Day 2: Gallup, NM - Amarillo, TX

I love arriving in an unfamiliar town after dark, and then being surprised by what I discover in the morning. When I walked of the hotel this morning, here's what I saw...

I had no idea that was there. Just gorgeous!

When I saw this sign (er...wagon?), I understood why Sam had such a struggle on day one. 7275 feet? The poor guy had spent his whole life at sea level--he's not used to mountains.

I read about this bridge in my handy dandy guidebook. The book called it a "photogenic Route 66 highlight," so when I saw the sign I decided to jump off the interstate and check it out. Judge for yourself, but I was underwhelmed. It's just sort of...there, alongside the new road.

I've been amazed by the little out-of-the-way places that still thrive because people are willing to hunt them down. I had lunch at this little cafe in the middle of nowhere, the Midpoint Cafe.

Its claim to fame is that it lies directly on the halfway point of Route 66 (hence the name). It's also well known for its "ugly crust pie." Apparently when the baker started recreating her grandmother's pie recipes, she couldn't manage the same beautiful crusts. She decided to serve them anyway, and I'm very glad she did. The coconut cream pie was fantastic!

As I walked up to the counter to pay, the owner looked out the window, excused himself, and scurried out to take a picture for a couple who were taking turns posing by the sign. When I commented on how nice that was he said, "ah, it's just part of the service." So I decided while he was out there...

My next stop was the Cadillac Ranch, an installation of 10 Cadillacs buried nose-first in the ground in the middle of a field outside Amarillo.

They actually encourage people to add their own touch, and there were empty spraypaint cans strewn all over the place.

My dinner stop was another find from Roadfood.com, a vintage 1946 hamburger stand along old Route 66 in Amarillo. It's actually on the National Register of Historic Places. I wasn't very hungry (after the grilled cheese sandwich and coconut pie I had for lunch), so I decided to pass on their famous "Flagstaff Pie," a mound of Fritos smothered with chili, cheese & onions. Maybe someday.

These rusted out trucks were in front of my hotel. Not sure why, but there you go.
Miles for the day: 430

Total miles: 1106

Day 1: Los Angeles, CA - Gallup, NM

It's a good thing I'm on this trip alone, because once I finished packing the car there was no room for anyone else.I was on the road by about 8:30, after a stop at 7-Eleven for my Diet Coke Super Big Gulp. I was dreading Day 1 for a lot of reasons, not least of which was the fact that I had planned to put in a lot of miles with very few stops. I wanted to make it into New Mexico so that I would not be losing two hours on Day 2, going from Pacific to Central Time. I hadn't planned any stops because there just didn't seem to be anything notable to see along the way. I remembered reading about a giant meteor crater, but it was quite a hike and I couldn't afford to take the time. I did, however, stop at Meteor City, where I found this...

As I mentioned, I'm a sucker for the "world's largest" anything. This mural is 100 feet long and was created by a Route 66 artist named Bob Waldmire.* I also bought a cheesy souvenir T-shirt, which turned out to be even more awesome today when I spotted the typo...

The only stop I had planned for Day 1 was dinner at Joe & Aggie's Cafe in Holbrook, AZ. I'd read about it on Roadfood.com, where I had gone looking for fun local places to eat along the way instead of chains and/or fast food. This was my dinner...
It tasted as good as it looks. After dinner, I strolled over to a little park next to the restaurant to check out this guy...
He looked a little like the creature from "Alien" and I'm not sure why he was there. (Also not sure why they put him next to a windmill.)

One of my favorite parts of road trips are the unexpected discoveries. In Holbrook it was the Wigwam Village. Once in my life I'd like to sleep in a concrete wigwam. The classic cars scattered around the parking lot gave it an authentic "old Route 66" feel. Kinda spooky. The Village closed down in 1974 when I-40 came through, but the family of the original owner restored and reopened them in 1988.

So, that was pretty much the first day. There were way more mountains than I expected and my car did NOT like them. (For future reference, my car's name is Sam. He's being a very good boy.) The Check Engine light came on and stayed on for several hundred miles, but eventually (thankfully!) went off. For 7 of the past 8 years I worked 2 jobs, pretty much 7 days a week. One job was a 3 mile commute and the other was 6 miles. That would explain why my car is 13 years old and only has 64,000 miles. And, needless to say, Sam is not used to long trips like this. He's being a trooper though.

Miles for the day: 676

Total miles: 676

* Many of these tidbits are courtesy of my trusty "Road Trip USA - Route 66" guidebook by Jamie Jensen.

OK...here goes.

When my friend Vanessa suggested a blog as a way to share the adventure of my road trip across the good ol' US of A, I thought it sounded like a good idea. But since this trip will only take 5 days, it could have wound up as the shortest blog in history!

Then I decided that maybe it could be more. As you all know, I'm taking this road trip because I'm moving back to my hometown. It occurred to me recently that my life has been split into two very distinct (and very different!) halves. The first half was spent growing up in a small(ish) town. It was great. Perfect place to grow up. It was a be-home-when-the-streelights-come-on kind of a place. And then I moved 3,000 miles away to live in the big city, and have spent my entire adult life there...until yesterday. So I thought it might be sort of interesting to document the transition back to life in a small(ish) town after spending 23 years in Los Angeles.

The next few entries will definitely be about my trip, and I'm looking forward to sharing my adventures (and pictures)! If you want to stop reading after that, I'll understand. If you'd like to keep reading, please do.