Gallup to Albuquerque

When I awoke this morning, I peeked out my hotel window and was greeted with thick fog, blinding as the early morning sun made it glow.  

"Aw nuts", I thought.  

We're heading into a low sun through heavy fog...not my favorite conditions.  But, by 9:00AM the fog had mostly lifted, the temps rose into the high 40's and visibility improved considerably.  Its all good.

The plan today was to ride Historic Route 66 as much as we could, and cruise I-40 for the rest, as we finished our Four Corners loop and ended up in the storage area in Albuquerque where we'd left KC's truck and trailer.  Since it was only 140 miles, we hoped to have the bikes loaded and have the truck headed east by noon.  In fact, we departed Albuquerque by 12:15 and ended our day before 5:00PM in beautiful Amarillo.  

The route today was very special to KC since he'd done the route on his '76 cross country ride and again with son Kyle on their cross country trip in '96.  So first stop was the iconic El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, NM, which was home to movie stars while filming westerns on location. 

At first I couldn't understand the appeal, but on closer inspection you could see how, in its day, it must have been quite a spot.  We only inspected it from the parking lot...now wish we'd gone inside.

From there we spent a bit of time on I-40, then got off the interstate and onto the old Route 66.  The road is two lanes, in pretty good shape and roughly parallels the interstate. 

What makes it intriguing is the old buildings/businesses that you see along the road.  Most are now long shuttered but you can feel what it must have been like before the America exchanged the character of roads like Route 66 for the efficiency and sameness of modern interstate travel. 

You can hear the echo's of the Okies escaping the Dust Bowl in their clattering Model T's or families of WWII vets making a cross country trip in their Chevy station wagons to visit the National Parks.

As we cruised along Route 66 KC told me he was scouting a particular spot for a photo and shortly after that he announced he'd found it and we pulled in to the parking lot of the now defunct Budville Trading Company, Budville, NM.  KC shared an account of the history of Budville...there had been four separate murders in this building.  Steven King...if you are reading this, you may want to write something featuring this place.

As we tooled along 66, we often paralleled the railroad tracks which were surprisingly busy. 

At this point we re-entered I-40E and in an hour we were in Albuquerque.  Loading our bikes and gear went quickly and by 12:15 we were on the interstate headed for Amarillo.  This gives us a jump start on our drive to Clarksville, AR and two days riding in the Ozarks.  So, tomorrow will be a 500 mile drive which sets us up to ride in Arkansas on Sunday and Monday.  

Update:  Jim Dennis, after some hand wringing about whether or not he could come, has decided to come for one day.  We're really excited he can make it and look forward to riding with him