Today marked the 10th day that the “Dudes on the Mother Road” have been cruising 66. We had a great night last night at the Blue Swallow. Mike and I spent the evening snapping some pictures of the neon signs in town and shared a conversation with Bill. He is awesome! We bought a few souvenirs before we checked out and hit the road. Our first major stop ended up being Santa Rosa, which has many relics from the heyday of 66. We stopped at the Blue Hole and ran into Gene and his wife, whom we had met in Amarillo. Next stop was Clines Corner. We filled up (not a good idea as they jacked up the gas prices) and continued on our way. I-40 is not the same as Route 66 and is very boring!
The ruins of the Longhorn Ranch are sad to behold, considering just how impressive it was back in the day. We drove through Moriarty, Edgewood, Barton, etc. toward Albuquerque, but decided to bypass the city. The one thing we learned from Saint Louis, Tulsa, OKC, and Amarillo is that they take forever to get through, and Mike and I are more interested in old/dead-end alignments than city streets.
West of Albuquerque and the Rio Puerco Bridge is one such dead-end alignment. We got off the interstate and found the entrance to the Post 1937 alignment on the east side of NM Route 6 (the Pre-1937 alignment). There are two old bridges on this alignment, and to the west of one of them lay the bridge abutments from an even earlier alignment.
Route 66 enters Native American land near Mesita, and it is important to know their laws concerning cameras, trespassing, etc. The land in this area is simply beautiful. We drove by Dead Man’s Curve and Owl Rock. We drove through Laguna, Budville, Cubero, San Fidel and McCARTYS before hitting Grants. Grants reminded me of Tucumcari in that one can see what it was like in the heyday of 66 and what the interstate can do to a town. New motel chains build along the western/eastern sides of town, and there are many ruins in between. At least there are some decent places still going strong in town that provide people the real Route 66 experience. We continued through Prewitt, Thoreau, the Continental Divide, Coolidge, and Iyanbito before calling it a day in Gallup. Tomorrow it is on to Arizona!
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