The Buried Treasure on Route 66: A Nancy Keene Mystery (6 page)

I picked that song because
it has the line about ‘standing on the corner of Winslow, Arizona’.
I read that in Winslow, there’s a statue of Jackson Browne standing
by a mural of a guy sitting in a pickup truck.”

“Sounds like a photo op,”
Ned says.

Mr. Keene chimes in, “Sounds
like it’s ‘worth a detour’ as they say in travel
guides.”

“Okay, guys. Before we pick
Mrs. Wood up, what’s this next song?”

“I can’t place it,” Ned
says.

“Neither can I,” Mr. Keene
agrees.

“Ha! Got you
two.”

“Okay Miss Smarty Pants,”
her father says. “Name that tune.”

“It’s ‘The Painted Desert’
by Ten Thousand Maniacs.”

Ned says, “It’s a great
song. I like it. Thanks for turning me on to new music, once
again.”

Mr. Keene says, “It’s sure
great that both of you share the same musical tastes. That’s
important in a relationship. When my dear wife and I used to go to
concerts, we had a lot of fun together. We liked the same music,
and she was always bringing home new cd’s for me to listen to. One
time, she brought home a Van Morrison cd and played me a special
song that was on it. She was so romantic.”

“What is the name of the
song, Dad?”

“Have I Told You Lately That
I Love You?”

“Oh, Dad. How wonderful.
Ned, could you download that song so we all can hear it? If either
of you are inspired by any songs on this trip, let me know and
we’ll add them to our ‘Route 66 Road Trip cd’.”

“You make everything so much
fun, Nancy. I love you.”

“I love you, too,
Ned.”

Her father suddenly gets
very quiet when he hears his daughter tell Ned that she loves him.
It’s hard for him to accept that fact that Nancy has a boyfriend
who may someday take her away from him. Resigning himself to the
fact that “this Ned guy” is going to be around for a while, he
tells himself that it’s time to get to know him a little better. A
few minutes later, he asks, “So Ned, what is it that you do for a
living?”

****

All three of the travelers
are glad to see that Mrs. Wood has packed light. No one relishes
the thought of being crammed together in a small car. She is very
excited about the trip. “Oh,” she says. “What fun!”

“Let’s hit the road, Mrs.
Wood. We want to get to Holbrook in time to see the sunset at the
Petrified Forest.”

“Okay, honey.”

Nancy starts their special
cd all over again.

“Hey, I know this song,”
Mrs. Wood says. She starts singing along, “Get your kicks, on Route
66”. Everyone sings along with her.

“If you are inspired by any
songs on this trip, let me know. We’re making a cd of all of our
favorites.”

“What a lovely idea. I’ll
have to think of a song.”

When “Take It Easy” comes
on, Nancy, Ned, and Mr. Keene start singing along with the lyrics
about standing on the corner of Winslow, Arizona.

“Oh, that’s a good song,”
Mrs. Wood says.

They stop for lunch in
Flagstaff, and then head back to Route 66. When they enter
Winslow’s city limits, Nancy says, “Okay, guys. Start looking for
that Jackson Browne statue.”

Ned, looking at his iPhone,
corrects Nancy by saying, “According to this website, the statue is
neither Jackson Browne, who wrote it, nor Glenn Frey, who sang
it.”

Mrs. Wood says, “Isn’t it
wonderful, Ned, to have all that information instantly at your
fingertips?” She is the first one to see the statue. “Slow down,
Nancy! It’s right at that corner.”

They get out of the Prius
and take a look at it. Nancy takes pictures of all three of them,
and then Ned takes a picture of Nancy with her Dad and Mrs. Wood.
Then Mr. Keene takes a picture of Nancy and Ned. After they’ve
exhausted every possible photo opportunity that they can think of,
they hit the road for Holbrook, where they’re going to spend the
night.

“Sleep in a Wigwam”, Ned
reads from a brochure they’ve brought along. “Remember the Cozy
Cone Hotel in ‘Cars’. It was probably inspired by the Wigwam
Village.”

Mrs. Wood says, “I sure have
been hearing about that ‘Cars’ movie a lot lately.”

“We can’t wait for you to
see it,” Nancy says. “Let’s watch it all together in our home
theatre when we get back home.”

“Oh, my,” Mrs. Wood says.
“You have your own theatre in your house.”

Ned says, “Yes, they do.
It’s really awesome. You will love it!”

At around 5:00 p.m., they
arrive at Wigwam Village Motel. They get a kick out of the 15
concrete and steel wigwams arranged in a semi-circle.

“I hope that they have
bathrooms in them,” Mrs. Wood says. “I wouldn’t want to have to
hike over to an outhouse in the middle of the night and be
surprised by a havalina.”

Nancy laughs. “Each wigwam
has a sink, toilet, and shower.”

“Phew!” Mrs. Wood
says.

Ned points out a 1959 Chevy
parked in front of one of the tepees. He says, “Check out those
tail fins.” The four of them get out of the Prius and walk over to
the car to take a closer look.

“This is so cool. I love
it!” Ned says.

Nancy says, “I love the
whole kitschy look. What a welcome distraction for travelers to
stop, rest, and take a few pictures.”

Mr. Keene says, “Okay, guys;
let’s check in, unload our gear and drive out to the Petrified
Forest before the sun goes down.”

Nancy says, “And I want to
see the Painted Desert from there. Then maybe you guys will like
the song I chose for our special cd even better.”

“Okay, honey,” her father
says. “We’ll be sure to play it on the way.”

****

At 6:00 p.m., after a quick
dinner at a local restaurant, the four travelers get into Nancy’s
car and head for the Petrified Forest. Nancy is the tour guide this
evening. She begins: “The Petrified Forest is best known for its
fossils. The visitor center is open until 8:00 p.m. I’d like to go
to the Painted Desert Inn first, since we’re getting a late start.
It is supposed to have the most stunning view of the Painted
Desert. The inn is a national historic landmark. No longer an
operating inn, it just has a museum and gift shop if we want to buy
souvenirs.” When they arrive at the visitor’s center, they are
disappointed to find that the landmark has closed at 4:00 p.m.
Nancy is really disappointed. Ned tells her, “Don’t worry. Someday,
we’ll come back and see it. I promise.”

Mr. Keene tells her, “Let’s
be sure to find the best location to view the cliffs of the Painted
Desert and take some pictures before the sun goes down.”

Mrs. Wood says, “Look up
ahead. There’s a lookout point.

Mr. Keene tells her, “You
are really a good co-pilot. Once again, you’re the first person to
locate just what we are looking for.”

“Thank you, Mr.
Keene.”

They pull over to the side
of the road and take out their cameras.

Nancy is the first person to
arrive at the look-out. “Oh, it’s beautiful. Look at those striped
cliffs of red and gold.”

Ned says, “It looks just
like the background in a western.” He puts his arm around
Nancy.

Mrs. Wood touches Nancy’s
father’s arm, and says, “Let’s leave the kids alone for a bit.
Shall we look at the cliffs as far away from them as
possible?”

Mr. Keene says, “You’re
right, Mrs. Wood. Let’s give them some privacy.”

Mrs. Wood says, “By the way,
call me Phyllis.”

“Glad to meet you. My name
is Drew.”

Ned drives the Prius back to
the Wigwams where they’ll be spending the night. He makes a point
of putting on Nancy’s song, “The Painted Desert” by 10,000 Maniacs.
He turns the volume up loud, so nobody can talk over it. They just
have to listen.

When they arrive back at
their motel, Nancy says, “Okay, guys, we have to get up early
tomorrow because we have a lot of driving to do. It’s a three and a
half hour drive to Albuquerque, where we’ll stop for a quick lunch,
and then get on our way to Tucumcari.”

They bid each other “Good
night” and head to their wigwams--the guys sharing one wigwam; the
ladies sharing another.

****

They get an early start in
the morning, on their way to the Blue Swallow Motel. Ned asks Nancy
if it’s okay if he drives to Albuquerque, and she drives to
Tucumcari. She responds, “I’m really glad you like my
car.”

Ned returns, “I don’t know
if you’re being flippant or not.”

Nancy responds, “I’ll leave
you to wonder.”

After they’ve driven a few
miles, Ned puts on his favorite song for the trip cd. He had
borrowed Nancy’s iPhone when she wasn’t looking, and downloaded a
song he thought she’d like. “Maybe this song will make you feel
better towards me.”

“Let’s hear it.”

He puts on the song, “You’re
My Partner for Life,” by Graham Parker. Everyone is quiet,
listening to the lyrics while it plays. Nancy says, “Oh, Ned. What
a wonderful song. I’ve never heard it before.”

He answers, “Well, you know
how we like to surprise each other with songs that we think the
other doesn’t know about yet.”

Mrs. Wood says, “That’s a
good one, Ned. Play it again. And crank up the volume.”

Nancy holds his hand and
starts crying when she hears the lyrics about how they’re in this
together; going the distance; right down to the last
mile.

Nancy tells him, “What a
beautiful song. I think we’ve found our favorite one for the
cd.”

When they reach Albuquerque,
they stop at McDonald’s for lunch. Drew says, “Nancy, I know that
fast food offends your sensitivities, what with you being a gourmet
cook and all, but you just have to try eating a hamburger here,
since we’re pressed for time.”

“Okay, Dad. Am I that much
of a food snob?”

“Something you need to work
on, honey.”

When they’re back on the
road, with Nancy behind the wheel, she asks Mrs. Wood, “Well, we’re
getting pretty close to the Blue Swallow Motel where you spent your
honeymoon. Did you and your husband have a favorite
song?”

“Yes, honey. We
did.”

“Tell us why it was your
song,” Nancy says.

“It’s quite a romantic
story, actually. We were only 18 when we started going together,
just like our Nancy and Ned.”

“Go on,” Nancy’s father
says, feeling slightly annoyed by her “Nancy and Ned”
reference.

“Well, he and I were
upstairs in my bedroom.”

Nancy’s father interrupts,
“Your parents allowed a boy into their daughter’s
room?!!”

“Dad, would you please be
quiet and let her finish her story. Go on, Mrs. Wood.”

“Well, my future husband
wanted to kiss me for the first time, and he had planned out what
he was going to say ahead of time. We sat on my bed…”

“What!” Nancy’s father says,
outraged.

“Dad! Shut your trap. Don’t
pay any attention to him, Mrs. Wood. Continue with your
story.”

“I don’t know if your father
can handle the rest of my story.”

“Go ahead,” he says to Mrs.
Wood. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. The words my
future husband told me were: ‘You remind me of the song by the
Everly Brothers, ‘Let It Be Me.’ And like the song says, ‘I bless
the day I found you.’”

“Aww”…everyone else in the
car says.

“Okay, Mrs. Wood,” Ned says.
“I’ve just downloaded your song from iTunes.”

Everyone in the car listens
to the song he has just downloaded, and sings along with each other
its words that say: now and forever, let it be me.

****

As they are enjoying their
ride to Tucumcari, Ned tells everyone about the history of the The
Blue Swallow Motel. He begins by saying that it is listed on the
National Register of Historical Places. It has pink stucco walls
decorated with shell designs. Its most famous owner was Lillian
Redman. She and her husband installed a larger neon sign for the
motel. Mrs. Redman had a very close relationship with the Route 66
motorists who would stop for the night at her motel. She used to
love hearing their travel stories, feeling like she was traveling
right along with them. When Interstate 40 diverted the highway away
from the street her motel was on, she felt like she was losing an
old friend.

Nancy has been doing her
research, too. She takes up the story. “The symbol of the blue
swallow means ‘coming home’. It got its name because, to sailors,
these birds were usually the first sign that land was
near.”

Phyllis repeats the words,
“Coming home.” She is starting to remember her
honeymoon.