Can one get their kicks on Route 66?

According to the song, one can indeed get their kicks on Route 66. I've never been quite sure exactly what those "kicks" are, but I'm bound and determined to find out...now that I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico!

The highway that runs from Los Angeles to Chicago hardly exists in its original path any longer. Most of the time it runs parallel to other so-called super-highways, just off the beat and path. Signs abound on Highway 40 through Arizona and New Mexico inviting travelers to exit and drive the original Route 66. On my way out here a few weeks ago, I opted not to do that...yet. I stayed on the 75 mph, four-lane divided thoroughfare that would get me to Albuquerque in the least amount of time. There will be plenty of time to savor (and photograph) the old road.

Route 66 still does run right through the middle of Albuquerque. Old and new structures alike sit side by side. Some of the old diners and motels still stand, some have become eerie, empty relics of a time gone by. Others have been converted to new diners, restaurants, shops, and tourists traps. Old Town Albuquerque is one of those tourist destinations that one must see when passing through the Southwest proper. There is an old church and convent, a grassy, tree-lined plaza with a gazebo bandstand, and many shops with a few steps selling T-shirts, dream catchers, dried up scorpions, rattle snake replicas, and turquoise and silver jewelry. All the usual New Mexico-ish stuff one would want to take home to South Dakota or Illinois.

The food here is typical "Southwestern"...but not what the Food Network has lead us to believe. Bobby Flay does not have a restaurant in Albuquerque. Traditional southwestern cuisine is much simpler than those trendy chefs in New York have concocted over the past few years. When you order something, anything...it's "Do you want red or green sauce?" And, usually, it has been made fresh and is nice and spicy! Tortillas are made fresh and taste better than any I've had in California.

And the weather? Well, just let me say this: It ain't what most folks have been lead to perceive. Most New Mexicans, born and raised or transplanted, are happy to let Westerners or Easterners continue to believe that this place is just another hot, dusty, desert town. Far from it. Albuquerque is higher than Denver (the Mile High City)! We're in the Monsoon Season here now.

As the Bobby Troup song goes:
If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66!

Like I said, there will be plenty of time to savor and photograph that old road. I live here now.

It really is much more than roadrunners and cottonwood trees!

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