Route 66 Day 29 Nov 6 2019
Finally leaving Albuquerque after 5 days. Brand new morning! I love it here and I'll probably be back at a later date. Too much to see and do and not the right season to do it all.
I set my GPS and get back on Route 66. The sky in my rear view mirror is dark and I'm pretty happy I'm in front of whatever those ugly clouds are bringing. I stop off at the Route 66 Casino and Hotel, and get gas. I take a few pictures of the hotel and consider going inside, but the rain is starting and I decide to stay moving. I travel along the Route until I hit Grants, NM. This is another town with obvious signs of Route 66 love. Plenty of old motels and many are in ruins with the exception of the signs. Murals, diners, an old theater. Lots of Route 66 evidence here. One of the things on my Route 66 list the Mining Museum on the west end of town. My app doesn't mention a price, so I decide to pull over and try to find the website. The website doesn't provide any information of cost, but it does show other cool things in the area, such as El Malpais National Monument. So immediately, I'm thinking I may need another day. I talk with the front desk at the Mining Museum and the cost is $6. I've already done a mining museum in Kansas and I'm tempted to skip this one. But the one in Kansas is the history of Zinc and Lead. The mines around Grants NM mined Uranium. It was just different enough that I decided to check it out. It was truly a fascinating museum and they had a recreation of an old Uranium mine in the basement. There were audio explantionation and reading material throughout. They also had videos that I chose to watch once I figured out the rain had caught up with me and my day was pretty much done. Between the videos an the dude at the front desk, I added El Morro National Monument and Free Spirit Wolf Sanctuary to my to-do list. After I left the museum, I drove west down Route 66 until I reached the Continental Divide, which was my only list item between Grants and Gallop NM. By doing the National Monuments and the Wolf Sanctuary, it would put me closer to Gallop than to Grants and I didn't want to back track later. So I went to Dominos and got some pizza and headed towards the El Malpais National Monument Visitors Center. I didn't have the weather or daylight to do any hiking, but I figured I could ask a bunch of questions to the park ranger. I did, and he gave me hiking guides with suggestions of which parts of the hikes were easier and which parts had high elevation or stairs. He was extremely helpful. I took notes and I used those notes to plan my hikes.
From the Visitors Center I hopped over to Walmart, which was just on the flip side of I-40 from the Visitors Center. As I pulled in, I was greeted by a wall of RV's and campers lined up on the back of the parking lot. For the first time every, I felt like part of a weird little Walmart boondockers community. I felt a kinship with these people I've never met and never talked too, but we were all on the same path. I also realized that it brought me comfort knowing that I wouldn't be bothered in the middle of the night. Ever since I got kicked out of that Walmart in Illinois, I have fear that someone will tap on my window at 3am and tell me to get out. I religiously started checking the No-Park list on the RV'ers website (which changed halfway through my trip, now it lists all the Walmarts with a 'may' or 'may not' allow overnight parking). But managers can change their mind at any moment and the website might not be updated. I find comfort in seeing so many of my people lining the back of the parking lot and knowing I'm not alone.
I set my GPS and get back on Route 66. The sky in my rear view mirror is dark and I'm pretty happy I'm in front of whatever those ugly clouds are bringing. I stop off at the Route 66 Casino and Hotel, and get gas. I take a few pictures of the hotel and consider going inside, but the rain is starting and I decide to stay moving. I travel along the Route until I hit Grants, NM. This is another town with obvious signs of Route 66 love. Plenty of old motels and many are in ruins with the exception of the signs. Murals, diners, an old theater. Lots of Route 66 evidence here. One of the things on my Route 66 list the Mining Museum on the west end of town. My app doesn't mention a price, so I decide to pull over and try to find the website. The website doesn't provide any information of cost, but it does show other cool things in the area, such as El Malpais National Monument. So immediately, I'm thinking I may need another day. I talk with the front desk at the Mining Museum and the cost is $6. I've already done a mining museum in Kansas and I'm tempted to skip this one. But the one in Kansas is the history of Zinc and Lead. The mines around Grants NM mined Uranium. It was just different enough that I decided to check it out. It was truly a fascinating museum and they had a recreation of an old Uranium mine in the basement. There were audio explantionation and reading material throughout. They also had videos that I chose to watch once I figured out the rain had caught up with me and my day was pretty much done. Between the videos an the dude at the front desk, I added El Morro National Monument and Free Spirit Wolf Sanctuary to my to-do list. After I left the museum, I drove west down Route 66 until I reached the Continental Divide, which was my only list item between Grants and Gallop NM. By doing the National Monuments and the Wolf Sanctuary, it would put me closer to Gallop than to Grants and I didn't want to back track later. So I went to Dominos and got some pizza and headed towards the El Malpais National Monument Visitors Center. I didn't have the weather or daylight to do any hiking, but I figured I could ask a bunch of questions to the park ranger. I did, and he gave me hiking guides with suggestions of which parts of the hikes were easier and which parts had high elevation or stairs. He was extremely helpful. I took notes and I used those notes to plan my hikes.
From the Visitors Center I hopped over to Walmart, which was just on the flip side of I-40 from the Visitors Center. As I pulled in, I was greeted by a wall of RV's and campers lined up on the back of the parking lot. For the first time every, I felt like part of a weird little Walmart boondockers community. I felt a kinship with these people I've never met and never talked too, but we were all on the same path. I also realized that it brought me comfort knowing that I wouldn't be bothered in the middle of the night. Ever since I got kicked out of that Walmart in Illinois, I have fear that someone will tap on my window at 3am and tell me to get out. I religiously started checking the No-Park list on the RV'ers website (which changed halfway through my trip, now it lists all the Walmarts with a 'may' or 'may not' allow overnight parking). But managers can change their mind at any moment and the website might not be updated. I find comfort in seeing so many of my people lining the back of the parking lot and knowing I'm not alone.
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