Oct 8 Gallup NM

We left Tucson, headed for Santa Fe, but with an intermediate stop.  Santa Fe was just too far for a comfortable day drive.  Lots of scenery and Route 66 along the way.

Early morning drive from Tucson to Winslow AZ goes through the desert.

 Lots of saguaro

 Lots

 Then up through the mountains where it must have snowed about a day ago.

 The attraction in Winslow is the "Standing on the Corner in Winslow Arizona" monument to the Eagles "Take It Easy." 

 Just down the street is the La Posada hotel and restaurant, one of the Fred Harvey railroad institutions.  Mary Coulter (of Desert View and Hermits Rest and other Grand Canyon buildings fame) designed this, her masterpiece.

 We left I40 at Holbrook AZ to go in the back door of Petrified Forest National Park and passed the Wigwam Village, a famous Route 66 motel.  Check out the cars parked in front of the rooms.

 Here we are in the desert, and it started pouring rain as we passed through Holbrook. 

 If you can't tell, it's raining very hard.  This picture was taken from the window of our van from the overlook. 

 Impressive petrified logs

 The park road crosses the old route of National 66, so this Studebaker is the monument. 

 This line of telephone poles marks the old route.  Unlike the wagon ruts left by the emigrants of the 1850s the old road bed has disappeared.

 With the rain slacking off, but a cold wind following, we viewed the Painted Desert.

 Another old Route 66 motel, the Painted Desert Inn, is now a park visitor center.