Saturday, August 31, 2019 (Day 7)
A short mileage day, only went about 195 today.
The day began with a quiet walk through downtown Albuquerque to grab some breakfast. The loud shenanigans of last night were over and we were some of the only people out and about.
The Standard Diner was pleasant for breakfast, although it was a bit modernized. Some of that classic charm has been replaced by a modern ambiance. but the food was still good. As we walked back to the hotel, the sun was at our backs and we got a perfect shot of our shadows below the shadow of a Route 66 sign. When I figure out how to add photos, I’ll definitely be using that as the cover page.
On our way out of town, we stopped in an old RV park to check out some ’50’s and ’60’s style RV’s. It would have been more interesting if we could have gone inside, but it was a nice little jaunt none-the-less. I chuckled at the one that even had a doorbell attached to it. My RV experience is extremely limited; I never knew they had doorbells!
The ride out of Albuquerque to Gallup was filled with a lot of wide open road. Of course there were some interesting geological structures, but in general it was a lot of straight road out in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. The only sense of civilation was the constant stream of freight trains chugging along next to us. The Route goes along the main BNSF tracks and we rarely saw a break between one four engine train after the next. Thank goodness any time we had to cross the tracks, they had the forethought to build a bridge.
A little more than halfway to Gallup, we stopped in Grants. Mainly for food and gas, but Grants was also a booming mining town up until the mid ’80’s. After our boring Pizza Hut stop (there weren’t many options) we checked out Grant’s Uranium Mining Museum. I only vaguely remember going down to the coal mines in Pennsylvania when I was a kid, but from the bits that I can remember this was completely different. The main point being that there seemed to be so much space and light. For a tiny little town, their museum was quite nice. It was a good quick stop along the Route that was different from all of the classic motels, diners and shops we see so many of.
After Grants, it was time to finish the jaunt to Gallup. Gallup is a MUCH larger town (probably in part because the University of New Mexico has a campus there). We stayed at the El Rancho M/Hotel. This was an adventure. The hotel was originally THE go to place where movie stars would stay when they were in town filming old Westerns. Each room in the main hotel section is named in honor of an actor who stayed there. We were in Dennis Morgan’s room (honestly have no idea who that is).
In the lobby, they certainly went all out with the western & American Indian themed decor. There was even a woman there weaving a blanket. Our room… let’s just say it had a lot of character. First off, it was on the second floor. Normally, I like being on the second floor or higher. But when you have a car load of stuff to bring up it kind of is a big deal that the elevator is currently out of service (I suddenly feel like I’m back at home). We get in our room and at first glance it seems like a decent enough room. Plenty of space, comfortable beds, etc. We notice the temperature in the room is currently 79. A little warm, but understandable that they don’t pay to cool unoccupied rooms. The bathroom was a little small, but it had all of the necessities.
And then we return from dinner and the ugly truth comes out. First off, it turns out they don’t have air conditioning. They have air coolers which are supposed to push cool air into the rooms, but it’s all based on the water temperature. Well, when the air temperature is over 95 during the day, you can imagine it doesn’t do much help temp of the water or the air coolers to cool the rooms. When we asked the front desk about the room temperature they told us to open the windows and since the sun has gone down the temp in the room should go down. That’s a great idea since our hotel faces another hotel and it’s not like we have any type of sheer curtains to keep people from looking in (there are also no screens on the windows to keep the bugs out). We can have privacy and be hot or we can open everything up for all the world to see in an attempt to cool things down. We opted for a half and half version, but since there was no breeze our room never went below 79. Apparently, the air coolers cool the 1st floor first. That must be where the A-listers stayed.
It didn’t end there. The room had one plug, so so much for charging anything overnight. And the bathroom mirror is so high Mom can’t see into it. Honestly thought, the bed was really comfortable. If it wasn’t so damn hot, I could have ignored the rest. Oh well. This is an adventure.
Dinner was at the well advertise Earl’s Family Eatery. Imagine one of those typical Greek restaurants back home that offers everything under the sun, but with a southwest flair added. The food was so-so. Nothing spectacular, but edible. From there we drove around town seeing the sights. We missed their famed neon Route 66 sign initially because part of the neon wasn’t working. We got a better glimpse of it on our way out of town the next morning when we could see all of it in full daylight.
Next adventure is on to Holbrook, AZ. One week down, one more to go!
Journey On 