Jean's friend is turning 70 this January. She lives in Albuquerque. ROAD TRIP. Miller Road Rules apply: avoid limited access highways and national chain restaurants.

We drop the doggies at Miss Judy's in Martinsburg on Thursday December 30th with the intent of a long day in the car to get to Cincinnati, well just east of Cincinnati. The motel choice was iffy at best. No real breakfast but there is a Frisch's across the main drag. Dinner at a local eatery which was awesome. We have reservations in St Louis for New Years Eve at the very swanky Clayton Park Plaza Hotel and dinner reservations about a block away.

But first, we trek across the middle of Indiana and Illinois hitting some fairly interesting sites, like Paulhenge, Mellencamp Plaza as well as the future Birthplace of Captain Katherine Janeway and some other stuff before we get in sight of the Arch.

Paulhenge

Mellencamp Plaza

Hoosier Buddy Liquors

Captain Kathyrn Janeway's future birthplace

The Tulip Trestle

We had lunch here on the little picnic area and discussed the odds of catching a train crossing the Viaduct. Low and behold, the odds were good apparently.

World's Largest Catsup Bottle

New Years Eve was spent at the very nice Clayton Park Plaza Hotel with dinner at Cantina Laredo nearby- their salsa is to die for.

New Years Day was a gloomy day; gray, rainy with the weather guessers stating the temps were going to drop all day bottoming out in the low teens overnight. As such, we tried to stick with the bigger roads diving off onto Historic Route 66 on occasion. 66 is a trove of Americana.

Devil's Elbow Route 66 Bridge

Uranus Fudge Factory

Mariachi Band of Uranus

Frog Rock

Big Ed's Totem Park - to revisit when open

Cahoosa Blue Whale all done up for Christmas

The temps quickly fell from the mid 30's to the low 20's with some light showers; just enough to stick to the windscreen and make a mess and not enough to be actual snow. Then the wind kicked up. Brutal bone chilling with gusts upwards of 50 mph. You could feel the cold air radiating through the motel room door frame. Don't stick your tongue to that, even on a double dog dare.

Again, due to the overnight precip and temp in the low teens, we stuck to the big roads trekking along old 66 for miles at a time, even the snow covered stretches.

Mazda hits 121k. Oh it's 15 F.

Tulsa's Giant Oil Driller

Just one more thing.... you happen to have a pen?

The Murrah Building Memorial

Home of the grilled onion burger

ummm, errr, ummm.

OK land rush, western start line

Route 66

Typical small town USA along Route 66: dead or dying

The grave of the Mother of US-66; Miss Lucille

Lucille's Gas Station serving customers from 1941 until her death on August 18, 2000

Alan L Bean- the 4th man on the moon. Native of Wheeler

The intersection from the last scene of Castaway.

Sunday night is Pampa, TX, the home of Woodie Guthrie. Woodie was one of the first folk singers; he wrote "This land is your land"

The music of This Land is Your Land

Where Woody worked in his teens; now the Woody Guthrie Museum

The Helium Time Columns

Cadillac Ranch

Just about 1140 miles to LA or Chicago

A dirt stretch of 66?

The San Jon Trestle Bridges

The Blue Hole

Route 66, down in the ravine east of Alburquerque

We are in Albuquerque for the next week; visiting friends, seeing shit

The surprise. And boy was it.

and the gifts

Golf at the city's highest point

The Petroglyphs [see full post]

The Nuclear Museum

1,000 paper cranes

an honest to God B-52 in person

The Trinity Site Tower Replica complete with the "gadget"

a MIG

and a Delorean

the 'goodbye' shot in their back garden

The Return Home

First off, the Musical Road. We missed it on the way into Alburquerque. It's along eastbound old 66; looks for the surveyor's paint marks on the pavement.

A visit to Billy the Kid's grave; unfortunately, the recreated Fort Sumner was closed on our day. On the 'to visit again' list.