Day 29 Route 66

Since I still haven’t relearned to stay up late and sleep late since we crossed into mountain time zone during the switch from daylight savings time, we were on the road about 9 a.m. today.

Our first sighting was the Rio Puerco Bridge. You can no longer drive across this bridge but they did turn part of the old road into a parking area so you can walk out to the bridge.

Dave would like to drive as much Route 66 as we can without having to backtrack but when he mentioned today’s route included a section called “Dead Man’s Curve” I balked. It makes no more sense to me to drive a road with that name than it does to drive in 35 mile an hour cross winds. As we bypassed it on I-40 he pointed it out to me–it didn’t look as bad as it sounded but still…

There is a lot of nothing out here. So much so that we saw a sign saying, “Driveway Entrances Next 5 Miles.” If those ranchers can’t enter the freeway from their driveways, where are they supposed to go?

Driving uphill we caught up to a truck from the Swift company. Not so much so today, eh?

We did see a lot of trains. We drove over an eastbound piggyback one that was stopped on a super-elevated curve which made it lean to one side. It seemed an odd place to stop.

Then we saw a westbound tank train that looked like it was stopped, too, until we came to a bridge against which we could see it was moving along quite nicely. Apparently, sage brush is not something against which you can measure movement.

In Grants, New Mexico, we saw several Route 66 places. The Franciscan lodge had been described as a  “pretty swank place.” I wonder when the author last saw it?

The Grants Cafe and the Uranium Cafe were both closed and our picture of the Monte Carlo did not turn out.

 

So, we headed on west and saw more trains. In order: an eastbound stack train, a mixed freight and another stack train all stopped on the main. It was good seeing so many locomotives in the old Great Northern paint scheme but it was not good to see them all stopped. Dave wondered if there was a rookie dispatcher working today since it’s Saturday.

On the other track we saw several hundred empty stack cars, also not moving. Then we saw another EB piggyback train, also stopped.

Several miles later a hy-rail went by Eastbound and he was moving a quite a clip. It was nice to see something moving even it it was just a truck. But the rest of the day we saw only eastbound trains, plenty of them, but no west bound trains at all. I wonder if something happened to tie up the westbound main? Or both mains, since the first batch of EB trains were all stopped?

We pulled into Gallup, New Mexico, just as my stomach was saying, “Lunch now, please.” I was glad we had reached Earl’s family restaurant because I was looking forward to eating in a place that was built the same year we were and that Frommers still recommends. I wonder if he would recommend us?

Earl’s was quite an experience! We had seen evidence earlier that Saturday is flea market day. That wasn’t quite true at Earl’s but it was a day for locals to set up tables on the restaurant’s sidewalks selling jewelry, pottery, and other crafts. They also brought samples to the tables in the restaurant to try to sell them to the diners. Lots of sellers. Lots of samples. Some people more than once. You couldn’t just ignore them because they stood there until you said, “No, thanks,” or shook your head if your mouth was full. And around those vender servers were scurrying everywhere trying to keep up with the demand.  

The menu offered things that were original and things that were new. There was a section of sandwiches which had only been on the menu since 1982. We both ordered from that section. Dave had a clubhouse and I had an adult grilled cheese. I ordered it without onions so it only had two types of cheese, tomatoes, bacon, olives, and avocado. It was delicious.

The other thing odd about Earl’s is that except for two employees we appeared to be the only gringoes in the place. No one made us feel unwelcome, though. Staff and vendors alike treated us the same as all the other customers. And there were lots of other customers. When we left, they were lined up out the door waiting to be seated.

I was so busy watching all this action I forgot to take pictures. Sorry, you’ll have to go see for yourselves.

We did take pictures of our other stops in Gallup, though. Here’s the El Rancho Hotel/Motel “lovingly restored to it’s 1930 glory” and the El Morro theater, a recently restored Spanish Colonial theater built in 1928.

 

I had planned to stop at Richardson’s Trading Post to buy some moccasins since I keep borrowing Dave’s. The Richardson’s have been traders on the reservation since the turn of the last century so I expected them to have the most authentic stuff. But when we got there the signs said “Cash and Pawn” so instead I felt like they were still taking advantage of the natives; we drove right on by.

From Gallup on west Highway 66 plays In-and-Out-the-Windows with I-40. For a few miles it is the north frontage road, then for a few miles it is the south frontage road, then for a few miles it goes right down the freeway itself, then it repeats. So our primary challenge this afternoon was keeping track of the exit numbers so we’d be on the right piece of road at the right time.

About 3:30 p.m. we took our final exit from the freeway and nearly hit our first roadrunner as it crossed the exit ramp to Sun Valley, Arizona. We’d been on the road for nearly seven hours–a long day for us. So, we were glad to reach our goal: the Root 66 RV Park. We are parked on gravel right by the freeway but we are glad to be parked and glad to have our Passport America membership save us money again. $14.50 for full hookups. Not bad.

TTYL,

Linda