Stuart Day 7

Old Route 66

Albuquerque Cinema

The children at play

View from 10,600 ft!

One of those good days where we did not know where we were going to go, what we were going to do and where we were going to spend the night. We started off by going to the  Mining Museum in Grants (87020) - a very interesting little museum which featues, underground, a reconstruction of a uranium mine. Uranium was discovered here in 1950 by a native American rejoicing in the name of Paddy Mendez! Poor old Grants - the Interstate is only a mile away but has clearly ripped the heart out of the town. All the motels on the main strip are closed but at the far end of town, over the Interstate,  is a new complex of motels, Wallmart etc. We then picked up old R66, which is in pretty poor condition here, and trundled along to Los Lunas. Unending, stark but spectacular landscapes. We then picked up the Interstate and whizzed up to Albuquerque (87104), a lovely looking city. R66 is the main street of the city and is lined with refurbished 30s style art deco buildings. The historic old town is Spanish, but we were not quite sure what is original and what has been created for selling opportunities. Whatever, it's very pretty. We then took to the hills, literally, rising to 10,600 feet at Sandia Crest. Well above the snowline, so needless to say the children threw a few snowballs! Spectacular views over the city and across the surrounding peaks. By this stage we decided that we might as well continue to Santa Fe (87507) for our overnight. Well, the original pre-1936 alignment of R66 followed the Santa Fe trail to Sante Fe. This took us through a charming little town called Madrid, where the native Americans have moved out and the artists, sculptors and craftspeople have moved in. After choosing the delights of the Comfort Inn for our overnight, we spent a really good evening at the Blue Corn Cafe and Microbrewery. Nuff said!
Today's boring fact: something I'm surprised I haven't noticed before. Exits on Interstates are numbered according to the distance from the state border, eg exit 231 will be followed by 239. This means that the same junction will have 2 different numbers depending on direction of travel. How about that!