Albuquerque to Gallup

Day 10 started with a good omen. We stopped on the way out of town to get ice and I found that the ice company was named after my parents! Thanks for the ice, Mom!

 

It was beautiful driving. We had a little glitch going out of town, though. I learned that Kathleen is really more interested in seeing where I would end up when left to my own devices than she is in navigating. As she put it, “How will I show you the beauty and wonder of the Southwest if I don't occasionally mislead you.”

Or as I call it - “Where the hell are we, Kathleen???”

As a result, we stuck to the highway for most of the day. But the highway paralleled the railroad track and every time a train went by I yelled "TRAIN!!" and made Kathleen take a picture. For some reason, she didn't hit me.

We stopped in Grants at the New Mexico Mining Museum. I was sure this was going to be one of those museums where I just go to the ladies room and the gift shop. But Kathleen surprised me by telling me this was her third mining museum and she wanted to go in. Who am I to stand in the way of a weird mining obsession?

 

We went on the tour which means we went into an elevator DOWN to the mine reconstruction area. I was a little claustrophobic, but I was so charmed by Jack, our guide, that I stuck it out. 

Jack is a retired miner who was running three mines by the time he retired and he has a million stories.

 He started out at the very bottom of the ladder and ended up winning national safety awards during a time when miners were considered more or less expendable. We listened to his stories, fascinated, and he was so appreciative of our interest that he even gave us little goldstones when we left. He was great. 

 

Aside from Grants, the only thing I really wanted to see on the way in to Gallup was the Continental Divide. However, when we tried to get off the highway, we were trapped by construction. Should have driven Route 66!

We got to Gallup shortly before three and went to out hotel. It was nasty. The lobby was dirty and we had to yell to get help at the desk. I know, these are not real problems, but if you haven't been paying attention, I have become kind of a princess, hotel-wise. Luckily, the pool was broken so they let me cancel out reservation without penalty and we went to a nicer place down the road. 

This is not that hotel! This is the el Rancho Hotel where movie stars used to stay back in the day. 

 

It had a beautiful lobby that was just papered with autographed movie stills from the golden age of Hollywood. Everyone who every appeared in a western appears to have stayed here. 

 

There was a lovely courtyard where I could just picture myself surrounded by handsome movie stars of yesteryear.

 

And we snuck into the section where the guest rooms are to find that each of the rooms was named for a movie star who had stayed at the hotel! Kathleen took the two good pictures here, but I managed to take a Humphrey Bogart selfie to fulfill my quota for the day.

We ate a late lunch/early dinner here and went back to out nice clean chain hotel, both wishing that we had researched this sooner!