Air: The first museum of our trip, and it wasn’t for Route 66 memorabilia. It was at the PIMA Air Museum in Tucson, AZ. Over 200 static displays of planes and helicopters on the tram tour, some that I had never seen before. And for the grand finale: a drive around the “bone yard” where unused and unwanted planes go to die. It saddens me to think that these planes serve us well, but ultimately end up retiring out in the hot Arizona desert. And don’t get me started on the rows and rows of B-52s out there, some with tail fins or stabilizer flaps missing.
Water: The drive back to Route 66 was beautiful in a whole different way. We came back through the same mountain pass, but through a couple rain storms. God washed his plants and we kept the top up. It made for some great pictures.
Dirt: Finally back on the Mother Road, we continued our trek East to Albuquerque, NM. A few miles past Gallup, Timm found an older stretch of the road that was no longer connected to Route 66. We were still able to drive the quarter mile stretch until the road fell into a “wash” (a manmade aqueduct that collects rain to help prevent flash flooding). We reveled in his discovery for a while, and then returned to our plotted course. A few more miles down the road we discovered another stretch of the road that was no longer shown on the maps. Another neat discovery, we found it ran parallel to the interstate most of the way with one portion turning north, then turning south around very large boulders. Another mile further and the road became dirt, no longer carrying the lane markings or characteristics of a paved road. Another great discovery that went on for about 10 miles.
Tomorrow we expect to see more of the tourist-type, unique, weird-type sites that we have all come to expect from Route 66. Maybe we’ll be able to put the top down again.
