The Delight of Clines Corner on Route 66

Published on September 7, 2011 by

A fun truck stop on Thanksgiving Day on Route 66

Two women (one pushing 60 and the other 75) decided to break away from their families this Thanksgiving of 2010 and go on a car adventure while heading towards Sedona, Arizona for a three-week stay. We left the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and visited Carlsbad Caverns Thanksgiving morning. After traveling 218 miles heading towards Albuquerque for our overnight stay, we came to a place called Clines Corner. It looked like a truck stop. The sign said it had souvenirs and food, including "homemade" fudge... which means chocolate!

I wasn't expecting much when we walked in. I was just delighted they were open and hoped they had something palatable to eat because I was hungry. The last few hours I had been saying to my friend how I hoped we could find a place in Albuquerque that had a turkey dinner. Ahh, I could have one right there if I wanted to take the chance.

The sign says the largest gift shop in New Mexico. I don't know how true that is, but it is one large gift shop. If I didn't already have my great-nephews Christmas gift safely wrapped at home I would have had my selection of trucks, all kinds of trucks. He would have been in heaven. There was also the usual assortment of native American jewelry, T-shirts, jackets, Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos) type figurines, including skeleton nuns in full habit. (Some people would call that sacrilegious. I just laughed having been one for 20 years... no habit, though.)

I did take the chance on the Special of the Day... a full turnkey dinner with mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing (lots of great gravy on the mashed 'taters and dressing), peas, jellied cranberry,

jalapeño cornbread and our choice of pumpkin pie. Umm-umm, wonderful it was. As my friend said, "Good job manifesting!)

I asked our server to please tell the cook the dinner was wonderful. She grinned and said, "I'll pat myself on the back." We chatted more about the food and I asked if she'd gone to cooking school. She just laughed and said, "No, I'm just a mom of seven." I mentioned that my friend was a mom of eight and then they talked about raising a brood of kids and how they were always your babies no matter how old they were.

In the course of conversation she (I never got her name) told us her son, Jose, was in Afghanistan. We promised to keep him in our prayers... and, Jose, we do as we thank you for your service. Jose's mom wasn't happy about him enlisting. Her dad had done three tours in Viet Nam and Jose's dad had been in Desert Storm. Now her son was in Afghanistan. So far all was going well.

Everyone at Clines Corner (they lost the apostrophe some years ago) was easy-going and fun to be with. We had a delightful interlude from our road trip. Oh, and the fudge is great... very creamy.

You can find them on One Yacht Club Drive ("our perverse sense of humor" our server, cook and daughter, wife and mother of heroes told us) on Route 66, also known here as Interstate 40. At the very least, get yourself some fudge and have a wonderful conversation with the cook. See if Jose has come home safely.

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