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