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.