The tour has continued.
On the road again, heading pretty much due east.
First of all I had to go through a hail storm at the top of the canyon above Sedona.
Uh Oh.
They were forecasting a cold front but I didn't think it would be like this!
Slow and steady makes it safely.
A few hours down the road is Gallup, New Mexico.
Through some prairie type landscape with some read cliffs in the back ground and a pretty straight road.
The clouds were gathering though.
Gallup is a railway town and really that's about it. Again, it's really noticable that the economy has made a large dent in the overall activity in this town. There is very little going on. I stayed in a Days Inn that has been around for quite a while. The sign said that the rooms had been newly renovated but I have a feeling that that was in the last century. Well, I wasn't going to be going to be staying there for long. I was safe enough and everything worked. That's all I can ask. But it certainly was VERY different from my beloved Inn near Sedona. Oh well.
I had to wait to leave Gallup this morning as the I40 that I was travelling on was snow covered around Albuquerque! Yikes!
I know we had a good rain storm last night and the temperature was just above freezing when I turned off my light but I didn't think that we'd get that much snow in New Mexico.
If it wasn't for the mountains coming down from Colorado there wouldn't be this issue but the Rockies do make a difference in the climate around here.
The news folks said that later in the day the higher elevations should be clear of the snow but in Santa Fe they had received nearly 18 inches of snow and the roads were rather challenging at 9 am. So, I made the decision not to go that route. I was going to take I25 north to see the Santa Fe area, which I was told was quite pretty.
Safety first and play the game I figured so I just stayed on I40 into Santa Rosa.
Santa Rosa is small and really, I think, a shadow of it's former self as there are many places closed up on Route 66. The days are gone of the romance of travelling on Route 66 as I40 is faster and parallels it. There used to be so many motels, bars and diners along this strip of 66. Many of them are closed, and have been closed for several years or even decades. Sort of sad really.
I did find a laundromat to do my clothes as it was time for that and the people I met were all really nice. You get a real feel for a town hanging out at the local (only?) laundromat!
I was the only one in the Sante Fe diner (one of the originals still on this part of Route 66) and had a great BLT with a side of quacamole! I'm in the south after all. I chatted with the owner for a while and expressed that it's hard to keep things going when the weather switches so drastically but he said he had a good spring and summer.
The motel is very nice and clean and a sight better than last night's I must say. There is a little park across the road and if the sun comes out I will go and take pictures. There's not much to take pictures of when I'm driving so much but it's still nice to add a memory or two to the data banks.
I'm glad I broke the trip through New Mexico up into two parts as with the weather I don't know that I would have been able to do it all in one day. Sometimes things just work out for a reason.
The compass is stuck on East as I continue to witness and enjoy new places and scenes.
I could do without the snow though...
No comments:
Post a Comment