Route 66 Tripping thru New Mexico and on East

It's crazy to think we left Santa Fe at about 9 in the morning and stopped in Oklahoma City about 10 pm. It was a long day but we packed in a ton of course. I think I will just mention New Mexico for this post because there are a millin pictures to choose from. We had breakfast at the Flying Tortilla in Santa Fe. It won best breakfast so how bad could it be? We actually really loved it. I'm not usually one to go for chile peppers for breakfast but...

 

Loved the breakfast. I had a chile relleno omelet that was too die for! I actually enjoyed it most of the day in fact lol but I'd do it again in a second. We left Santa Fe wishing we had more time to explore more but we had to roll on. We took the Route 66 Santa Fe loop all the way down to the I 40. Leaving the Santa Fe area and going through the mountains was just beautiful. Lots of trees pretty vistas of the valley below. Loved driving through Apache Canyon, very scenic and way too short.

We made a quick stop at Glorieta to check out the civil war site. They say there was lots of action there so it was called the Gettysburg of the west.

So we found Pigeon Ranch (the old stage stop) just a mile probably from Glorieta. We peeked inside as recommended but it was super hard to see the old brands written on the wall. Mostly because the windows were so dusty and dirty.

This shot is a bit better. We did not try to get in and didn't notice the washed out no trespassing sign posted on the building. We hope it was referring to trying to inside the old adobe building.

We made a quick stop at Pecos National Park and got some stamps in our passports!
As we drove on we noticed the elevation dropping which was expected but still sad because the trees started to thin out. By the time we were headed down by Dilia we were completely out of the trees and back to the high dessert. Never happy about that.

"Well at least we have a cool substation to look at"

So reading the guide books I finally noticed that the route to Santa Fe was an optional loop of 66. The original older route went that way but after 1937 they did the cut off of Santa Fe that was more direct to Albuquerque. Going east that was pretty hard to keep clear in the directions so we missed a turn and ended up back on I 40 heading to Santa Rosa. We made sure to get off the freeway in lots of time to drive through Tucumcari. Thank goodness we did because it was a jewel of a town. There were lots of abandoned old buildings but we loved how they keep most of the signage from Route 66 still up no matter what. Some buildings have been restored but most were not. Still amazing to see though.

One of our favorites was this fun motel that looked like it was right out of the fifties. It was hard to get a great picture of it though because we were starving by then, lol.


After driving up and down the whole main drag we headed to Kix on 66 for a late lunch,


The place was packed! We had to sit at the lunch counter but we loved that anyway. Our burgers were fantastic and the root beer floats hit the spot.

Continuing on to Santa Fe

As we were driving through Holbrook we noticed lots of rock hound stops that looked pretty darn fun. Christina wanted a piece of petrified wood for her classroom so we thought we better turn around and investigate in case we didn't see any more opportunities (bahahaha).

Well we saw rocks and petrified wood aplenty and dinosaurs too!

One of the most outlandish and amusing stops was just down the road yet.

 

 

 

Why have any ol dinosaur when you can have one eating a man?

 

It was a hoot but believe it or not we didn't even go in because it looked like there wasn't a soul around. Maybe we missed a cool opportunity but we had to get going. We went to the Indian trading post across the way and loaded up on souvenirs and kept going toward Albuquerque. There wasn't much Route 66 to speak of just side trips that didn't seem promising so we hit the I 40. Our lunch adventures in Albuquerque didn't go very well because the little spot I picked out was closed on weekends so we headed north. We discovered Which Wich and we are now fans for sure. Going Northish to Santa Fe didn't have any opportunities for Route 66 driving to speak of. We go in about 15 miles or so if that all day. 

Finally we got to Santa Fe. Out first stop after checking in and grabbing a quick nap was the Carolyn Pollock jewelry outlet...got my souvenirs!! We finally got to old Santa Fe and walked all around during the evening.

We had a yummy pizza dinner and then did some more shopping and looking around.

Checked out the oldest building in the USA

And the oldest church

Well another beautiful and fun day came to a close.

Holbrook, Arizona on Route 66

This cute little place deserves it's very own post. I have so many pictures I just couldn't decide so I'm choosing lots.

 

 

Our little motel looked just cute even in the light of day. Don't you just love the vintage cars parked in the background. So while everyone was finishing getting ready for the day I grabbed the camera and headed down the street.

This Route 66 motel was right across the street from ours and as you can see it hasn't received any love at all over the years.

I loved this place.

The Stage Coach Steak House was pretty neat too.

 

The stage coach on the roof was fun

 

Just like bees to honey I ended up at the WigWam Motel just like I knew I would.

Most people were already checked out. There were quite a few wigwams open so I figured it was really an invitation for me to go inside and check one out. 

I loved the classic cars parked out in front of everyone. I couldn't take just one picture and be satisfied sorry!

Well enough doddling time to check out and get back on the road!

Getting Started on Route 66

It's been a bucket list thing for us for years and now we're finally on the mother road. We hoped to get started earlier in the day but we did the best we could and ended up getting to Kingman AZ about 4pm. Not ideal but oh well. 

We were so excited to see our first kitchie signs just outside of Kingman going east on 66

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A couple more fun things later and we hit the motherlode of fun stops. Hackberry General Store was incredible! We had such fun checking out all the vintage cars, gas, pumps, pop machine, you name it. we were in heaven. A must see for any serious Route 66 trip!!

Ok yes even the ladies room was fabulous!

Pretty sure this was the best stop of the day. We drove by so many fun things including ruins of old buildings that looked like they were so amazing in their day. We wished we would have had more time to stop and see everything. Seligman was an amazing town also. Lots and lots to see here but we had to just snap some pictures and keep on a going.

Doesn't this look like it came right off the set of Cars!

Loved the Berma Shave signs coming and going from Seligman. Brought back lots of fun memories for me.

The weather started to turn and we were so far behind it was almost a blessing that we missed a Route 66 sign right at I 40 and ended up on the freeway. We sped off to Flagstaff and enjoyed a wonderful DDD dinner at Salsa Brava. The salsa bar was amazing.

 It came recommended by the Jensens and it didn't disappoint. 

We quickly headed back on the road to Holbrook so we could get to our hotel before the front desk closed at 10pm. Made it with 15 min to spare.

We really loved our little Route 66 Motel, the Globetrotter Lodge. It was fixed up very nice (3beds) and was clean and cute! I can recommend it for sure. Loved the AC that pretty much hid the train noise. It was not a problem for us at all. Thank goodness because there were tons and tons of trains!
Right across the street was the famous Wigwam Motel but it was booked of course. What was I thinking trying to get a reservation just days before our trip?

Both motels had vintage cars and stuff everywhere. Very cool! Day one ended so late so we are hoping for a much earlier start in the morning.