2017 Road-trip Day 8

Day 8 Tuesday 

After a good nights sleep, we awoke well rested in a little room, the Blue Swallow really is a little treasure, it has kept and maintain lots of original features including the rather large refrigerated air cooling system on one wall in the room.

After a coffee we were keen to make tracks into Texas, so we bid farewell to The Blue Swallow and headed a little way down the main road in Tucumcari  to Tee Pee Curios to make a few purchases and we were on our way, eating a breakfast of fruit and a bran muffin on the go.

With only one mistake, due to missing a sign, we were very quickly saying goodbye to New Mexico and Howdy! to Texas! We passed Glenrio at the State Line we headed onto Adrian to the Midpoint Marker to stop for some photos and to get a coffee in the Mid Point cafe.

 Time was getting on due to crossing over to central time and losing an hour, we continued through Vega, passing the Cadillac RV Park with several pristine Cadillacs mounted on ramps out front and on towards Amarillo - "Is this the way to Amarillo?"- we had decided to detour off of Route 66 so we could head to Palo Duro Canyon. It's a slight diversion of about 50 miles, but well worth it. 

Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest Canyon in America after the Grand Canyon, it measures 120miles long and over 20 miles wide and has a maximum depth of 800 feet. We took in the amazing views from the top of the rim, and watched the temperature rise as we drove down in the Canyon floor. 

Several times we got out of the car to explore, but only for short periods - there was a 3 mile hike, but it was recommended you took 2 pints of water per person per mile, I didn't think it fair to make Paul carry 12 pints in the heat! As always in this type of environment we resorted to type and broke out the Cheetos and picked up an ice cream before making our way out of the canyon and back on the road, once again picking Route 66 up then heading through Conway. 

The only place in Texas 66 that you can legally drive 70mph, so that's what we did, passing a giant peace symbol, the leaning tower of Groom, and the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere.

 I'm sensing a theme that everything really is bigger in Texas. We had to join the I-40 for 8 miles and was able to take the chance to stop at the Donley County Route 66 safety Rest Area, an Art Deco building, home to Route 66 exhibits, neon signs, historic info plaques and a handy tornado shelter. 

Back on the Mother Road we carried on, occasionally driving on old Portland concrete until we saw the beautiful Art Deco architecture of the U- Drop Inn and Tower Conco service station at Shamrock. We were checking in to the Shamrock Country Inn in town. We were amazed by this vintage 66 motel, the owner welcomed us and was obviously very proud of his place. 

He had kept it spotlessly clean and well maintained whilst still keeping all the original feature, our bathroom even had a built in electric fire - thankfully not operational. First things first, after we settled in we did some laundry we then went across the road to order a pizza in the tiny pizza place, despite there being a few restaurants in town, the steak specials wasn't very good for us vegetarians. Murphy's law was in play and as soon as we decided to walk the ten minutes up to see the U-Drop Inn that the pizza place would call to say our food was ready, never mind we only had stayed briefly at the U Drop Inn, planning to come back later in the evening when the neons were lit up. We walked the 10 minutes or so back, collected pizza, crossed the Route 66 road to our room, open beers then eat our pizza! 

Later on that night we went back up to see the U-Drop Inn lit up in all its glory. It is now a visitors centre and we planned to come and have a good look in the morning. But for now we were content to take in the architecture enhanced by the lighting, it really must have been something to see back in the hey-day of Route 66. 

Days Mileage: 289
Total Mileage: 1488

2017 Road-trip day 7

Day 7 - Monday


Both of had the best nights sleep of the trip, one of us managed to sleep for 11 hours! We decided as the El Rey Inn was so lovely and check out wasn't till midday, that we would make use of the facilities. We grabbed some complementary delightful breakfast pastries and coffee to have back at the room and changed into swimwear to have some relaxation time in the outdoor hot tub housed in a charming enclosed tile courtyard.

We really appreciated this down time after several busy days, and made the decision to spend a couple of hours around Santa Fe, before continue Eastward bound, rather then back tracking to Albuquerque.

It was nearly midday when we checked out and headed to the Santa Fe Plaza, where we spent a couple of hours wondering the quaint shops discovering hidden gems hidden down little arcades.

Before leaving we decided we would get a coffee and stumbled across the Chocolate on the Plaza a lovely little independent handmade chocolate shop who also served cold brew. Well it would have been rude not to get some of their single state Venezuela chocolate to go with it. So we picked out 3 slices of chocolate dipped orange and 2 truffles with red chili and cinnamon to go with our cold brew, then parted with $30 ouch!

They were amazing if very expensive, time to move on from Santa Fe I think. We found it surprisingly easy getting back onto Route 66, following the Old Santa Fe trail then turning onto the Old Las Vegas Hwy - New Mexico not Nevada. We pass traditional Pueblos as the lush landscape passed by and we headed through Apache Canyon. A quick stop by the historical marker noting the battle between Union and Confederate troops in 1862 just before Glorieta.

Then crossing over the I-25 to follow the frontage roads towards Santa Rosa. You could tell you were high in the mountains, the air felt fresh and the floral green. In fact we both experienced feeling slightly dizzy back in Santa Fe which was probably due to spending too long in the hot tub and the high altitude. The current Pre-'37 road we had been driving now rejoined Post-'37 before joining the I-40 for about 14miles then it was back on the 66 through Cuervo where the road begins to show her age and becomes a little rough, before passing the ruins of an old motel and gas station at Newkirk then onto our bed for the night in Tucumcari.

The Blue Swallow Motel  an historic Route 66 Motel which opened in 1939 and is famed for its spectacular neons and authentic rooms. We were greeted warmly by the couple that run it and shown to our room - number1 - where we could see the neon signage from our window once darkness fell. We settled in and after a coffee we walked down to Del's Restaurant to finally get some Mexican. A great restaurant where we enjoyed a rather large Margarita, chips and salsa, a spinach and mushroom quesadilla and a cheese enchiladas with rice and beans, I knew when they asked if I would prefer red or green chili to choose the less hot red sauce.

Despite being extremely full, we still managed to find room for the Sopapillas - a flatbread dough that gets deep fried and puffs up- and which the restaurant serves with honey as a complementary dessert. Luckily we had a little walk back to help burn if a few calories, walking back we passed some of the great murals that the town has depicted life around the old road and town in its heyday.


By the time we arrived back at the hotel, the sign was lit up and called for a photo opt, we got chatting to another couple staying there from Illinois and shortly joined by a German fella as we all regaled tales about our time on the road and swapping tips. Our chat was cut short though due to the biting insects and we all made our way back to rooms to settle down for the night.

Days Mileage: 203
Total Mileage: 1199

2017 Road-trip day 6

Day 6: Sunday

We both woke around 5.30am, one of us due to the noise of the trains, the other due to that person making more noise then an elephant! We lounged around for quite a while before making a move and bidding farewell to "Mater", and the Wigwam Motel. 

We had breakfasted in watermelon and bananas before we had left, so just needed to fill up the car with petrol and head back on Route 66 for what proved to be a very long day. Our first plan of action was to take the US 180 down to the South entrance to the National Park, Petrified Forest, we spent far longer here then we had originally intended too.

The Petrified Forest is a 28mile journey through spectacular desert. Our first stop was the Giant Logs Trail, a walk around some of the parks largest Petrified logs including Old Faithful which is 10 feet across it's base. Colourful pieces from small shards to massive trunks of these spectacular fossilized trunks lay around the trail with views across the Badlands as a backdrop.

 As we continued on our drive, we were able to pull in to many overlooks including the Crystal Forest Loop, Jasper Forest and the Blue Mesa. All off these offered stunning views, amazing examples of the Petrified logs that once were part of a prehistoric forest and the odd collared lizard. We marveled at the Tepee rock formation and were able to view the 2000 plus year old petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock. We continued over the I-40 and stopped at where Route 66 cut through the park and then onto the Painted Desert with it colours of pinks and reds, photo overload! 

Time was getting on, we had been there for nearly 4 hours and still had most of the days drive to do, so we headed out of the Park and picked up the Mother Road and headed towards Chambers thru Lupton and on to the New Mexico border and views of Window Rock.

Paul: Breaking Bad Interlude 1 - honestly, pretty much the first thing we passed on the road after crossing from Arizona was a kid with his 'pipe'.

We continued along until we had to join up with the I-40, it's here we managed to miss a chunk of 66 road due to misreading the map, whoops never mind we were soon back on track and exiting at 47 to pass the Continental Divide, through Bluewater, Grants and Cubero - where Hemingway was said to have wrote 'The old man and the sea' at the old cafe, so legend says.

 Traversing through Laguna Pueblo Land, curving round the tight loop of Dead Man's Curve and spotting the lava outcrop known as Owl Rock before meeting back up with the I-40 again. We now decided to take the pre-1937 optional route which looking back we should have skipped due to time, the route took through Cortez to Los Luna's and long stretches of road works, by the time we had crossed the Rio Grande and hit Isleta Pueblo we had had enough, although the landscape was enjoyable there was nothing particularly special about it* and when we got to the I-25 we decided to stay in it and head straight to Santa Fe, we were planning to drive back along Route 66 to Albuquerque the next day.

Paul: Breaking Bad Interlude 2 - From the I-25 we did see the Crossroads Motel, the skanky motel used in a few episodes of Breaking Bad.

 We finally arrived at 7.30, shattered at the lovely looking El Ray Inn, checked in and headed straight back out to see if we could get some food. Unfortunately the restaurant that had been recommend to us had a 25 minute wait, we were dead on our feet having left Holbrook at 9.30, 10 hours earlier and decided that we would go over the road to Trader Joe's to stock up on Spicy Lentil Wraps, salad and beer to take back to the room, where we picnicked till we fell asleep around 9.30. It had been a very long days.

*Paul: Breaking Bad Interlude 3 - Not so, I saw loads of places where we could secrete a Winnebago and cook up some Blue Meth.

Days miles: 363

Total miles: 996