Are we there yet? Day 5

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Our travels today took us from Oklahoma City to Albuquerque NM. A long 9 hour drive, and with a dramatically changing landscape in between. After Amarillo, in the panhandle of Texas, the landscape became very desert like-arid and hot. When we reached NM it felt like desert-like conditions all the way to Albuquerque. We stopped on our way at a small gas station on Route 66 and met two women who were traveling to Groom TX which has one of the largest collections of large crosses. We saw one of the crosses as we traveled on Route I-40.

We had booked a hotel in Albuquerque, which coincidentally was the same hotel we stayed in 2 years ago on our first visit to Albuquerque. However, there was a cliche in our trip, a mechanical malfunction on our dashboard indicated that we had low tire pressure and we were traveling at 75 which was very scary. We slowed down, the light went off, and we got to the hotel safely. On Monday, we contacted a Toyota dealer, and they found there was a malfunction in the tire pressure sensor. $140 later, it was fixed and we were back on the road. Interestingly, in talking to the service representative, he was originally from Pittsburgh, Pa. Such a small world. When we reached Albuquerque were logged 2,090 miles of travel.



Route 66

Here is a little Wikipedia history for those who are not familiar with Route 66
U.S. Route 66 (US 66 or Route 66), also known as the Will Rogers Highway and colloquially known as the Main Street of America or theMother Road, was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System. Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926—with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in America, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before ending at Los Angeles, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s.
Route 66 served as a major path for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and it supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

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Photos

Town on Route 66
Looks like nobody is home!

Quintessential Route 66 town
Exit 134 off I-40