The KOA in Albuquerque is huge. But the tent space is like this little coral. They herd us in. Well, it was just me and this other guy who offered to let me use his rake… for some reason.

But in the morning I woke up and charged the computer and phone (since the site didn’t come with electricity). And around 9am, I was on my way through town, hitting Central Ave, Route 66.

Along this street are a bunch of old motels and you can sort of get the feel for how 66 was in the mid-60s. It’s a nice stretch and I took a bunch of them.

But the main part of today’s travels was on the pre-1937 alignment that went south of town, then turned north to meet up with the final alignment. Why it went south to a no-name town called Los Lunas is anybody’s guess.

However, I do know why the Santa Fe and Los Lunas segments were by-passed in 1937.

According to this website…

When Route 66 was first laid out in 1926, everybody knew it would go through the capital of New Mexico and indeed it did. Route 66 followed the Old Pecos Trail from Santa Rosa through Dilia, Romeroville and Pecos to Santa Fe. From Santa Fe it went over La Bajada Hill and down into Albuquerque. That was the way it was aligned and constructed and that was the way it was supposed to stay - forever. But it didn’t. But why was it moved? In 1937 the then governor of New Mexico, Governor Hannett lost the re-election. Hannett blamed this on the politicians in Santa Fe. In one great last act of defiance before the new governor was sworn in he vowed to get even with this Santa Fe ring. He had until January to institute his revenge. And he did! He decided the best way to get even was to re-route Highway 66 to Albuquerque and bypass Santa Fe altogether. This new alignment would bypass the Santa Fe businesses and Santa Fe politicians. It was a race against time. With no time off for the workers, including Christmas, he had to build a road through the virgin landscape fighting the elements, the vegetation and anybody and anything that got in his way. There was no time to buy the right a way so the road cut across both public and private land with no regard for the ownership. Though the road was not quite finished by the time the new governor took office in January, bad weather conditions prevented him from contacting the work crews to stop the project. By the time the new governor met with the work crews it was too late. The new road had been finished and cars were already driving the new route that cut off more than 90 miles of driving distance between Santa Rosa and Albuquerque. Santa Fe had been bypassed! The new alignment was really a better route from an engineer’s standpoint. It was a more direct route that cut out some treacherous road conditions. It was also quite a bit shorter. This is the route that would be followed by the new Interstate years later. Now you know the whole story!

Since I don’t really have time to research this, I can’t say for sure if it’s 100% true. But nifty story anyway.

This is the third time I did this run and the first time it has ever made any sense to me. I think that’s because I’m getting to know Albuquerque really well.

The Route goes through the south side of Albuquerque, through the Isleta Indian Reservation to the town of Los Lunas. It crosses the Rio Grande twice.

The towns along this section spread themselves out, so you really can’t tell when one town starts and where another town ends. But it’s not congested. Everyone is just spread out.

But you can tell when you reach Los Lunas. It’s got a few strip malls and a couple of gas stations.

Like the other segments of the pre-1937 Route 66 in New Mexico, there’s not much left from when it was actually Route 66. And that, for me, means less pictures and a little less interest in it.

From Los Lunas I climbed a fairly large hill and found myself on what had to be a plateau. To my right were several small volcanoes and in front of me a funky little mesa.

The BNSF rail line was to my left and I got a couple of pictures of trains just for you lucky peoples!

This part of the ride was my favorite. Not just because of the trains, but because the scenery. It’s really beautiful out here and pictures on a computer just don’t capture it.

Originally, Route 66 turned west when it got to the town of Correo. And there’s still a dirt road that connects Correo to the later alignment. I opted not to take the dirt road and headed for the only way back to Albuquerque - Interstate 40.

Here, it’s illegal to drive less than 65mph. I was able to hold that most of the time. This stretch of interstate was mostly terrifying. Thankfully I survived until Old 66 appeared as a frontage road on my left.

I exited and took that into Albuquerque.

The day was still young, so I headed to Gavin’s brother’s house and hung out with Sabra (Gavin’s sister-in-law). It was nice to not be riding and just be doing not much at all.

Later that evening we went to a bar that has a weekly trivia game event. This was the first time I’ve ever been in a bar. I don’t drink, so really have no reason to go. But this trivia thing was great. I had a blast and our team came in third! I was pretty stoked and even helped answer a few questions.

The folks in Albuquerque are great. I can’t wait to come back.

Tomorrow I visit the Vespa shop and then hit the road! I’ll probably end up in Gallup, NM tomorrow. The posts will again be longer, there will be more pics and I’ll be back on 66!

Here are my pics.

Miles today: 131
Miles total: 3438