Day 3 - Albuquerque, NM to Flagstaff, AZ. We had another great day!

Mile 1091 - After letting Travis sleep in until 8:00 am again (lucky for Dean…again), we finally take off at 9:20 a.m. After poking around all morning, Travis about takes off in a hurry with Dean's jacket and our log book on the top of the car. Motel manager stops us and we retrieve our stuff. (Travis starts off the drive.)

Went to grocery store, and we finally put the top down with many encouraging words from Dean. (Actually Travis put it down just to keep Dean from whining about it.)

Mile 1105 - Stopped on the way out of Albuquerque on top of 9 Mile Hill to look back at Route 66 running through downtown. At 18 miles long, Albuquerque claims that their Central Avenue (Route 66) is the longest running main street in the United States. You can see the Sandia Mountains in the background.

Mile 1129 - While searching for an ancient section of Route 66, the road turns to gravel. Travis becomes nervous and heads back toward the interstate.

Mile 1146 - Returned to Route 66 and see what our Route 66 maps claims is a boulder as "Big as a House!" This route takes us up and through the mesas, while I-40 blasts through them all to take out the bends and hills. What fun is that?

Mile 1179 - Stop in Grants, NM. Filled up with gas and added about a half quart of oil. $1.679 / gal for the gas. Brought the oil with us. Yet another typical Route 66 Main Street America. Dean assumes driving responsibilities.

Mile 1213 - Dean obtains permission from Travis to drive on a real dirt road in search of traces of ancient Route 66. We find some remains, but missed our best opportunities due to lack of access.

Mile 1215 - We cross the Continental Divide. All of the cheesy tourist traps/souvenir shops have long gone out of business. We're not sure if this is a disappointment or not.

Mile 1220 - Car odometer rolls over 30,000 miles. Is that original? If so, Travis wants to know why he's been spending so much money on fixing everything. What happened to the warranty?

Mile 1250 - Enter Gallup, NM looking for The White Café, as promised by our Route 66 maps. We stop at the tourist office and ask for directions. Yes…two guys can actually stop and ask for directions. Unfortunately it is out of business and end up eating with the stars (ha..ha) at the El Rancho Hotel built in 1937. We both have Chicken Enchiladas. We also get harassed by locals in the parking lot. The first guy harasses us going into the restaurant and gets most of our change out of fear for what could happen to the car while we were inside. The second guy wants Dean to buy a necklace while leaving the restaurant. He settles for 30 cents, and Dean gets an Indian blessing for his contribution.

Mile 1251 - Leaving Gallup and stop at the Gallup sign (Travis thinks it's obnoxious, but Dean likes it). At least we think this next pic was taken in Gallup, but we can't quite remember.

Route 66 typically follows the train routes, as you can see by the train in the background of this pic. It's a fairly typical Route 66 town for New Mexico and Arizona.

Mile 1274 - Entered Arizona. Got Lost #6 due to Travis' misnavigation. Got lucky and ended up at a rest stop, otherwise we were going to have to get to know the native plants a little better, but that's probably more information than you want to know.

Mile 1275 - We corrected our driving error and headed down historical Route 66.

Mile 1279 - Got lost #7. Yet again, Dean starts questioning Travis' navigational abilities. Has anyone else noticed that we always get lost when Travis is navigating?

Mile 1287 - Near Sanders, AZ Dean gets permission to travel down another dirt road to find an ancient Route 66 bridge spanning Querino Canyon. (Didn't we do this yesterday?)

Mile 1290 - We find the bridge and we like it! Apparently we should have been civil engineers rather than electrical engineers with our fixation with bridges.

We notice that the car isn't nearly as clean as it was when we left Houston. Run out of Route 66 and have to join back with I-40.

Mile 1353 - Pick Route 66 back up in Holbrook, AZ after grueling run on the interstate. Arizona hasn't done a lot to preserve old Route 66 in the eastern half of the state. Holbrook is the home of the famous WigWam Motel. We stop for a pic, but decide not to stay for the night since we still have a lot of driving to do.

Mile 1363 - Stop in Joseph, AZ for gas. $1.649 / gal. Dean finally achieves superior gas mileage to Travis. Dean notes that there was no mention of suspending driving privileges today. Travis takes over driving.

Mile 1371 - Stop at the Jack Rabbit Trading Post for souvenirs and pics. Inquire from the proprietress about the history of Route 66 in the area. Found out that much of the route we were on was used by the public until 1969.

Mile 1376 - Travis hits tumbleweed. Dean mumbles something that sounds like "driving privledges?"

Mile 1414 - 5:15 p.m. local time, drive to Meteor Crater, only to find out that it closes at 5:00 p.m. Dean asks, "How can they keep us from seeing a mile wide crater?" We drive 6 miles to find out that they can. Perhaps with $9 admission, we didn't need to see the crater anyway.

Mile 1423 - Stop at Two Guns, AZ to see the remains of an old Route 66 trading village and remains of yet another old bridge. We arrive to find eight No Trespassing signs and barbed wire fencing the entire area off. Dean makes mention that Arizona is not nearly as Route 66 friendly as New Mexico or Texas!

Mile 1445 - Leave I-40 for the last time of the day to follow a 1920's alignment of Route 66 into Flagstaff, AZ.

Mile 1457 - We enter Flagstaff at 6:10 p.m. local time (mountain standard [non-daylight savings time]). And yes…we are confused on what the time here and at home is too.

Mile 1461 - Stop and register at the Twilite Motel, which was built in the 1920's and is a true Route 66 business.

Mile 1470 - Stop at the Galaxy Diner for dinner. Yes...another diner lit up with neon. It attracts us like moths…just like old bridges. By coincidence, our waitress' name was Jenny (see Day #2 for significance). Travis washed the car after leaving the diner, but it does not meet with Dean's satisfaction. Dean claims that he will wash it again in the morning. We cruise downtown in the newly washed car (?) to pick up local chicks (just kidding, Lori!).

Mile 1475 - Stop for the night. Only 384 miles covered today, but we saw lots of dirt roads and bridges! Tomorrow we are heading to the Grand Canyon. The local weather forcasts a possibility of snow for tomorrow, and Travis is wondering what that is. Dean mentioned something about putting the top down in it.

We've received some e-mail, and unfortunately we don't have time to answer each one of them, so we'll answer some of them here.

Q1: Which one of us is Abbott and which one is Castello?

A1: We would probably refer to us as Laurel and Hardy, but we can't figure out who the skinny one would be.

Q2: Are we still talking to each other?

A2: Of course we are. We're having a great time!

Q3: Do miles spent connected to a tow truck count on our contest's mileage question?

A3: Our reported miles are from the car's odometer. If the odometer is clicking away while the car is connected to a tow truck or being pushed, then it counts.

Q4: Who figured out the alternator was bad from Day 1?

A4: It was a joint effort for both diagnosing and replacing.

Q5: When counting times lost, if we get lost again trying to correct our getting lost in the first place, does it count as one or two?

A5: It depends. There are no hard and fast rules for claiming a Got Lost. Both Dean and Travis have to agree to being lost. Check out our story and you can get an idea of what we'll count as getting lost.