Day 3 (5th Feb 2001)

Resuming trip at Gallup

Our tourbook claimed "despite the obvious poverty and other signs of genuine despair, Gallup (population = 19,154) is a fascinating town". The accuracy of the first statement was obvious; we did not have time to verify that of the second statement.

El Rancho Hotel

On our way, we managed to locate the El Rancho Hotel, which was nicely restored to its old 1930s form, which lots of signed photos of movie stars who stayed in the hotel when thwy were making Western movies in this area.

The Continental Divide

These pictures should explain it all. However, if you find them too blurry, this is what the sign said: "Continental Divide, Elevation 7,275 ft. Rainfall divides at this point. West drains into the Pacific. East drains into the Atlantic."

Grant

We stopped at Grant for two things. Firstly, a hearty brunch at the landmark Uranium Cafe. The cafe provided good food in generous potions. There were religious pamphlets all over the place, reflecting the local culture. After satisfying our stomaches, we crossed Route 66 to the New Mexico Museum of Mining to see the reproduction of an uranium mine.

Leaving Grant

Sky City

Even from a distance, the glorious beauty of The Acoma Pueblo was breathtaking. Located at the top of a mesa, Sky city was protected by cliffs on all directions, providing the peaceful tribe a sound defensive position. Being one of the oldest communities on the continent, it was continuously inhabited since around 1150.

Conquered by the Spainish colonists in the 16th century, the natives were forced to give up the native religion and adopt Catholicism. To build a mission church at the mesa top, the natives were forced to fetch huge timbers from Mount Taylor more than 30 miles away. Our guide told us that the timbers were not allowed to touch the ground on their ways from Mount Taylor to the Mesa. To punish those who let the timbers touch the ground (and to intimidate others) the Spainards cruelly cut off a limb (arm or leg) of the unfortunate Natives. Today the San Esteban del Rey Mission is still standing at the Mesa top, before the graveyard of the natives.

Nowaday only around 40 people lives in the Sky City, which has no fresh water supply, no plumbing, and is not connected to the electric grid. (Quite a few household has their own electric generators.) Most of them are artists who sell their crafts to tourists. However, many of the Indians who have left the pueblo return to the Mesa for feast days.

Leaving Sky City

Gas: 6.6 G x $1.68 / G = $11.02
Instead of heading straight towards Albuquerque like I-40, Route 66 takes a southward bend to Los Lunas before cutting through the city from the South.

Los Lunas

Albuquerque

Route 66 continues its northward trek from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.

Santa Fe

The sun was setting quickly when we finally arrived at Santa Fe. We only made a very brief visit to the San Francis Cathedral (see picture) and the La Fonda Hotel.

Leaving Santa Fe

Following I-25 North and getting lost several times, we somehow managed to find our way to Romeroville, when the well-paved US-84 would take us back to Santa Rosa on I-40.

Romeroville (Taking US-84 South)

US-84 joins I-40

Santa Rosa

Entering Tucumcari

Tucumcari, "the town that's two block wide and two mile long", was built right along Route 66. Actually more like 7 miles long, it is the most famous motel town in Eastern New Mexico. Since Santa Rosa, we noticed that the landscape was getting flatter and the snow patches are getting fewer, as we descended upon the Texas-Oklahoma plain, also known as the dust bowl.

Leaving Tucumcari

Leaving New Mexico

Entering Texas (switching to Central Time)

Vega

15 miles west of Vega, the small town of Adrian claims to be equidistant (1139 miles) from Chicago and Los Angeles and hence is the mid-point of Route 66. There is even a Midpoint Cafe boasting the fact. However, it was really late (thanks to the switching of time zones, which robbed us an hour), and Adrian looked really small on the map, so we decided to moved on to Vega for the night. It turns out Vega is just as small, with only a Best Western and a Comfort Inn, where we stayed for $73.