Home Again!

Above, the cover to G-FAN #128.

Well, I'm back at home in Jamestown, New Mexico.

We (Mitch Geriminsky and I) left Cortez, Colorado at 8:00 this morning. Google Maps states that the drive from Cortez to Jamestown is a bit under three hours long, but we managed to reach Gallup at 11:30. Gallup is roughly 20 miles from Jamestown, so it is about right.

We didn't rush getting to Gallup, but we were both a bit starved. So I directed Mitch to the El Rancho Hotel there for breakfast. I thought about Earl's Family Restaurant, but was unsure there would be parking for Mitch's truck and 32 foot travel trailer, so we went to the El Rancho where I knew there would be enough parking space. We both enjoyed our breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed to Jamestown and once we reached my place, we unloaded my things from the truck and trailer. Mitch decided to press on to Lake Havasu, Arizona (a six-hour drive) although he was welcome to rest up at my place for the night.

After taking a shower, I proceeded to unpack my luggage and start doing laundry. I then rested for a while until about 1:30 to go to the Flying J to get my mail.

As expected, my mailbox was stuffed with a week's worth of mail. One welcome item was G-FAN #128. Since this summer marks the third year since Haruo Nakajima's passing, I wrote a remembrance article on our 2013 attendance at the Mad Monster Party in Charlotte, North Carolina and it appears in this issue.

The issue has a unique cover. It appears to be a "homage" to the Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post covers of the 1940s. It looked nice!

One article caught my attention in G-FAN #128. It is on the "cancel culture's" possible effect on 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla. It focuses on the "blackface" make-up of different movies, including the natives of Faruo Island. I read some comments on Facebook about this article that were negative. Actually, the topic is a valid one that needs discussion. Are old movies, including King Kong vs. Godzilla, to be banned from screenings (or television) just because they "offend" some people? People need to grow up and put on their big boy and big girl underwear. History is history, whether "good" or "bad", so get over it. Blazing Saddles sure as heck would not be produced in today's politically correct climate.

As Clint Eastwood said in Escape From Alcatraz, "There's always the possibility that some asshole will be offended. Isn't there?"

One little problem cropped up when going to the Flying J. There were water spots on the Mustang's windshield and I turned on the wipers to clean it. A fastener for the driver's side wiper arm broke when I turned them on (the wiper was stuck to the windshield) and the wiper blade went flying. It was a new wiper arm that I bought two years ago. Fortunately, I still have the old wiper arm. I'll put that one back on tomorrow as the current arm is being too stubborn to come off and I am too tired to bother with it today.

Another interesting piece of mail was from Glenn Thornhill (thanks, Glenn!) which contained some old pictures of my first motorhome (I have no idea how he got a hold of them).

Above, a Gulf gas station in Shiprock, New Mexico. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One interesting thing we saw along the way from Cortez: While driving through Shiprock, New Mexico, we saw a Gulf gasoline station. I haven't seen this brand for about 40+ years, since they left the Los Angeles market.

Well, I am just going to kick back and relax for the rest of the day.