On the last stop in the heart of Las Vegas, N.M., I parked on the plaza and went inside what I think is a community center called Tapetes de Lana, where veterans and neophytes weave rugs on traditional Navajo looms. And the place also has a coffee shop tucked away in the back corner, with every latte you can imagine and YES … free Wi-Fi.

Rug weaving 101 and free Wi-Fi … take that Starbucks! Tapetes gets 5 pings.

I grabbed some free e-mail and traded notes with laptop types Wallace Schultz and Dwinell Heverly. They and a third local were engrossed in a conversation about a neighboring property owned by members of a Scientology sect. They were checking out arial views on Google Earth, taken high above the property, showing what looked like markings for a landing strip for who knows what? Ah, I love New Mexico!

But … time to head back east to Texas. I opted for the back road between Las Vegas and Tucumcari, near the Conches dam. And of course, driving fast, I cranked the tunes on the iPod. (Check out the tale of the iPod – “I Got A Rock” in the Blogs About Nothing section …) I set the gadget on shuffle … and away we went. I thought there could be no more perfect music than the Spanish-sounding brass of Calexico as it blurted out of my speakers. (Setting the iPod on shuffle, for the surprise effect, is the best way to craft the soundtrack for a roadtrip.)

The multi-colored mesas on either side of the lonely road were a backdrop right out of some spaghetti western … under a huge sky with thurderstorm huddling in the distance. Then came a very spiritual moment. Don’t ask me why, but I have the theme to the classic spaghetti western, “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” loaded on my pod. Pure luck of the draw, the old mystic sounding classic played next … that eerie desert flute/organ sounds of Hugo Montenegro and his posse … how weird that I have it and how weird that it was playing on its own, out here in Clint Eastwood-in-a-pancho- with-a-cigar country! The Surreal West.

I teared up (kidding), obviously moved by the Clint Eastwood-moment and sped on, soon connecting with I-40 again, passing Tucumcari and heading for the Texas state line, Adrian, Vega and then Amarillo.

I made it to Vega around 10 p.m. and stopped off briefly for the annual street dance, on the eve of the popular Oldham Country Roundup & Barbecue. Then I rushed to Amarillo arriving around midnight. The next day, it was back to Vega for the best plate of barbecue in the world among the locals and the old timers.

Vega is a unique place. If you ever pass through, check out the hardware store. You can buy tools, ammo, solar collectors … but most interesting is that they have installed a fine coffee bar, featuring the wares and blends of Roasters Coffee from Amarillo. This trip, I didn’t check on their Wi-Fi hotspot. My bad.

In addition to the feast, the parade, the high school band, the vintage cars and steer roping …. The town was abuzz with quite a piece of news. I cannot believe this! While I was in New Mexico, escaping the Texas heat … Vega experienced its best ever brush with fame. Guess who stopped into dusty little, 800-people-on-a-good-day Vega. Guess!

Paul! The Paul! Sir Paul!

Here I am “music head of the universe” and I skip out of my town just for a few moons, and Paul McCartney pulls over and mixes it up with the Vegans.

That, my friends, is big stuff anywhere … so just think of the news worthiness in a farmers’ town, in the Texas Panhandle.

Paul and his new love interest, I was told, were doing the Americana thing – taking the historic coast-to-coast road trip following old Route 66 – which passes through Vega. (I guess figuratively, The Stones already passed through town when they covered the song, “Get Your Kicks On Route 66.”) But, this was the real McCoy … er Beatle.

Paul, if you are reading this🙂, I invite you back next year and this time stay another day for the free barbecue. What’s that? Vegetarian? Trust me … the BBQ in Vega will convert you.

Route 66 also passes alongside the Cadillac Ranch, on the way back to Amarillo. I wonder if Paul stopped to leave his mark on the monument. I can only hope. A couple of days later, I headed back to Fort Worth to log onto my own hotspot up on “the balc.” But … one last thought on Amarillo. Patterned after the world renown Cadillac Ranch, a local farmer has tried his hand at roadside art. Just southeast of Amarillo, on the Claude Highway … someday soon, check out the Combine City. Like the Cadillacs, the combines are partially buried in the ground for artistic effect. There’s about a dozen – John Deere’s, Masseys, New Hollands, Allis-Chalmers, etc. Cool. What is it that makes men want to take perfectly good, working Cadillacs, combines, Volkswagens … whatever and face plant them into the ground? They do it because they can🙂

And who doesn’t love roadside art? –the score: ping, ping, ping and ping.

Oh … I forgot this earlier. On the very first leg of this trip, I took the back road from Fort Worth, to Abilene, driving past the thousands of modern windmills around Sweetwater and Trent. You need to see that! But, also on that stretch of drive is Lubbock, Texas … home of the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

A quick sideline route: Tech will give a journalism degree to just about anyone, I can attest. However … a bone to pick … The Texas Tech media relations folks turned me down for media credentials. So, I am good enough for the press box at the San Francisco Giants game, and TCU in my current hometown gave me the okay … but even though I am an alumnus, I don’t measure up in Lubbock. “You can never go home!”

Anyway, right now, football is the buzz in Raiderland, and the team is ranked in the Top 20, riding on the shoulders of the best quarterback in the nation – Graham Harrell and his stellar receiver Michael Crabtree. (Don’t argue with me about Harrell until you watch the game films for the previous two seasons and analyze the number of blue chippers his “underdog” crew has shocked.)

Well, one of my best friends in the world just moved back to Lubbock. So, “Mikey and me” attended the first football practice of the season in Lubbock. It is going to be a good year, when the team starts hitting on all cylinders.

(Someone tell me to get back on track) … Oh yes … no Wi-Fi located on the practice field. But, I was sorely in need of sending a photo of Michael Crabtree to another buddy. (Note, Crabtree is too fast for me to get a shot in focus … hahaha) … so we drove across the street from the university looking for Wi-Fi. And what did we see? There among the red and black Raiderland was the green old faithful – Starbucks.

We drove up to the store and I swear we only borrowed the handicapped parking space for a couple of minutes, and I got online the Bux hotpsot … from the passenger seat of my buddy’s Raider Red King Ranch Ford. Instant upload … “a two-minute drill” if you will.

Lub-Bux gets 5 pings for being there, when I need them in Raiderville. And “Guns Up!” as we say at Texas Tech!

So there you have it … the test drive of PingWi-Fi … I think we’re almost ready to go.

So, the roundtrip from Fort Worth, to Lubbock, to Amarillo, to Santa Fe, to Las Vegas … and then back through Vega where I did not see a Beatle … and on to Amarillo and back to Fort Worth.

Judges? Lots of miles, ample Wi-Fi, good tunes and only a few bruises – I give the test drive 6 pings on the Beatle-free scale of 7.

All you need is love … well … and a hotspot.

Next up … the Florida coast during hurricane season.

Know what I sayin?