington and finally, Hobbs, about a 4 hour trip.
I needed gas so we stopped and filled the tank. When I went inside to pay, I struck up a conversation with an older man dressed in jeans and cowboy boots and fringed leather jacket. He had shoulder length grey hair and wore a cowboy hat with a simple beaded turquoise band. He looked out at my family in the car and asked, “Where are you guys headed?”
“Hobbs. You don’t know a quicker way than backtracking out to HWY 285, do you?” I replied, mostly joking and with a smile.
“Sure do. I’m headed that way. Why don’t you just follow me and I’ll show you the way.” He pointed to a well-worn 1960’s Dodge pickup with three bails of hay in the bed. “That’s my pick up over there.”
“Thanks, we’ll be right behind you. I really appreciate this,” as I waved and got back in the car.
“You appreciate what,” Sharon asked, eyebrows raised and doubt coloring her words.
“He’s going to show us a short cut to Clines Corner. He says the locals never go back out to the highway. It’ll probably cut an hour off our drive-time. Don’t worry about it. I know what I’m doing.”
Unconvinced, Sharon persisted as we turned onto the narrow two lane road out of Lamy. “Ashley, we’ve been coming here for years. Why haven’t we ever heard about this short cut? I think we’re making a mistake. I don’t think we should do this. It’s dark and we are, literally, in the middle of nowhere. What if we break down?”
“We’re not going to break down, we’ll be fine, please go to sleep.”
I was grateful Sharon followed my advice and went to sleep, because about an hour later when we passed the sign, “Clines Corners, 45 miles” my heart sank. We were on a ‘wild goose chase’ that not only had not been a short cut, but had taken us further away and wasted time and gas in the process. In actuality we had almost made a complete circle.
I reluctantly turned our SUV onto Hwy 285 at a spot that was only 11 miles from where I would have been an hour earlier, if I hadn’t followed the guy in the truck. Sharon opened her eyes and looked around. “Well, we’re not in Kansas anymore, are we ToTo? Where are we? And don’t even try to tell me we’ve made it to Clines Corners.”
What is it about us guys? That we will defy logic by continuing in the wrong direction with the belief that we will eventually end up on the right road?
Where Finances were concerned, it was sometimes difficult to even admit to myself that I was in the middle of nowhere instead of Clines Corners. My ability to make four left turns and still make the case that I had actually gained financial ground instead of going in a circle was as silly then as it is now. It made no sense.
