Photo books are almost done - and I only have 5 more days of work and then - yey - I might be able to get my head round scrapping.
Fingers crossed eh!
For those of you who haven't given up yet - more of the holiday journal. I do always say that this is my blog primarily for me and so apologies if I am boring you rigid with this. But I need to record my journal and the photos and it is easy to have it right here. But seriously, feel free to skip. I am not sure anyone is reading it anyway!
Day 13 Amarillo to Gallup
27th October 2019
Start miles 4533
Start time 6.30
End miles 4996
End time 5.00
The one with the tune in the road
Today was always going to be a busy day with lots to cram in and so we were up even earlier than normal. The car was loaded by the time breakfast opened at six. The lady at checkout asked if we’d had a good night so I told her my concerns and she was dismayed that we were put on the fourth floor and said she would pass it on to her manager… Update is they did nothing. Breakfast was grim, the worst we had all trip.
The good news is that we had another gift today, another bonus hour as we cost from Texas into New Mexico. Our first stop the day was at Adrian, the midpoint on Route 66. I think it is possibly the coldest I have ever been with a very strong wind and bitterly cold temperatures. It was dark when we arrived and so Nigel positioned the car so that the headlights illuminated the sign. Taking the pictures took a breath away with the cold and the pictures were not great. We drove just a couple of hundred yards away and pulled over to have a somewhat heated discussion about the quality of photos that had been taken. In the time it took to have the discussion the Sun started to rise and there are glimmers of daylight. We turned around and went back to the midway point to take more photos. It hadn’t become any warmer and if anything the wind was even stronger. Several pictures were taken when we realised there was a stand strategically placed in front of the sign to put your camera on to take photos. I decided to put my phone on the stand as it was the quickest way to deal with taking a picture with both of us. Nigel was very reluctant because he could see the strife ahead when I cried because my phone had fallen off and smashed due to the wind. I said it would be fine. I set up the photograph, ran into place and thankfully the phone stayed on the stand. It’s a pretty dreadful photo but it does record both of us at the midway point.
Our next stop was Tucumcari and it had become no warmer in the time it took to drive there. We celebrated our gift of an hour by walking round various derelict and still used motels and visiting a great souvenir store. One of the things we have enjoyed about this trip is meeting different people along the way and chatting to them. We were told in advance that the people on route 66 were very friendly and that was certainly our experience of everywhere we stopped.
This is one of the most iconic hotels in the town and was beautiful
and the murals are such a feature of Route 66 and they are wonderful but I have to say this one was exceptional.
We continued on to Albuquerque driving past endless signs for two iconic Route 66 locations which was the flying C ranch and Clines Corner. We had such a laugh reading the signs because apparently these two places sold everything you needed from jewellery to pottery, girls stuff, plants, ornaments, blankets and even knives. I kid you not one of the big draws was that you could buy knives. Oh and they boasted clean rest rooms as well. I can’t vouch for both of them but clines corner certainly had good restrooms and I made use of them.
We had never been to a Sonic Drive in and really wanted to try one (and quickly became hooked - their french toast dippers and their ice creams were fabulous
On our way into Albuquerque we made a slight detour as we wanted to find the musical road. This road had received no mention in any of the route 66 books we had looked at nor on the Internet, but Nigel had read about it and had also checked on TripAdvisor and someone had used it just a few days earlier so it looked like it still existed. It is a road outside Albuquerque where if you drive on it at exactly 45 miles an hour it plays America the Beautiful. We found it and although it was very faint and quite slow it did indeed play. We made our way back into Albuquerque and drove down the Central Street which followed the old Route 66 and we were able to see many of the buildings from the car. We also drove around the old town, but there were extensive roadworks going on which made it very difficult to find anywhere to stop and walk around. I did love seeing all the adobe buildings in the town though.
We then made our way out of the city centre to meet up with a friend of mine who is a fellow digital scrapper at pickleberrypop. I hadn’t realised that Kay lived just outside Albuquerque until a few weeks previously and when I had we had taken advantage of the visit to find time to meet up for lunch. We met at the golden corral and it was so lovely to see her in person. She is a true local to the area although she has travelled and lived in many places around the world and we had a fascinating conversation over lunch. I love the opportunity to meet up with people that I have known online when we get the chance. I was in awe of her needlework skills. She was wearing the most gorgeous south western reversible jacket that she had made - such talent. We enjoyed our time with Kay enormously.
Our journey that day continued along roads that stretched straight for miles into the distance and we played guess how far that next brow we could see is. It was often more than 10 miles ahead. We crossed the residue of the Rockies and made our way to Grants where we could take the obligatory picture driving through a Route 66 arch. It was by no means an original feature, but was too cute not to take advantage of.
Our hotel for the night was based in Gallop which is known as Indian town. We checked into the hotel and then walked across the street to the iconic and very beautiful El Rancho hotel. This is an original route 66 gem and anybody who was anybody in the movies in the 50s and 60s stayed at the El rancho when they were filming in the area. We enjoyed taking pictures outside and I knew what to expect when we went through the doors into the lobby, but Nigel had no idea and I was thrilled to see his reaction when he saw what lay ahead. It was like a miniature Wilderness Lodge and was beautiful and cosy, whilst also being very grand. They were very kind at the hotel and were happy for us to walk around taking photos and soaking up the old Hollywood atmosphere. There were pictures of just about every star from the era that you could think of. Nigel and I had both grown up with westerns and so knew many of them, but it did make me a little sad too. My Mom was a huge huge Hollywood fan. She knew who everyone was, what they had been in, who they were married to etc. She would have loved it so much and I so wished I could have shared it with her.
We made our way to the bar where Nigel had a cocktail and I decided to try the locally brewed beer. That was a huge mistake and they swapped it for a Budweiser. We retired back to our hotel across the street and Nigel informed me that he was going to go out once it was dark to take photos of the neon. I was not impressed as Gallup has quite a reputation as being a reasonably unsafe town. I managed to convince him that he now looked like a more senior gentleman and would like an easy target with his phone and camera out and active. In the end he looked at the neon and realised it wasn’t worth going out for.
I'm just now getting around to reading more of your trip from last autumn. I'm feeling as though things have settled down a bit around here since the holidays in 2019. These little lulls never last though. March is on its way, and I see our calendar is loaded with at least one medical appointment for either Steve or me each week, two virtual crops I will be participating in, and Steve's birthday! The return of daylight savings time is coming up on March 8. Ugh! How I hate the change of the clocks. It just messes up my body clock, and takes me forever to get over it.
The photos you took of buildings in Albuquerque are awesome. I am so glad you and Nigel got to go to a Sonic drive-in. I have never lived in a town that had a Sonic, but when Steve and I drive to Missouri or Colorado, we stop at one whenever we need lunch or a snack. :-)
I had never heard of the Hotel El Rancho, but it looks absolutely awesome! I do love the modern "rustic" look. Too bad an employee couldn't have given you a tiny peek inside one of the guest rooms--just for fun. :-)
How fabulous that you got to meet one of your Pickleberry Pop friends in real life! I must say there are benefits like this to the high tech world. :-)
Posted by: Barb in AK | February 27, 2020 at 10:36 AM