Day #5

A nice cool morning greeted us today. After showers all around (even Pete!), we packed up and headed out to a restaurant called Kix on 66. It had AMAZING bakery items! We stuffed ourselves silly, and then drove down the main drag of Tucumcari. It really was once a bustling spot for 66 traffic. It’s holding on, but you can tell it wasn’t what it was. Steve thinks that this town looks the most like Radiator Springs so far. They do have the Tucumcari Mountain in the distance which does look like the Radiator Springs mountain in Cars.

Today was spent on and off the Route. Much of 66 is buried by Interstate 40, so there were times we were actually on the route while being on the highway! We got off a few times, even backtracked when we missed an exit, to see some of the beautiful drives that the old route offered us. As I looked across the plains towards the mesas, I could easily envision a group of cowboys and/or Indians on their horses riding across the plains.

We drove past more old hotels and gas stations. We stopped occasionally to get ice or just take a bathroom break. We enjoyed watching the storms move across the mesas as we traveled. At one point they finally found us and we drove through some driving rain in Albuquerque. We tried to get off the main highway and find 66, but we got so turned around that we got back on 40 and said “Forget it!” A ways out of Albuquerque we found the route again and started back down it.

We decided that we all really wanted to swim in the hotel pool tonight (the children had hoped for a pool yesterday, but the Blue Swallow didn’t have one), so we wanted to be sure we got to the hotel as soon as we possibly could. I did give the children the choice, however of seeing one of three things: An underground museum in Grants, NM which showed the history of mining, Sky City in Acoma, NM which was a tour of one of the oldest Indian pueblos in the area, or quite a detour to the Ice Caves to see rock and ice formations buried deep in the earth.

While Emily really wanted to see the Ice Caves, we decided it would be too long of a detour, so we decided on Sky City. While driving there, we were taken with the beautiful rock formations. We could see the city in the distance, and it was beautiful. When we got there, we realized that it would be at least an hour and a half touring, and it would cost us almost $60 for everyone to go. We decided that the Indian Cliff Dwellings tomorrow would be enough, so we headed back to the Route, appreciating the beautiful formations again.

Once back on the route, we passed lava flows which flowed here over 20,000 years ago! We stopped and touched the lava (I touched a lava!), and then headed on. We got into Gallup around 6, which was the earliest we have arrived ANYWHERE so far! We checked into the El Ranchero which is a beautiful old hotel where the stars have stayed. If you go upstairs, you can see all of their signed photos on the wall. Many a famous cowboy stayed here while filing in the area. Consequently, many a film was filmed around here.

We checked in and asked about the pool. Peter had said “We’re going in the pool!” for the last two hours in the car. The man at the front desk told us that some kids had thrown rocks in the pool over the weekend and it had jammed up the filter, and so it was closed for repair. Poor Peter! Poor kids!! We ended up offering Peter a tubby, and he seemed pretty happy with that.

We ate at the restaurant attached to the hotel. Steve really enjoyed their Mexican combo plate. Some of that stuff was HOT (spicy hot!) After that, we made a trip to the gift shop, drove down the strip (not a lot to see) and then headed back to the room for Peter’s tubby. It also had become surprisingly cold while we were at dinner! I thought this was the desert!!

Once back at the room, I was thrilled to see that they have a guest laundry three doors down from our room! I don’t have much, but I’ll do what I can before we go camping tomorrow night! Pete is done with his tubby and being a maniac, so it’s time to settle down. Tomorrow, Indian Cliff Dwellings. Not sure if the national parks have any WiFi hot spots, so it may be awhile before my next post.