Day Fourteen: Holbrook, AZ to Williams, AZ

So, full disclosure, our original plan was to detour up to the Grand Canyon from Holbrook and spend the night there, then drive to Williams the next day. Since we never really had a schedule for the trip, and since we've never had any trouble getting in anywhere, it never occured to us that we would have any problem with that plan.

Well, I called the Grand Canyon to make reservations before we made the 80 mile detour to see it and found out that all 6 Grand Canyon hotels were fully booked - not only that, but apparently you have to make reservations months in advance. Bummer. So we skipped it and continued on with 66.


Breakfast at Joe & Aggie's in Holbrook - this is a truly family run restaurant and the food was excellent. I could seriously get used to Mexican food for breakfast.

Another excitedly awaited stop - Ryan loves this rabbit and the sign is great. This is the Jackrabbit Trading Post. Basically a souvenir shop, and actually a lot smaller than we expected. We bought a bunch of Jackrabbit stuff though.

And I rode the Jackrabbit - if you ever see pictures of cowboys on Jackrabbits, this is where that comes from.

We visited the Meteor Crater (where else but in Meteor City, AZ). This is a lifesize replica of an Apollo life pod. This is the part of the rocket that breaks off and the astronauts actually ride in to reenter the earth's atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the wind was completely out of control this day - sustained 75 miles per hour and more - so they closed the guided rim walk tour of the crater. The crater was formed about 50,000 years ago when a 150 lb. meteor hit the earth. The crater is about a mile wide and as deep as a 60 story building.

Check out this wind! I was almost knocked over at one point walking around the corner of the observation building, I've never felt wind like this before.

So, we went through the museum and learned a bunch about the different types of meteors and what happens when they hit the earth and other planets. My first question when I heard about this place was where is the meteor? Wouldn't it be sitting right in the middle of the hole still? Well, they answered that question and more - very interesting. This picture is us with the largest piece of meteor rock. It looks like metal up close.

For the first time so far, we actually saw a street sign directing us to LA. Yikes - we're not ready to be done yet!

Williams was a nice little town - the busiest small town we've been to actually. I think it's because it's a stopping off point for Grand Canyon visitors (60 miles from the rim) and there is a train that leaves from there to the GC as well. Our camera batteries died as we entered town, so no documentation of our room or anything. We had some pretty decent pizza and walked around for a bit.

Day Thirteen: Gallup, NM to Holbrook, AZ

The road out of Gallup passes through the mountains on a pretty narrow road. The landscape is breathtaking. I have never really spent a lot of time outside of cities and this trip has really opened my eyes to all the different types of places that are out there - from cornfields, to forested mountains, to wide, dry deserts. Although we haven't really camped on this trip, I think we are definitely more open and excited about doing that in the future.

As we neared the border into Arizona, there were a bunch of these trading posts along the cliffs - this one had some murals painted on the cliff and some weird fake animals set up on the plateau part above the shop.

And another new state!

At one point, Route 66 actually went through the Painted Desert, which is now a national park. We did the loop through the park, which was seriously incredible.

Not hard to see why they call it the Painted Desert - these striped hills and cliffs stretch out as far as you can see. It's not hard to imagine the millions of years they took to form - I wouldn't have been surprised to see dinosaurs walking around or something.

This was an old car rusting away in the desert in tribute to the old 66 road - they left up the old phone poles too.

We also decided to detour through the Petrified Forest - Route 66 never went through here, but I bet some families would have driven through just to check it out.

It's so trippy to see these stone logs strewn all over the ground. Some of them are still in long pieces that really look like fallen trees and some are chipped up so it looks like stone mulch.

It's funny - when I heard "petrified forest", I imagined a kind of burnt out forest, like old blackened trees still rooted in the ground. But the theory is that these trees were actually floating in a long gone river - uprooted by storms or something - and then the river dried up and the trees dried and heated and turned to stone.

The colors in the wood is really beautiful, even without being polished like the pieces you see in the stores and souvenir shops. It was cool to see this "in the wild".

And here we are at our most anxiously/excitedly awaited motel - the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook. This is actually owned by the son of the guy who built them and he keeps these classic cars in front of the teepees to give it that old time feel.

It was strange to see our car parked with so many old vehicles - for the first time, it didn't really stand out in the lot. I love this picture - it's like being transported back to the 50s.

We hung out in front of our teepee, chatting with the neighbors and having a couple of drinks. We were befriended by the local kitty - black and white, just like our buddy! She was a real sweetheart and Ryan snuggled with her for awhile before she abandoned us for some people down the way.

Lovin' our teepee!

The sunset was insane - the whole sky was on fire and we watched it move across the sky changing practically every few seconds. Best one so far.

Awesome picture - so surreal to see these teepees.

We had some BBQ at Bubba's and then walked over to a nearby bowling alley. We weren't quite sure what to expect after we asked the Wigwam proprietor about local options and he mentioned this place and said he hadn't been there since he was a teenager - which must have easily been 40+ years ago (we found out it was built in 1954).

Once again, we were the only ones there and this place was pretty ancient. No computer scoring and the shoes I had on had to have been several years older than me.

Even so, I held my own and came within 4 points of beating Ryan - ugh! Ryan says: Ha Ha!

Day Twelve: Albuquerque, NM to Gallup, NM

We headed out of Albuquerque relatively early.

We were driving near and on a lot of Indian reservation land and taking pictures was prohibited in certain areas.

The roads twist and turn around the hills - this is us approaching the famed Dead Man's Curve.

Route 66 is littered with these old defunct gas stations, which are good places to take a break and stretch your legs.

In Grants, NM, we stopped at the Uranium Mining Museum. This is actually a drillhead!

We walked around the museum and then opted to pay $3 to go down into the mine. Check out the sweet elevator.

We were the only ones down in the mine - it was actually really well done. It was a recreation of a mine where you go around to the different stages and press buttons to hear old miners tell about what they did at work and how the different tools are used.

This is Ryan drilling the holes they would use for putting the dynamite charges in before blasting.

In the miners lunchroom, they had these cool old work posters.

So true!

We learned so much! This was a lot of fun and really interesting - I knew nothing about uranium mining, or mining in general, and the people that worked here were friendly and helpful.

We passed over the Continental Divide - nerdy tourist photo #327.

Muffler Man Alert! Love the cowboy but they need to give him something interesting to hold - we like muffler men.

Our hotel for the evening - El Rancho = Relaxo.

The main lobby is a giant lodge - like straight out of the 1950s, completely kitsch. During the 50s, at the height of the western movie craze, Gallup was often used as the backdrop, so many movie stars would come through here and stay at this hotel. So it was definitely pretty swanky.

Each room is named after its most famous occupant - such luminaries as Kirk Douglas. (across the hall from us)...

Of course, John Wayne - to the right of us...

the comic legend and humantarian, Jack Benny, to the left of us...

And our room, no explanation required - we could really go on and on about his films, his philanthropy, his inspiration to the early beginnings of rap and hip hop - a definite highlight of our trip. God bless you, Sir Old ScHool - wherever you are.

After getting unpacked, we were going to head into town for some dinner and our car was buried amid about 50 Harleys. We managed to squeeze out and had some Mexican food at Jerry's before settling in for the night.

Day Eleven: Santa Fe, NM to Albuquerque, NM

We spent the morning in our expensive hotel room and had an excellent breakfast at Cafe Pasqual. We headed out for a short drive day to Albuquerque.



We stopped at the Coronado State Monument to see the ruins of a pueblo built in the 1300s. There wasn't much left of it, but it was interesting learning about how the pueblos were built and set up and we were able to walk around for awhile in the desert and down by the Rio Grande.

This is me in front of a kiva - it is a ceremonial room that the men would use for meetings. Women traditionally were not allowed in them, but this one was open and you could go down inside and see the ancient paintings on the walls. Apparently these are the oldest kiva paintings in the world (you aren't allowed to take photographs).

This is the old theater in Albuquerque - the KiMo. It was designed to incorporate the different architectural styles of the city and the tile work is great. This is the downtown part of the city.

We stayed near the Old Town in the Monterey Non Smokers Motel. It has always been specifically for non-smokers - I love that that is up in the neon as well.

The rooms were great and the place even had a laundry room (very necessary at this point in the trip).


We went to eat at the Church St. Cafe in the Old Town. They had a pretty garden out back with a koi pond and waterfall. Very nice.