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.