Las Vegas to Albuquerque

600+ miles and a long day.  We pulled in about 9:30pm Central time.  We were a little bit dissapointed in that we missed the final Survivor on TV.  We saw the last few minutes of the Reunion that broadcast after the final 2 hours.

Driving today was uneventful.  We averaged about 23 miles per gallon on our new Mazda Tribute and that was pretty good.

It was interesting driving across the Boulder Dam.  They now have security check points that everyone has to go through.  They were pulling every truck and trailer over and had them open up for inspection.  I guess it is possible that someone might want to blow up the dam, but this didn't look too efficient.  The driving was slow for the first 100 miles because we were on back roads and there was construction.  The yellow parts of the route on the map above indicate where the construction was.  We passed through the same area we were in about a year and a half ago.  This time, we just drove on through.  We did stop in Williams Arizona for lunch and had a regular sandwich with no trimmings just like we used to get in the 50's.  After all we were following Route 66.  We also saw many cars from the 50's and 60's on the road.  Nostalgia really seems to be everywhere along this route.  

We passed the Petrified Forrest and the Painted Desert and stopped in Gallup New Mexico for dinner.  Gallup is a town that we will want to explore sometime in the future.  There are many indian tribes mentioned in the area and very inexpensive hotels and really great food.