We finally left ABQ around 10:30 this morning after chasing balloons and having a later breakfast.  We had to back track a little on the way out of town because we misread the instructions from the 8-map publications from about 6 years ago.  But that was okay, we got to see a couple of things we hadn’t seen. Once we were on our way, the traffic was pretty heavy for a Saturday until we had gone about 15 or 20 miles SW of ABQ. Urbanization occurs everwhere…  Then we were back into more open road. Places on the map today were: Laguna Indian Pueblo (Reservation) Correo Laguna Budville San Fidel Grants Prewett Gallup At Correo we took an alternate alignment for the historic Route 66.  This was a really great drive on a mostly dirt/gravel road although there were a few miles that had old pavement still showing.  We were only able to drive about 12 mph while avoiding potholes, washboard road surfaces and 3 or 4 other cars!  This section was about 10 or 12 miles long.

After we got back on better pavement, we had to go around a mesa and a formation called Owl Rock.  Looked just like an owl, too!  This was between Budville and Laguna.

San Fidel was a ghost town with three or four old abandoned buildings.  But it had a new post office!  We found a geocache here that was protected by a RT 66 sign. We saw a lot of freight trains today.  They seemed to be about every 20 or 30 minutes.  It was a big surprise to see the number of FedEx and UPS trucks on the open cars! Between Prewett and Gallup we were finally seeing the red rock formations the southwest is known for.  Also saw some lava fields in close proximity to the red rock formations.  Pretty interesting. A few miles out of Gallup we stopped to see what was in the Red Rock Park.  Mostly it seemed to be a place for limited camping and rodeo activity.  Quiet today, but surely rodeo season is coming soon.  There was an interesting old post office that we photographed and a rock formation called Church Rock.  Then we continued on to Gallup. After checking into our hotel for the night the sun was still pretty high in the west.  So, we took that time to photograph the motel signs in warm sunlight followed by dinner.  We ate at a 3 diamond AAA rated restaurant called Earl’s since 1947.  On the menu they had a selection of half dinners for the smaller appetites.  We both selected fried chicken.  This was one of the few places that served real vegetables with the meal.  Had a choice, too!  Joyce got salad, green beans and mashed potatoes  while Gary selected pinto beans, mashed potatoes and vegetable soup.  The food was pretty good and it wasn’t a chain restaurant.  However, the local population of artisans made the rounds trying to sell handmade jewelry and other treasures.  We said no thank you at least 20 times! Following dinner Gary wanted to take a drive on a road he had seen on the GPS map while photographing the motels signs.  It was called Superman Canyon Road. Hopefully there are some nice pictures of red rock and a sunset. Before returning to the hotel we made one more pass to photograph the neon signs lit up at dusk.  Harder to do than you might think.