Day 11: Grants to Albuquerque -- 80 miles
Special Guest Photographer: Anurang "Ringtail" Revri
We detoured early on today to see this church, which Bob Moore (our driver and the managing editor of Route 66 magazine) complains can't be photographed with the sun on its front no matter what time of day or year you drop by. Anurang proves Bob right.
Across from the previous church. I think we're admiring the valley below and wondering how we're going to get back to the main route.
"Dude, there aren't enough pictures of you." I beg to differ.
Brian and me approaching an abandoned Whiting Brothers gas stations. They're all closed now; the last one shut down in the 80's. The Okies and Arkies all bought gas from the Whiting Brothers because they could get a penny cheaper if they had a discount card.
You can still see the neon tubes in the sign at this station. Lon remembers seeing them when he did RAAM in the early 80's.
Federico's wood and stone carving workshop in Cubero, which is where Hemingway wrote most of "The Old Man and the Sea." Federico wasn't around, but his machines and various large pieces of wood and stone were.
Lon took lots of pictures today. He says that today contains his favorite section of Route 66. Anurang didn't take a picture of it, though. This is a trading post that wasn't open.
The church in Laguna Pueblo. We had a rest stop here. This church must be facing in the correct direction.
The ladies from the Laguna child care center brought their charges along in wagons to meet us.
Anurang's new girlfriend, Deanna, tries out his Rivendell. (I took this one picture.)
Lon with the teddy bear he shamelessly stole from the Laguna kids. Not really. He picks up stuff he finds by the side of the interstate and, unfortunately Susan wasn't around to stop him. He would have taken a soccerball he saw an hour later but it was flat. He did score a "mint' bungie cord, though.
An old bridge that New Mexico seems intent on preserving as part of the old route (notice historic sign on the left). Anurang was a little too far ahead of the pack (as usual) to get a shot where you could see who's who but it's me, Brian, Lon, and Tim and Vicki Arnold.
I offered to reclaim the camera after we crossed that bridge but Anurang insisted that he would take more pictures. So he had to take this one. That's Albuquerque in the distance -- the first really big city we've seen since Los Angeles.