As we left the Albuquerque KOA, we went back into downtown and picked up 4th Street, turning south out of town. We decided to take a pre-1937 alignment through Los Lunas (I realize the gender of the article doesn't match that of the noun, but that's the name of the town!).
A side note here: As is the case with many cities through which the Mother Road ran, there came to be mulitple alignments of the road. The route changed over the years to accommodate the growth of cities; there would be "City 66" routes and "Alt 66" routes to bypass downtown. Sometimes, even the "Alts" would have later bypasses, as what used to be country became swallowed up by growing metro areas.
The Los Lunas route climbed slowly out of the valley, giving a beautiful view in the rear view mirror. We jumped briefly onto I-40 where the old road was dirt, then exited for an absolutely gorgeous side trip on the old road from Mesita to Laguna, NM. The two-lane wound tightly around red rock buttes and mesas, and down a steep grade, before coming back close to I-40 as a frontage road.
In Budville NM (Bud Ling - this one's for YOU!), we stopped for a photo of an old gas station, and noticed that the silver AC Cobra parked there looked very familiar. It was the same couple of guys we had seen back in Stroud, OK at the Rock Cafe!! Funny how Route 66 created "family" of fellow travelers we saw at different points of the journey.
Driving across the high desert and paralleling I-40 (sometimes at quite a distance, but still in sight), we passed through many dying towns and some still kicking: Grants and Gallup, for example. Gallup has a beautiful hotel called El Rancho, which became known as "Home of the Movie Stars" while they filmed old-time westerns.
After crossing the Arizona state line, more of the same.
We bypassed Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, but every Navajo nation trading post was selling petrified wood, so we didn't miss much! We encountered a plethora of Indian gift shops and trading posts throughout New Mexico and Arizona. One can be seen in the background of this shot taken at the Continental Divide.
Holbrook AZ is home to the Roadrunner Gift Shop (one of the better ones on Route 66), and one of only two existing Wigwam Motels, where you can "sleep in a wigwam" (each room unit looks like a giant wigwam!) The Cozy Cone Motel in the Pixar movie Cars was modeled after the Wigwam. More on this later....
At Jackrabbit, AZ, we just HAD to stop at the tiny but quaint gift shop with the giant billboard outside screaming HERE IT IS - a true Route 66 classic. On through Winslow, Twin Arrows, Winona, and Walnut Canyon before coming to Grand Canyon country... Flagstaff and Williams. The look and smell of the beautiful Ponderosa Pine forest was a welcome change from the barren desert!
We LOVED Williams. It had been a long time since I was last here, and I'd forgotten how charming the downtown was. We took Pastor & Mrs. Vanaman's advice and ate at the Pine Country Restaurant, and yes - the pie was amazing!!! We stayed right in town at the Westerner Motel, one of the "Old 66" type motels, but updated and very clean. It was great to be able to walk up and down Main Street (which is Route 66) and browse the shops, hear the outdoor musicians, etc. The picture shown is of the Cruiser's Cafe on Main Street.
Day 6 was our trip inside the Grand Canyon (lots more to come on that trip in another post). We'll continue our Route 66 odyssey with Day 7.
Driving across the high desert and paralleling I-40 (sometimes at quite a distance, but still in sight), we passed through many dying towns and some still kicking: Grants and Gallup, for example. Gallup has a beautiful hotel called El Rancho, which became known as "Home of the Movie Stars" while they filmed old-time westerns.
After crossing the Arizona state line, more of the same.
We bypassed Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, but every Navajo nation trading post was selling petrified wood, so we didn't miss much! We encountered a plethora of Indian gift shops and trading posts throughout New Mexico and Arizona. One can be seen in the background of this shot taken at the Continental Divide.Holbrook AZ is home to the Roadrunner Gift Shop (one of the better ones on Route 66), and one of only two existing Wigwam Motels, where you can "sleep in a wigwam" (each room unit looks like a giant wigwam!) The Cozy Cone Motel in the Pixar movie Cars was modeled after the Wigwam. More on this later....
At Jackrabbit, AZ, we just HAD to stop at the tiny but quaint gift shop with the giant billboard outside screaming HERE IT IS - a true Route 66 classic. On through Winslow, Twin Arrows, Winona, and Walnut Canyon before coming to Grand Canyon country... Flagstaff and Williams. The look and smell of the beautiful Ponderosa Pine forest was a welcome change from the barren desert!We LOVED Williams. It had been a long time since I was last here, and I'd forgotten how charming the downtown was. We took Pastor & Mrs. Vanaman's advice and ate at the Pine Country Restaurant, and yes - the pie was amazing!!! We stayed right in town at the Westerner Motel, one of the "Old 66" type motels, but updated and very clean. It was great to be able to walk up and down Main Street (which is Route 66) and browse the shops, hear the outdoor musicians, etc. The picture shown is of the Cruiser's Cafe on Main Street.
Day 6 was our trip inside the Grand Canyon (lots more to come on that trip in another post). We'll continue our Route 66 odyssey with Day 7.
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