08 June 2009

BRIDGE TO NOWHERE



I pass by this bridge every time I head out to Route 66 Casino for the buffet... ok ok I plug a few quarters down in the slots too.

I really dig old bridges with character and this one has some.





This is the Rio Puerco bridge built in 1933 and is part of Route 66, The Mother Road.





The bridge is no longer in use and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is being preserved by the State of New Mexico.





Interesting side note. As I was there taking pictures this guy in a pick up truck pulls up next to where I was parked and also walks the bridge.

That's cool, maybe he is a bridge enthusiast too.

So he follows a distance behind me and I don't really think anything of it.

When I am done taking my pics I begin to head back to my car and he turns around and says something like "so I found this baby crow a few days ago here and am nursing it back to health."

I stop and say something like, oh, ok, and he begins some small talk about how he found it at the bridge and took it home and is nursing it and was wondering if he should set it free in the same spot or what.

He is drawing my attention to the area below the bridge.

Ok at this point horror movies are rushing through my head. Especially Texas Chainsaw Massacres 1-3 and the remakes!!

He is not a transient looking fella -- denim shirt and jeans and seems well kept. Still, something is odd here.

I mean, my being there with a camera makes sense: bridge enthusiast, photographer, etc.

He is there without a camera just sort of wandering about.

And what was he doing there 'a few days ago???'


[CLICK TO ENLARGE - THAT IS HIS TRUCK AT THE LEFT.
NOW DON'T TELL ME THIS DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A SCENE FROM TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3: STEEL TRUSS BRIDGE - REMOTE AREA - DUSK!!!]

As I start to leave he keeps bringing up small talk. Something is telling me I should leave.

I tell him 'well I have to go buddy; and I do.

Serial killer? Pick up? I don't know but it was creepy. I've seen enough movies to know one thing: TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!!!

As I pull back on to the main road I get the chills: the song on my CD player, no lie, is FRESH BLOOD by Eels.

I'm out.

Oh...I saw Journey Gnome about yesterday....something is up.

6 comments:

K-Mo said...

Glad you got out of there... I don't know if the guy was legit or not, but that doesn't look anything like an area where a crow would be nesting. In fact, the whole ABQ area is pretty much in the southernmost part of the American Crow's breeding range, so I don't think they'd be especially abundant there, and that also suggests they'd only be nesting in suitable habitat (lower population density = less pressure to use substandard habitat). So something's fishy to start with.

He *might* have been telling the whole truth, but it didn't sound to me like he was just chatting to be chatting.

How far off the main road is this? Who knows, maybe it's a cruisy area.

G said...

Oh great, I'll never look at the old bridges in my hometown in quite the same way. Yet strangely I feel arroused. LOL Mike

MICK said...

To this blokes credit, there were three crows sitting atop a telephone pole next to the bridge. However; I did not see the 'nest' he tried to point out to me that was in some brush underneath the bridge.

It was also the way he approached the conversation, no 'hello' or 'how's it going'. As I was about to pass him he just swung around and started with the crow story.

Ok, maybe he doesn't know many people in the area and just wanted to convers, but when the hair on your neck starts to tingle I think that is a valid feeling.

As for this being a 'cruisy' bridge, I don't know. I've never heard anyone mention it in local chats. I did think it was odd that he appeared out of nowhere and as I mention....what was he doing there just a few days ago? And if he had the baby crow why wasn't it with him now?

Also, the first thing I noticed was that he was not wearing a belt yet had his long sleeve shirt tucked in his jeans. Now this is odd for me only because I ALWAYS wear a belt and feel weird without one.

LOL and Mike, as for being aroused, he wasn't that bad looking...but then neither was Ted Bundy or Jeffry Dahmer.

I've been 'cruised' in bars before and this just did not feel like that.

Something was not right.

I am curious though and will look for the truck next time I go to the buffet.

A man has to eat.

G said...

Beware the Raven, and the man who has the Raven's baby. Mike s.c. ca

Anonymous said...

I have lived in some very small towns, 900 people all he way up to cities like New York. My one guide to my safety and survival has been my gut reaction. It has covered me from everything to cruising to renting an apartment to just being someplace. If something was wrong I made a hasty retreat. Wise move there Buddy.
DGC

Anonymous said...

Randall Flagg, likes crows and the desert...yikes.
DGC