We’re in Arizona right now. At the Wigwam Motel. We’re all bushed, but very happy.
More on that later, let me tell you how today started.

Sleeping in a motel room was a change for us, and I’m afraid that we’ll get soft since tonight we’re staying in a motel as well. I couldn’t sleep much (so I’m REALLY dragging now). Last night before I went to bed, which was around 1am, Nikki woke up and I asked her when the alarm would go off tomorrow morning.

“4 am.” Was the reply.

“No. That gives me only three hours, I need at least four.” It just occurred to me that I only had four hours of sleep last night. I’m tired, but not ridiculously so.

Anyway, while we were packing up, some Hispanic migrant workers came over and talked to her. They had jobs fixing telephone poles, making sure that they’re not rotting in the ground. They travel all over the country. I asked the most talkative one if he liked his job. He did, he liked seeing so many different places. I could relate.

Our first order of business was to travel west down Route 66. From what the owner of the motel said, a bridge was out and part of it was unpassable. He told this to me last night when I was really out of it. But I think we took the right detours. That is, all until we tried to make it to Newkirk, NM. There were six or seven inches of standing water on top of the most mooshy and stick red clay I’ve even seen. Ashley and I got out to investigate and to see if we could find a way around this mess. Turns out we just had to back track. That ate up a lot of time.

We took I-70 for almost 30 miles, to Santa Rosa, NM. It was decided earlier that we’d take the 100 mile, old Route 66, before The New Deal nixed it in the 1937 re-alignment. It was some of the most beautiful ground I’ve ever seen. Some of the emptiest too. We could drive for miles without seeing a soul.

Las Vegas, NM isn’t as well known as its Nevadian relative, but it was a great place anyway. Tons of Spanish music stores, very big Hispanic population. Doc Holiday owned a saloon there and Butch Cassidy tended bar. I’m not sure if they had any business connections.

Leaving Las Vegas for Santa Fe, the drive was spectacular. Almost like a quiet Sunday ride just for the sake of driving. Storm clouds threatened, but nothing really materialized.

Now here is where the day started to take another turn for the worse. Nikki wanted to check out this Healthfood Co-Op in Santa Fe. Unfortunately, there was some kind of festival and thus, no parking. Nothing at all. So we headed south for Albuquerque.

At first, I didn’t want to head through the city, but something came over me and I did. It was an easy enough city to drive, except that we were still following the old pre-1937 route, which took us even further out of our way and ate up a lot of time. The scenery was beautiful though. We drove through a LOT of craggy, rocky areas. Big rocks. I wish I knew the names for these things. But they were big.

We finally found our way back to I-40, since route 66 is missing there (more on that later), but only for a short time. Soon enough we were back on Mother Road and greatly enjoying it.

There are, however, differences on how states have treated Route 66. Oklahoma, for instance, has kept much of it intact. 95e of it, probably. Most of that is the original concrete too! Texas is OK, but mostly repaved. New Mexico is hit or miss and repaved. Arizona, so far is pretty bad about marking or even preserving the route. See, when they built I-40, they Route 66′s concrete. We’ll see about the rest later.

West out of Albuquerque, we mostly stayed on I-40. Though, again I noticed, that when we were on it we’re all a big bit happier.

The houses here look much different than the ones we have around home. Granted, most are built by the Navajos, etc. But the style, even for the gas stations and stores is definitely Pueblo. They look really neat, and I’m not really sure why anyone wouldn’t build houses like this. We don’t have these so much up in PA. Maybe it’s because of the snow. Not sure, but I really dig them. Wouldn’t mind having one.

And then came the storm. We saw some lightening last night, even some rain falling from clouds, but not like this.

Around Villa de Cubero (which is where Hemmingway wrote “Old Man and the Sea”), it started to let loose. Lightening was striking all around us, and unlike in Pennsylvania, because it was so flat here, we could tell exactly where it was hitting. It was hitting very close to us. We found a truckstop / Indian casino and stopped for a bit. And then it really hit.

We waited out the storm on the porch of the casino with this biker guy who was video taping it and having a blast. Lightening, hail, more rain than I’ve seen in a LONG time. Very cool. Ashley ran back to the car to get the cameras. She got some great video footage of the hail and lightening.

Soon we thought the storm had lifted, got back in the car and took off on I-40. Route 66 was hit or miss at this point.

On I-40, the storm got a LOT worse. Or at least it seemed worse, we were driving, after all. We passed by signs proclaiming:

WARNING
DUSTSTORMS
MAY EXIST

This was like a warning from some crazy guy on the street. Here it was, in the heaviest rain I’ve ever driven through and there was this sign telling us that duststorms may exist. Maybe they do. It’s possible. Who knows!? The Boggy Creek creature may exist too. UFOs may exist. Loch Ness Monster and Santa Claus all may exist. Throw dust storms in there too. Freakin surreal.

Anyway, I was *this* close to pulling over when the storm just suddenly lifted. We crossed what I assume was a mountain and suddenly it was clear. Glorious!

We got back on 66 for a bit, went through Grants and Milan. The guide book that we are using is pretty well crap. I’ve mentioned this before, but it really is. We got on and off 66 in a few places. Back on in Thoreau, which was nothing but a few houses, mostly ruins. But before getting back on the interstate, we stopped at the Continental Divide trading post. That’s right, we crossed the continental divide. It’s all downhill from here! At least until we finally drag our sorry butts back to PA.

Pulling into Red Rocks State Park, it dawned on me that this is where the U2 video for “Sunday Bloody Sunday” was filmed. You know the one, where Bono and his huge bubble butt are waving that white flag and prancing about on stage. As Rollins put it, “That flag means ‘Aim your cross hairs here. At me. The guy with the flag.’” Indeed. Red Rocks is beautiful. How could U2 profane it with their existence? Shame.

Back on the interstate we pull into a truck stop and finally get the chance to post yesterday’s entry. As a PS I said that we were having a bad day. And it was true. With the bad guide book, getting lost in Santa Fe, the rain and just a general feeling of blah, it wasn’t an out and out BAD day, but it certainly wasn’t good.

Then we found the canyons near the boarder. We were on a stretch of 66 that was actually paved and rounded a huge rocky corner to find smallish, but still pretty big, canyons. We stopped the car, got out and kind of took it all in. Suddenly we were laughing and being goofy. I saw a train in the distance and wanted to wait till it got here so that I could grab some pictures. Ashley did too, but for her dad. See, I love trains. Always have. When I see one, I can’t help but watch it. No idea why. Something from before I can remember. We watched a few trains go by and even though we took a break at the truck stop, this break was just very needed.

We’ve been pressed for time in the past two days. Not that it’s constant driving, no where near. But because of the reservations that Nikki and I made months ago, we HAVE to be at a certain place at a certain time. We are trying to figure out what to do about this. More on that in the next few days.

After we got back in the car, the whole mood had changed. We were giggling and awake! And with only about 45 minutes of travel to go, I think we were all very anxious to be out of the car for longer than an hour or so.

Crossing the boarder on Route 66, we saw our first mountain goat. Oddly enough, the trading post below it had placed statues of fake animals all around the rocks above, where the goat was. So at first we didn’t know it. But it was moving and the other “animals” were pretty much staying put. The little goat seemed so at home, just wandering about the rocks.

When entering a new state on Route 66, it’s always interesting to see how that particular state treats Mother Road. Arizona seems to, so far, hate her. Most of 66 in eastern Arizona is gone. Totally wiped out. All that remains, if anything, is a dirt road. Sometimes you have access roads and frontage roads that use her old bed, but it’s not the same.

We muscled up the courage and took one of these dirt roads. It entered Navajo territory, and all around us, you could see run down homes of the Native Americans. They once owned this whole landmass. Well, not owned, because they didn’t really have a system of ownership. But they were here. And you know the story. Around where we live, there were thousands of Indians. Shikellamy was the head medicine man for the entire Cherokee Nation. You don’t see any of them around home anymore. There’s a reason for that, and it isn’t that they didn’t want to stay.

In Arizona, there are a lot of reservations, and most are pretty run down. The ones that are the most run down are the ones that don’t have casinos. Maybe they don’t feel it’s right to have them. Maybe they just haven’t figured out how. It’s disgusting to thing of what our ancestors did to theirs. It’s too late now to go back, and reparations are more of a slap in the face than anything. But if you’re out here, try to buy something from them. Even if it’s a tacking chunk of turquoise and silver. The ones alone the roadside aren’t the ones who have casinos.

The dirt road, which was once 66, wound through small valleys of big rocks, over dust and past shacks and houses. It crossed an original bridge from the early 1930′s. Ashley and Nikki weren’t too thrilled about this, but I was. They left the bridge when they gutted the road of all roads. It was a small breadcrumb, but a breadcrumb nonetheless.

It was getting dark as we got back onto I-40. The last slivers of light were peeking over the plains of Eastern Arizona. They created shadows of mountains in the distance. We noticed pieces of petrified wood along even the interstate. Also statutes of dinosaurs battling each other. Again, surreal. Probably left over from when Route 66 was the only thing going through here.

Holbrook still preserved 66 and old motels lined its streets. Most were actually open! But we had reserved our wigwam. That’s right, the famous Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona would be our home for the night.

Nikki and I checked in and the guy behind the counter was REALLY wacky, but very informative.

Before Route 66 was paved, it was actually a dirt road. I knew this and thought that all these dirt roads through Arizona that were once Route 66, were from when it was a dirt road (we came across such a thing in Texas or… I don’t remember where, it doesn’t matter). But, as this fellow explained, “They used the concrete from 66 to make the beds for I-40.”

I asked, “You mean they paved 66 to make part of the interstate?”

“No. They actually lifted up the blocks of concrete and moved them so they wouldn’t have to pour more concrete for the beds.”

How evil. So all of these dirt roads used to be paved. Sad. Arizona was the only state that we’ve seen so far that did such a thing. And because of it, Route 66 is all but a memory. Maybe someday they’ll smarten up. But it’s the government, after all, it’s very doubtful that they’d ever do something as wacky as “smartening up.”

I drove around town by myself a bit, taking a few pictures. The girls dyed Nikki’s hair. I’ve not really seen it in the sunlight yet, but it seems to be red.

Last night I fell asleep halfway through writing this. It’s morning now and we’ve got to get going.

Yesterday was almost an off day. Still wonderful though. Hey, we’re out here for over a month, we’re bound to have bad days just like anyone else.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 587
Hours on the road: 14 hours
Miles traveled in total: 3401

Pictures
Today’s Pics from Eric’s camera.
Today’s Pics from Ashley’s camera.

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we’ve been. Red = where we traveled today.)