Santa Fe and Gallup, New Mexico

Thursday, April 29, 2021 for Friday, April 23, 2021

We started our day with the goal of visiting the New Mexico state Capitol building. Unfortunately, the Capitol building was closed, but Randy had a unique experience. She called the Capitol earlier to see if it was opened, and was told it was not, but please come to see the grounds, architecture and sculptures, and when you get to the entrance, please call us again and we will come out and stamp your State Capitols book (as long as you are wearing a mask)! No one has ever been that accommodating to us at a closed Capitol. Usually it is just, closed, sorry.

The picture at the top is a sculpture on the grounds, the two below are of the building itself. 

As you will see, this was among our busiest days, with LOTS of pictures taken. We left the Capitol grounds and headed to Sandia Park, and the Tinkertown Museum. On the way, there were a few things to see.

Where we were at this time was not on Historic Route 66 -- it was pretty much paved over for other roads. One of the other state routes passed a house with "kinetic art" displayed in the yard -- it was for sale, from what we could gather. 

We were on something called the "Turquoise Trail," which was a route reflecting a string of mines through that part of New Mexico. Among the items mined were gold, silver, lead and turquoise, as well as other minerals. Following are some pictures along the Turquoise Trail.

If you have ever been to Colorado Springs, Colorado, you may be familiar with the Garden of the Gods. The Turquoise Trail has its own Garden of the Gods. The sign in the lower left of the rock structure informs us of that.

It was very scenic driving ... 

We continued on and found a town called Cerrillos. It may have been a "ghost town" at one time -- there were supposed to be a number of them along this route -- but this one had re-created itself into a tourist stop.

One of my favorite signs we have seen on the entire trip was in this little town:

There was a trading post in the town, with many stones and semi-precious gems for sale, as well as post cards, Route 66 souvenirs, and many other items. There was also a small mining museum, which we passed up. As we pulled up to the store, there was a great overlook to a set of mountains, and one of the more ingenious ways to distinguish the mountains. There was a series of five tubes that looked like small telescopes, in fixed positions. They were not maginified, rather zeroed in on specific mountains, and we found them to be quite helpful.

As we left town, we stopped to see a few of the buildings, in various stages of repair or disrepair.

Tinkertown is not on Route 66, but just off the Turquoise Trail, heading towards I-40 and Albuquerque.

Tinkertown was the creation of a guy named Ross Ward, who started out with a four-room summer cabin and turned it into a 22-room building (plus outside displays) of carvings, dioramas, and curiosities. Apparently he liked to say ...

I especially liked this sign for my optometrist and optician friends!

We spent a couple hours in Tinkertown -- I cannot explain what it was like to someone who hasn't seen it. As we say about the scenery, pictures cannot adequately capture what we saw.

We left that area and headed to Albuquerque. Honestly, we did not find that city fun, because traffic was terrible, the traffic pattern is what made the traffic terrible, and there was construction on the roads. (On the other hand, we WERE on Historic Route 66.) The weather was iffy, and the few things we hoped to see were closed, either permanently, or with restricted hours, which we missed. Here was the best example:

This was the (originally named) "66 Diner." It was opened, from 5 - 9 PM only, and we were there for lunch. The second picture was a wall at the end of their parking lot, quite a bit of nostalgia there.

In the same area we found ...

... not a diner, but a police sub-station!

Leaving the area, we saw some old-style signs, pictured below.

"El Don" -- I liked that one

Continuing on the road, we found slightly better weather and some very nice sights.

The rock formation below is called "Owl Rock," and you can see why. With original 66 and all of its realignments, Owl Rock was not blown up or harmed.

While Grants, NM is a small town, we were entertained. We stopped at Gabby's and had a late lunch. I am not a big fan of Mexican/New Mexican food, but this was pretty darn good. PS -- our younger granddaughter is named Gabriella, with the nickname of Gabby!

They also, as we like to say, embrace their connection to Route 66 -- they had a drive-through neon sign.

I've mentioned the Pixar animated movie "Cars" before, we were now really in Cars country, as you'll see from some of the pictures below.

What we call Historic Route 66 also runs together with and under Business 40 or the Business Loop.

We then cam upon the Continental Divide. We had driven over this once before, but far to the north, where there were actually mountains. This was funny, less dramatic.

One more of what would have been typical to the Route 66 driver back in the 1930's - 1970's.

We reached our destination for the evening, the El Rancho Motel in Gallup, New Mexico.

After we checked in, we went out on one of our neon searches.

This was a place of older grandeur, well-maintained. 

As you see, they were also true to their southwestern culture. This was a place once used quite a bit by movie companies and stars. We wondered why, and it is because it was in an area used as location for many old classic (and B-grade) Westerns. There were pictures all over the second floor balcony with autographs of stars of those movies. The rooms also had the names of movie actors/actresses over the door. We were in the Rita Hayworth room.