Day Five - Gallup, New Mexico to Flagstaff, Arizona

Day Five:

It’s hard to believe I’ve been on the road five days already and for the most part, my last real day on Route 66 ends tomorrow but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I had breakfast at the same place I had dinner last night, Earls Family Restaurant which is less than a mile from the El Rancho. Breakfast was good and the weather was beautiful and sunny although it felt as if summer was returning!

Heading out of town, I took the original route for Route 66 through Gallup and happened to pass Gurley Ford – quite a surprise when I saw a dark blue Ford GT sitting on the sidewalk at the front door to the showroom…I stopped for a few pictures and Mr. Gurley walked out…he owns the car personally but occasionally takes kids for rides while his sales people work with the parents…funny that never happened to me when I was a kid!!!

Continuing out of town I pass a large decorated vase and also an old trading post with some interesting murals advertising the business; now out of business…a lot of today was spent passing now silent trading posts and tourist attractions including a trading post tucked inside the protection of a cliff face. The same site had a old fake fort and the the hole in the cliff was used in a Kirk Douglas movie "Ace in the Hole".

I also passed a faux fort called Fort Courage – the purported home of the campy 60’s TV show “F-Troop” as some of the ‘fort’ was used for filming the series…more entertaining, however, were the horses roaming free on the property including several hanging around the gas pumps of the forever-closed gas station!

A major part of the day was spent in the Petrified Forest National Park which includes the southern part of the Painted Desert…my pictures simply can’t do justice to the varying colors of the landscape or the beauty of the crystal structured inside the petrified wood…the drive through the park was great including a stop paying homage to Route 66 complete with an old wreck of a car on concrete blocks…the Route did pass through the park the Painted Desert Inn, now park property, served Route 66 travelers and was at one time a Harvey hotel and was originally built of petrified logs.

Other sites today included the giant jack-rabbit and also Winslow, AZ made famous by the Eagles in “Take It Easy”...the only girl in a flat-bed Ford I saw was in the mural painted on the wall behind the statue which now identifies the “corner in Winslow, AZ.

As I left Winslow, the San Francisco Peaks were rising up form the high desert and as I got closer to Flagstaff, my stopping point for tonight, the desolate desert land gave way to tall pine forests and grass framing the road.

Flagstaff is a beautiful town with lots of shops and a rich Route 66 history…dinner tonight was at the Grand Canyon Cafe; a Route 66 staple.

Tomorrow it’s on to Oatman, AZ, hopefully in time to see the wild burrows and then on to Las Vegas for a couple of days before heading back to Tennessee!

Distance covered today was 249 miles; total mileage for the trip so far is 1,888.0

Today’s Pictures

Day Four - Albuquerque to Gallup, New Mexico

Day Four:

This morning started at a reasonable time; 8:30 AM. Beautiful sunshine and temps in the upper 60s to start with although closer to normal temps along with the chance of scattered showers were promised today.

I rolled out to eat breakfast at a Route 66 landmark restaurant called Lindy’s which is on Central Avenue in Albuquerque. Central is the alignment for Route 66 through Albuquerque. It was a great breakfast and I think my least expensive so far. I decided to start out today by doing a bit of backtracking and I headed over to Sandia Crest; a high point in the Sandia mountain range…it’s a fabulous drive; the approach road called the Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway which climbs to an elevation of over 10,000 feet – temperatures at this elevation was in the upper 50s!

There is an observation platform at the top along with a snack bar and gift shop. After a couple of pictures and a walk though the gift shop I headed back down; into Albuquerque and Central Avenue all the way through town. On the far west side of town, Albuquerque is putting up some nice “Route 66” signs at street corners and in one case, an arch across the street with what looked like neon spelling out “66” (I’m sure it looks great at night). Leaving Albuquerque you cross the Rio Grand River and out into some very sparsely populated country.

Overall, this has been the best “driving” day so far. Along with the perfect weather the scenery only got better as the miles passed heading through towns like Mesita, Laguna, Budville, Cubero (Hemingway wrote part of “the Old Man And The Sea” here), San Fidel, Grants and Prewitt as I made my way toward Gallup. I had planned to eat lunch in Grants which sports a couple of well known Route 66 diners but unfortunately, my backtracking this morning caused me to get to town too late as those places close about 2PM…so, I ended up at the local McDonald’s for lunch!

There are lot’s and lot’s of old motels along today’s route; most of which aren’t in operation any more and in many cases, the buildings are almost gone or heading that way quickly. However, it was obvious where they had been as there were hints of old signage and motel offices.

By and large, there were miles of almost nothing in the way of civilization broken only by the occasional gathering of small adobe homes or trailers…this is Pueblo country and unfortunately, obviously not well-off financially. With or without money, living in this part of the country couldn’t be easy and it makes you think of what it was like for early settlers and those traveling to California before there were roads at all; let alone GPS navigation and A/C! Nor would it have been easy for the dust bowlers in the 30’s and 40’s traveling across country in vehicles that managed each mile likely as much on prayer as on gasoline.

There was an old alignment (pre 1937) available today but with a warning of rough pavement in some places and no pavement at all in others but I bypassed that but did take an alignment that was full of surprises including “Owl Rock” which seems as if it simply lifts up out of the road.

The thunderstorms never materialized for me while I was driving but it was evident that they had deposited some substantial amounts earlier in the day as I passed through areas that still had some standing water (including one very narrow underpass that’s barely wide enough for one vehicle at a time)!

Other highlights of the day included crossing the Continental Divide shortly before getting to Gallup which is my stopping place for the day. I’m staying at a Route 66 icon called the “El Rancho” hotel built in 1936 mostly to cater to movie stars coming to this part of the country to film great western movies...some of the biggest stars Hollywood ever gave us have stayed here and even if you aren’t staying; just looking around the hotel lobby is worth a stop.

Today’s driving time was just over 6 hours and covered 231 miles which included about 50 miles of backtracking to see Sandia Crest!

Links:
El Rancho Hotel

Today’s Pictures

Day Three - Tucumcari to Albuquerque, New Mexico

Day Three:

Day three started with a big surprise…60 degrees! Through most of my travels today the temps stayed under 70 and only near the very end of the day did they rise into the mid 70s…quite a change form 100+ temp I had on day one and upper 90s on day two…this was windows down weather for the most part although today did see some fairly significant showers here and there.

My first hour of driving was perfect, cool and relaxing…I headed out about 8:30 AM (I’m now in Mountain time) and headed to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Breakfast was today was at the Silver Moon Cafe in Santa Rosa; a Route 66 original. While in Santa Rosa I also stopped by the Route 66 Auto Museum – for $5 I saw some spectacular cars including an extremely impressive Lincoln Mark 2.

Just as I was leaving the museum some significant rain started but the rain today was very hit or miss. One thing I’ve noticed about this part of the country is that you can see storms from fairly great distances and it’s quite a site to see heavy rain miles away while you have none or to see clouds hanging around the hill tops…one thing New Mexico has not failed to do is impress with it’s stark yet beautiful scenery.

A great deal of what was Route 66 is completely covered over by I-40 so a lot of the driving today was on I-40. However; the alignments of actual Route 66 that was available were great stretches of roadway. Just of I-40 is another Route 66 original (in fact it predates the founding of Route 66) called Clines Corners.

Shortly after lunch I left the interstate for an actual alignment of Route 66 including a nice stretch of road called Sedillo Hill Road; an alignment from 1937-1949) which is a beautiful two lane road.

Overall, it was a fairly short day of travel as I arrived in Albuquerque by 4PM…after cleaning the car and eating dinner I’m ready for a good book and some sleep as I head for Gallup, New Mexico tomorrow.

Stats for the day: 4 hours/3 minutes of actual driving and 204.6 miles total. Average MPG/MPH were 26.1/50.6.

My Day Three Pictures

Day Two - Oklahoma City to Tucumcari, New Mexico

Day Two:

Today started even earlier than yesterday; up by 6 and out of the room by 7 to go to breakfast…ate at an original Route 66 diner on the outskirts of Oklahoma City near the Canadian River.

As with yesterday, this was a pretty heavy day of travel although not as far as yesterday's undertaking…my plan was to travel over to Amarillo and pick up the route at exactly where we left off in 2007 at the "Cadillac Ranch"…now in case any of you are wondering, this is not a house if ill-repute; it's 10 Cadillac automobiles buried to their dashboards "pointing' West…an art experiment in the middle of a Texas field!

Before getting to Amarillo, I couldn't help but make a couple of excursions off I-40 to stop in Clinton, Ok and then Elk City, Ok to revisit a couple of Route 66 icons.

It seems slightly cooler today although temps were still in the low 90's and it was bright and sunny although it looked as if there were some heavy rains south of the interstate.

I made it to the Cadillac Ranch just to the West of Amarillo and then picked up Route 66 from that point…along much of Texas, Route 66 is frontage road mostly following the I-40; that's because, in part, much of I-40 in Texas sits right on top of what was Route 66. However, there are some old alignments of the route with original pavement (and sometimes, original dirt of sections that were never paved)!

I stopped for a late lunch at the "Mid-Point Cafe" in Adrian, TX…the exact mid-point on Route 66 between Chicago and Santa Monica. The food was good but the home-made Coconut Cream pie was the real highlight - this was the real deal; nothing machine processed when it comes to their pies! The Mid-Point Cafe best point however are the people who own it/run it…extremely friendly and truly happy to have you as a customer; exactly the way good roadside diners were before the McDonald's Burger Kings and Wendy's took over! By the way, the Mid-Point Cafe was the inspiration for "Flo's V8 Cafe" in the Disney Pixar movie "Cars".

A lot of the Texas panhandle is somewhat uninteresting as far as landscapes go although there are exceptions…things get noticeably more interesting when you cross the border into New Mexico…it's easy to see why so many "Western" movies have been filmed in New Mexico…wind chiseled ridges and towering pieces of land seem to sprout up out of flat land.

Today's destination was the Blue Swallow Motel; a Route 66 original - each room comes with a garage and inside the garage are murals (and murals on much of the outside walls of the building as well. The Blue Swallow neon sign alone is worth the cost of the room. The room is definitely "old fashioned"…small but completely refurbished…everything works including the A/C and the 1938 rotary phone on the desk by the bed.

This is not a place for those who like modern comfort but if you want to see how it was back in the day, this is the place to be.

Stats for today - 7 hrs/16 minutes of driving for a total of 420.9 miles. Average MPG/MPH for today was 23.9/57.1 respectively.

Tomorrow it's on to Albuquerque, New Mexico!

Midpoint Cafe: http://www.midpointroute66cafe.com/

Blue Swallow Motel: http://blueswallowmotel.com/

My Day Two Pictures

Day One - Middle Tennessee to Oklahoma City

DAY ONE:

This was a very heavy travel day. After taking care of boarding my pets (Millie the Basset Hound and Max the cat); I headed out of Tennessee hitting the road at about 7:45 AM headed for near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma to be specific).

The trip took 10 hours 14 minutes of driving time and covered 728.8 miles although the total travel time was close to 12 hours. Average MPG was 24.9 at an overall average speed of 71.0 MPH. According to my in-car gauge; ambient temps were as high as 103 degrees although I'm not sure what the official high for the day was…as engine oil temps have been a concern for the 370Z I'm happy to report that even in slow-moving traffic due to construction, etc…oil temps never went much above 230 and even under periods of sometimes hard acceleration; it didn't have a problem at all.

On the comfort side, the 370Z is not a bad car to travel in but long distance traveling requires stops every now and then to stretch the legs for a few minutes…the vehicle is pretty comfortable but there are only so many (and not quite enough) sitting positions! Overall all it was a pretty unremarkable day…almost perfect, if very hot, weather.

I took the car to a local car was after I had checked in at my hotel and a couple of notable things happened. First, a young mother came up to me just after I had pulled into the wash bay and asked if she could use my cell phone…seems her 3 year old who was belted into his car seat had managed to lock the car with him and the keys inside…she called her mother to bring a set of keys so she could open the vehicle…it was a Toyota SUV so no "On-Star"! Since the car was running and the A/C on, the little boy was comfortable until Grandma arrived.

The second thing is that gentlemen showed up to wash a beautiful and completely original black 1965 Oldsmobile 442. He's the original owner and the car was nearly perfect. We talked for a while and I found out he also owns a 350Z which he's heavily modified. Of course, we also ended up talking about the 370 and some of the differences between the 350 and the 370!

The other thing that caught my ere was there a "self-service dog wash" attached to the car wash…I knew such things existed (and there has been time when I've taken my hound to the dog park to play that I wished I had one available to me before putting her back into the car) but this was the first one I had ever actually seen and this one was busy!

Tomorrow it's on to Amarillo where I'll actually pick up Route 66!

First Day Pictures

Touring the Mother Road - June/July 2009

Touring the Mother Road - June/July 0209

Route 66 has been called the "Mother Road" and the "Main Street of America" and for good reason. It was a major factor in the building of our U.S. Highway system; carried tens of thousands of refugees from Oklahoma and Arkansas to the hope of a better life in California during the great "dust bowl" years which became the backdrop for Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath". During World War 2 it was a major factor in moving war supplies and troops and after the war, it was the canvas we used to show our nation's prosperity and our love affair with the automobile that still exists today.

Route 66 officially doesn't exist today - it was decommissioned as a U.S. route in 1985 but thousands of people who know and love the route and what it represents have revived interest and preserved it - the eight states it passed through have help erect signage to help folks follow in the footsteps of those who went before and to at least partially experience life the way our parents, or grand parents experienced the great American highways.

As some of you know, I and a dear friend traveled the Route form its beginnings in Chicago and as far as the Cadillac Ranch just west of Amarillo, Texas in 2007. This year, I'm traveling the route alone in my 370Z; picking it up in Amarillo and heading as far as Oatman, Arizona before heading up to Las Vegas for a couple of days and then heading back home.

What follows is my attempt at writing down some of my experiences along the route

Edit: I wanted to make mention of something that happened and in doing so, dedicate this blog and in particular, this trip down Route 66 to the memory of a friend named Randy McLeod. Randy passed away on Thursday, June 25th at the much too young age of 52.

Randy’s passing certainly won’t be noted as will the recent passing of celebrities like Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Karl Malden and of course, Michael Jackson, Nevertheless, for those who knew Randy, it’s a sad time and a sad note on which to start a vacation trip.

I know randy as a part of the Datsun/Nissan “Z” car community in which I heavily participate…here is what a mutual friend had to say about Randy’s passing:

“Thomas Randy McLeod passed away early this afternoon (Thursday). Randy has participated in several area Z car shows, car club rides and regional Z events. Randy passed away at Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga. Originally from Jackson, Tennessee, Randy worked for TVA in both Chattanooga and Knoxville for 28 years. He is survived by a daughter and son. Randy attended UT-Martin, and graduated from UT-Knoxville with a degree in Nuclear Engineering. Randy also had completed Master degrees from UTK and was nearing completion of his PhD.

Randy was a Z enthusiast, having owned three, his latest a 2007 350z, San Marino Blue. Randy's Z was easily recognized by his personally built in-car computer and his passion for truly driving and enjoying his Z. He participated in, and placed at last years East Coast Regional Z Car Show, and attended ZNationals and ZDAYZ as well. He often joined the Smoky Mountain Z Car Club's rides and rides with the SportsCarFrenzy.com car club.”

Randy was often in my thoughts during my trip and it seems only fitting that I mention his passing here and dedicate my trip to Randy…I’ve no doubt he would have enjoyed the sights and history of Route 66 and especially the special and sometimes quirky people you meet along the way…I’m privileged to have had a chance to know him.