east on route 66

friday, november 13, 2009

this morning, we visited the petroglyphs national monument.  created eons ago when pueblo indians carved pictures ago on the lava rocks, it is right here in albuquerque.  there are three trails you walk through to see the petroglyphs, one 5 mins, one 15 mins, and a 30 min one up a steep hill that kicked my butt :o)

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afterwards, we went over to old town albuquerque and walked around a little bit.  old town is awesome!  there are little shops and galleries everywhere in little plazas and side streets. 

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we also visited iglesia de san filipe de neri.  a beautiful 300 year old church right in the middle of old town.

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i found this note above the holy water very interesting, very responsible, and a little sad.

there was so much to see, but it started raining (!!) so we left and headed east towards santa rosa.

stopping for gas at cline’s corners. there are 40 eleven billboards heading east on rt 40/66 that insist it is really worth the stop. the gas was 30 cents more expensive, but the gift shop was fun.

rt 66, aka the mother road, crosses new mexico underneath the current rt 40 for some of it, and off the beaten path for other parts of it. from albuquerque heading east,rt 40 goes through santa rosa, and some of route 66 goes off the highway to a part of town long forgotten.  the road is still used, but not by many. 

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while in santa rosa, we stopped to see the rt 66 auto museum, of course.  it was pretty cool, and julia had a great time photographing the old cars. i did, too :o)

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santa rosa also prides itself on the blue hole.  it is an interesting place in the middle of the desert.  it is a 80 ft wide artesian-fed hole of the most beautiful blue water.  used for eons by the pueblo people, and as a watering hole in the wild west days, it is now a very popular destination for scuba diving.

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we lest santa rosa and headed east to our final destination of the day, tucumcari. rt 66 in tucumcari has loads of 50’s era motels & restaurants.  it was fun photographing them (there’s one!  oooh there’s one!! that one has it’s neon’s on!)

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we had dinner at del’s restaurant. omg the food was so yummy!  if you are ever in tucumcari,  eat there.  the sopapillas are incredible!  jo beth, our waitress (from texas) highly recommended them, and she was right.  whew! thanks jo beth, for the excellent service and for your sweet heartness! 

 

 

 

settling in for the night, we treated ourselves to a motel room. and what a treat it is!  staying at the historic rt 66 motel, cathy met us at the desk and she is such a nice lady.  we talked for a while about the renovations she and her husband have done to bring this motel back to it’s glory.  the room we are staying in has awesome vintage decor, nice HOT water, the comfiest bed – ever, and pillows from heaven.  all this for $39.

 

<----check out that sunset, would ya!?

tomorrow, we head towards roswell!