We made our annual pilgrimage to Albuquerque this weekend for the New Mexico State Feis (that's an Irish dance competition for new readers of the blog). We normally spend a couple days in Albuquerque, but they changed the weekend, so we drove over Friday and came right back yesterday.
Meg and I really enjoy the drive to Albuquerque, especially Hwy 26 from Deming to Hatch. We discovered Hwy 26 on our first trip back up north after we moved to Tucson, and we've been taking it ever since. Hwy 26 is only about 50 miles long, a short cut between Interstate 10 and Interstate 25. There is very little traffic, and if you do have to pass someone, it's never a problem. Hwy 26 is a classic two lane road, and the scenery is fantastic: wide open, big sky country. It's the kind of road that makes you feel like you're driving in an older America, in a simpler time. It's the kind of road that just makes me feel good.
We stopped on the way back yesterday to eat at Sparky's, an old school burger joint with a Southwestern twist and a Hatch institution. Sparky's was hopping, and I have feeling it does pretty well, Hwy 26 funneling hungry tourists through its doors. The food was just OK, but it's not about the food, it's the experience. We bought t-shirts for the girls, and they're very excited about wearing them to school this week. Meg bought some chile powder at one of the many places selling a plethora of chile products, and we were on our way.
It's always fun to drive a road like Hwy 26 and catch a glimpse of small town life in a cool place like Hatch. There are a lot of great roads and small towns in the US. Got any you want to share from your neck of the woods?
Is the cuisine vastly different in New Mexico?
ReplyDeletefunny - I just blogged on na road trip. Yours sounds more fun than mine, though.
ReplyDeleteI road-tripped across the States for the first time this past summer (I'm Australian) and we always tried to find these smaller highways on our travels instead of just zipping down the interstates. Whenever we stopped off for food or gas we would try and get into at least one conversation. We told ourselves we were looking for the 'real' America, and while i'm not naive enough to think that such a place exists in your incredibly large and diverse country, we met some amazing people and saw some great little towns - hundreds of little 'real Americas' right across the map from east to west!
ReplyDeleteIt took us a lot longer to get places but we wouldn't have taken the alternatives for the world ..!
If you live in Northern Canada everywhere is a road trip. Driving through the Rockies to Jasper, Alberta is amazing. I also enjoy the rolling hills from Calgary to the Saskatchewan border and that amazing horizontal flatness of southern Saskatchewan. The sudden dip into Drumheller, Alberta is quite amazing too.
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ReplyDeleteThis title needs a short story or a novel to go with it.
ReplyDeleteLaoch: In this part of NM, they use the local chiles in everything, in large quantities and in some pretty creative ways.
ReplyDeleteDavid: Sounds like your under more stress than I am right now, with the kids all to yourself. Hang in there man.
Luke: The smaller roads are definitely the way to go. I'd love to do a road trip in Australia some day. I bet there are some great roads to explore.
dbs: Northern Canada, another place I'd love to explore.
Yat-Yee: Sounds like a good idea. Thanks for this Yat-Yee, kinda made my day.
We're road warriors too. A drive to our respective home towns is either 12 hours door-to-door without stopping except for gas and 14 hours with the same deal. We've been doing it since we moved here.
ReplyDeleteBut our mega-road trip was Summer 2008 when I took the girls on a 40-day cross-country road trip on the old Route 66 and to several western national parks. Now, THAT was fun! And we hit places like you encountered. We didn't eat or stay at any chains. A real slice of America.
I always think small towns are scary. They remind me of a Stephen King novel.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about long drives although 4 hours is probably the longest we've done as England is so small in comparison. But we have fun and there is often much talking, laughing, singing, playing of games and eating of very bad foods !!
ReplyDeleteI used to take teenagers from Minnesota to Juarez, Mexico on a bus. Most of the trip was on the interstate, but we'd make a lot of stops in Texas because it was so big (or we'd have to stop because the bus would break down). We ended up in a number of small, random little towns. Those towns always had the best stories attached to them - people who went out of their way to help us, interesting characters, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd this isn't in the US, but my family visited Spain a number of years ago, and instead of taking the highway, we took the back roads through the white villages of Andalusia. It was fantastic: beautiful scenery, slow pace, real Spain...and I even had an elderly man ask me to marry him. You can't beat road trips for stories and memories!
Reminds me of 'Blue Highways'. Sounds ideal.
ReplyDeleteOh it looks like a fabulous way to spend a day!
ReplyDelete*TAG* You're it! I left a comment yesterday but I'm not sure it went through.
ReplyDeleteMy family is not a group of road warriors. I don't mind driving, but my wife hates it. So we try to keep the driving to a minimum. I love to travel though so sometimes it's necessary.
ReplyDeleteYour depiction of the small towns on forgotten highways sounds like "Cars" to me. I really watch too many cartoons.