pheller
UltimaDork
2/19/19 4:50 p.m.
Cool swimming hole in Santa Rosa Blue Hole.
Dallas to Santa Fe? Ooof I would not want to waste my precious vacation time by driving through some of the most boring interstate in the country. Rt66 doesn't get interesting until you hit New Mexico, and even then it's not until you hit Santa Fe does it get pretty. Otherwise it's long, flat, straight roads. RT66 sights are cool'n'all until you realize your driving 3-4 hours between them. Most the Mother Road is I40 these days.
A return trip south through ABQ to Las Cruxes and along the border to Big Bend would be way the hell out of the way but worthwhile.
All in all my vote is ditch the idea of flying into Dallas. I'd sooner flying into Phoenix, head east to Roswell via RT70 then swing north up to Santa Fe and back down through ABQ.
Flying into Dallas is good for getting to Dallas, but as a start of road trip? No thanks.
02Pilot
SuperDork
2/19/19 6:18 p.m.
It's only eight hours or so from Dallas to Santa Fe, according to the Googles. I can do eight hours standing on my head. First leg to Amarillo would be just to sleep (arrive in Dallas in the afternoon); next day would be the Rt.66 exploration. Even if it's only one or two stops along the way, having time to do it is worthwhile.
That said, the only other option that looks even remotely appealing is to fly into Denver and drive south. Might be a more interesting drive, though it would require further driving to get to any part of 66. We've only got a week (I live by the academic calendar), so I need to keep that in mind.
pheller
UltimaDork
2/20/19 9:37 a.m.
RT66 is not that interesting, and very little of it exists as it did. It's mostly just Interstate 40 now. A family friend rode his motorcycle across the country on every piece of 66 still in existence hoping that he'd stay off boring interstates...instead it was just mostly boring interstate. He said if he did it again he'd pick a route that hadn't been turned into an interstate.
Personally, Option B sounds 378% better (science).
Tell us about your trips in Colorado and Arizona. Did you see Monument Valley? Mesa Verde? Durango and Silverton? Canyon De Chelly?
Going from Denver south to ABQ (Day 3) through Taos (Day 1) and Sante Fe (Day 2) , then over to Canyon De Chelly (Day 4) and up through Monument Valley (Day 5), out to Durango (Day 6) and back to Denver via 160/285 (Day 7/8).
02Pilot
SuperDork
2/20/19 3:43 p.m.
We did Durango and surrounding area, including Silverton and Mesa Verde. AZ was more in the center of the state - Cottonwood and Prescott, plus surroundings.
Not planning on different stops every night, but rather find a central location and day-tripping out of there, so if we end up in Santa Fe as we're thinking right now, that would suggest ABQ, Los Alamos, and such things would be in reach. Much as I really want to do Monument Valley one day, I don't think it's going to be on this trip.
Point taken about the state of Rt.66 at this stage. I still want to do some part of it at some point, while there's still some left to do. Some sections in AZ look a bit more promising; we couldn't do it when we were there because of a snowstorm (we were there Dec-Jan). Makes me wonder what other historic highways might be in better shape (Lincoln Highway?) for future consideration.
02Pilot
SuperDork
3/31/19 9:35 p.m.
