Day to relax and explore

August 21^st, 2026

Tucumcari, New Mexico

Slept in a bit, do not even recall when I got out of bed.

Showered and dressed, then walked outside to look down the road to see if the diner was actually open.  Looked like it was, so got helmet and other items and rode the half block down and parked at the diner, Rubee’s Diner.

Had a good late breakfast, though place was a bit slow to get order, but food was very good.

Left and rode a few blocks over to the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum.

This small museum is affiliated with the Mesalands community college and their Paleontology program as well as some other artistic programs.

I walked in and the lady did tell me they would be closing in about 35 minutes for lunch, but decided I could probably get through it in that time as I rarely read every sign and note and gloss over some artifacts anyway.

Museum went over several fossil finds in the area, even had a case of finds by students during their workshop programs they offer.

Lots of the skeletons are actually bronze casts, something they do at the facility or nearby school as part of an art program.

Several other items were also casts of real bones. 

A few actual fossils on display though to round things out.

Some diorama type displays and some stuff aimed at kids as well.

Finished up and looked over things in gift shop, but really do not have room to buy stuff.

She locked up as we both walked out and I went back to the motel to relax and work on stuff.

Got some videos converted and some other things cleaned up, and then wasted some time looking on social media.

Left early for dinner, thinking I would work on video conversions while I ate.

Rode down to the other edge of town to eat at another recommended place called Del’s Restaurant.

Parked and went inside, got seated and food ordered.  I then got laptop out and started to work when server came back and conversation about the videos came up.

Then couple at table next too me chimed as they had overheard and more discussions ensued, and a couple at the bar got involved as well.

Lots of discussions of travel, people we met, and various topics, mostly between 2-3 of the 7 or 8 people in and out of the area.

Spent much of it talking with the lady at the other table as she was interested in my travel plans and ideas and how I was working to share the experience with others via various platforms.

We eventually started to get ready to go.  Paid my bill and left and rode back to the motel and continued to work on video conversions till I finished what I needed to edit another video.

I then sat and wasted some time before I remembered I needed to plot tomorrows route still!

So ended up being up till 1:00am to get that done, so now I am going to bed!

Stopped a bit later to get fuel and then back on the road.

Had a few off the interstate routes, mostly just running along beside the interstate as a frontage road, and some short sections where the road cut across something the freeway went around. 

Also rode through a few small town, but nothing much to see in them.

An hour outside of Albuquerque and we were able to get off onto some older alignments, most which still ran next to freeway, but going down the canyon, so was a scenic ride.

Few sections that did wind off into the hills a bit before coming back to the freeway corridor.

Finally came out of the canyon onto the main road across Albuquerque which was the original alignment into town starting in the mid 1930s.

NOTE: Before that time, Route 66 went north to Las Vegas and Santa Fe, NM before coming south.  There had been no existing roadway in the canyon when 66 was formed in 1926.

In the mid 1930s, a local guy who had lost an election and had some other politically motivated attacks aimed at him got a crew together and in roughly a month created a roadway from Moriarty to Albuquerque.  The state tried to stop it, but was too late.

He later commissioned to have the route moved, basically taking all that traffic away from Santa Fe, though they managed to survive anyway from other means.

The road which is now Central Blvd runs out of the hills and toward the center of the valley before heading back up the other side.  The 1926 route had actually gone south and then back up before the straighter route was built in the 30s.

I chose to follow the later route as the early route was not drivable in many spots and you had to follow a local highway, or even some gravel roads.  It then came back up to the interstate on highway 6.  (NOTE: Glad I did not take that route, as they had it closed near the freeway for some construction, so would have had to back track a few hours.)

After I entered the city, I rode about a mile or so in and then stopped to see if a friend I had here in town had seen my Facebook message I sent earlier that morning.

He had not, so I continued down the road, but about 10 minutes later I got an alert and it was him and he had finally seen the message.

I pulled off into an empty parking lot at a shop not open, and we exchanged a few messages and he just had time to meet me for lunch if we could get to it soon.

I found a Route 66 themed diner down near I-25 which was near the halfway point of the road anyway.

He was already close to that location, so worked great.

Took me about 15 minutes to get there, so he had arrived and gotten a table already.

I found the place, parked, grabbed a few bags (Albuquerque has a very bad problem with theft of stuff on/in vehicles, even entire vehicles.)

I could still see the bike from inside, but the critical stuff was with me.

Met up with Jack, who I know from the various conventions I attend and via our mutual friends Kathy and Wesley, both actors from the 1970s and 80s.

We had lunch and talked about various things; he then insisted on buying.  We then took a photo with our server and parted ways as he had to go do some work stuff and I needed to get back on the road.

I rode the rest of the way out of town, stopping on the edge to use the restroom at a Loves truck stop which was just packed with cars and people.

Got onto the frontage road and road a few miles on it till we reached the Rio Puerco bridge which is still standing, but no longer used for motor traffic.

I stopped at the gas station nearby to buy some drinks and take a short break, then rode over to the bridge to do some photos.

At this point the access road alignment runs a few miles to a dead end, so my only option was to get back on the freeway.  This would be the route for quite a distance.

A few miles up the road and traffic slowed to a crawl and then stopped.

Sat there for probably 15 minutes, Maps is now telling me it is a 1 hour delay due to construction.  WTF?

We would creep ahead a bit, then stop, repeat, and then we started to move.  Reached the speed limit, and 2 miles later, dead stop again.

Sat there another 10 minutes, repeated the same pattern.

Eventually we got going slowly, and then kept going.

The construction, lane closure and accident Maps kept telling me about never appeared.

NOTE: I guess there was an accident with a Semi Truck and many cars had been diverted or turned around, but traffic still backed up about 20 miles on the freeway, which was when I was on it.  During that 1 hour to go 20 miles, they finished cleaning up the accident, and the lane closure and construction finished for the day and lane was re-opened.  They are resurfacing, so must work just in the days till about 3:00, which was when this whole thing started for me.

Thankfully the 100+ degree temps I had seen most of the day (first hour was bit nicer in mid 80s-mid 90s) started to drop as a heavy overcast moved in.  Lots of rain showers visible in the distance on either side of the freeway and even ahead.  Winds picked up as well.

The overcast, combined with winds blowing and the moisture in the surrounding region cooled things off nicely, got down to 80 shortly after we cleared the traffic jam.

Once things cleared, I rode another few miles before turning off the freeway to use the older alignments again which are still drivable in this area.

This routes actually do get away from the freeway, up to 2 miles apart in many spots, and wide in and around canyons and hills the freeway just plowed over.

Finally came into edge of Grants where I will stay for the night.

Was not far into town when I found the motel I am staying at.

Pulled up and got checked in.  Host was going to walk me over to room, I rode bike over but then they changed me to a different room.  Guess they had just completed a bathroom remodel in the other room and the epoxy smell was still quite strong.

The other room was just a few rooms down and it had been finished a week or so back, so was not having the problems with construction smells.

The Southwest Motel is an original 1950s motel that the current owners are remodeling, and is not a bad little place.

I got bike unloaded and then decided to ride down the road a mile to the convenience store to buy some drinks.

Once back, I then put the bike under cover and changed into street clothes.

Decided to walk over to the pizza place a block down the road for dinner.

Got there and it was pretty dead.  One couple at the bar, and a father and 3 teens in the game room making a huge racket with the air hockey game.

I went into the smaller room and got a menu and sat down there, much of the place was closed down, so only a few areas you could sit.

Ordered my food, a 9 inch pizza and some breadsticks with toppings.

Food arrived.  Pizza as hoped, but the breadsticks were a full 16 inch pizza!!!

Ended up eating way too much food and did not even finish the breadsticks.

Worked on getting footage off the cameras while waiting and eating.

Then back to the motel and at this point I was exhausted.  Between the long day, heat, and not too much food, I decided to just go to bed even though it was only 8:30.

Laid in bed for a bit, but did get up and down a few times to adjust AC or use restroom or change clothing, even walked outside to verify cover was okay as I could hear the wind whipping it around.

Think I finally fell asleep about 9am, not really sure though, but body must have needed sleep.

See you in the morning.