Day Three
 

<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com<img src=" http:="" www.the370z.com="" images="" smilies="" redface.gif="" border="0" alt="" title="Embarrassment" smilieid="2" class="inlineimg"></o:smarttagtype>Day Three:

Day three started with a big surprise…60 degrees! Through most of my travels today the temps stayed under 70 and only near the very end of the day did they rise into the mid 70s…quite a change form 100+ temp I had on day one and upper 90s on day two…this was windows down weather for the most part although today did see some fairly significant showers here and there.
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My first hour of driving was perfect, cool and relaxing…I headed out about 8:30 AM (I’m now in Mountain time) and headed to <st1><st1:city w:st="on">Santa Rosa</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:state></st1>. Breakfast was today was at the Silver Moon Café in <st1><st1:city w:st="on">Santa Rosa</st1:city></st1>; a Route 66 original. While in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1>Santa Rosa</st1></st1:city> I also stopped by the Route 66 Auto Museum – for $5 I saw some spectacular cars including an extremely impressive Lincoln Mark 2.

Just as I was leaving the museum some significant rain started but the rain today was very hit or miss. One thing I’ve noticed about this part of the country is that you can see storms from fairly great distances and it’s quite a site to see heavy rain miles away while you have none or to see clouds hanging around the hill tops…one thing New Mexico has not failed to do is impress with it’s stark yet beautiful scenery.
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A great deal of what was Route 66 is completely covered over by I-40 so a lot of the driving today was on I-40. However; the alignments of actual Route 66 that was available were great stretches of roadway. Just of I-40 is another Route 66 original (in fact it predates the founding of Route 66) called Clines Corners.
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Shortly after lunch I as off the interstate and on an actual alignment of Route 66 including a nice stretch of road called Sedillo Hill Road; an alignment from 1937-1949) which is a beautiful two lane road.
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Overall, it was a fairly short day of travel as I arrived in <st1:city w:st="on">Albuquerque</st1:city> by 4PM…after cleaning the car and eating dinner I’m ready for a good book and some sleep as I head for <st1><st1:city w:st="on">Gallup</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:state></st1> tomorrow.
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Stats for the day: 4 hours/3 minutes of actual driving and 204.6 miles total. Average MPG/MPH were 26.1/50.6.


http://www.clinescorners.com/aboutus.htm

New Mexico
 

Hello I am fairly new to the Z community and from New Mexico.:tup: I am glad to hear that you are having a good time driving through the northern part. You sure did hit the spot on the storms, being able to see them from a distance is a nice sight. I hope the rest of your trip in New Mexico is a great one.:tiphat:

Links to Pictures Taken so far...

Day One: Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket


Day Two: Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket


Day Three: Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

Great pics, have a safe trip. Keep the pics coming.....

Hey guys!

I've been posting about my trip in multiple forums and decided to start a blog (including links to pictures).

Please feel free to take a look and let me know what you think!

The blog is located here: Robert's Route 66 Ramblings

Subscribed. I wish one day I will be able to go on a cross country road trip like this. :tup:

I loved visiting the Petrified Forest years ago. I drove to California recently & tried to get my road trip buddies to go out the way with me to go back to the Forest, but they weren't interested.

Bums.

Cool, I would love to see the Petrified Forest........... bet your road trip buds don't watch a lot of Discovery HD or Nat Geo :icon17:

John

Apparently not. They were more interested in going out than seeing natural/ historical things.

I like a good bar & what not, but I prefer to strike a balance.

Robert,

This is simply a great thread!

Rep point :tup:

Amen :iagree: and the older I get, the more "balance" I seem to need :icon17:

John

Back Home - Blog Updated
 

Hey Guys!

I'm back home again after my 4,200+ mile trip.

I've updated my blog for the whole trip and links to pictures; please check it out here:

I'll be "cleaning up" my pictures over the next few days and posting the best ones here but for now; feel free to read my blog as well as look around the pics from my blog ( Robert's Route 66 Ramblings ).

It was a great trip...the 370 was fun and gave me absolutely flawless performance for the entire trip...I'm sure I picked up some new paint chips and I certainly have some heavy cleaning ahead of me but I don't regret taking the Z for a moment!!!

Awesome. I'll make sure to read the blog when I'm at work tomorrow.

Glad you made it back safely.

Awesome trip report, Robert! Highly enjoyable to read. Northern Arizona has to be some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. Driving on those two-lane highways you get constant scenes of grandeur and beauty that can't be believed. Did you do any high-speed passing (always a good time!)?

I'll bet they're building that bridge next to the Hoover Dam so they don't have to worry about truck bombs on the dam itself. The times we live in! :(

You seemed to get some great gas mileage. I'm surprised it was so high. I'm used to low-20's in my Mustang! But that's on regular fuel, so I'm saving a bit of money, I think. :)

How did the Z handle in the rain (I lol'd when you wrote "the hardest I've ever seen it rain"!)? You mentioned the poor traction in the hail, but rain is more common, obviously, so I'm really curious how the Z handled that.

We need more trip reports like this on the site! Glad you got home safe and with a great experience under your belt. :tup:

I suspect the bridge and the new road is being built both for security concerns as well as to simply move traffic much better as that route is a major route to get from Las Vegas into the South/East. It may also be that they are concerned with the volume of traffic going over the dam every day - I suspect it's not good for the dam!

I had to slow down quite a bit in the heavy rain...with mild showers you don't notice a problem but it was coming down so fast and hard that there was a lot of water on the road surface (it simply couldn't drain fast enough) and hydroplaning was a real concern...in those sections, which were quite long, I couldn't do over 50 and I saw a half-dozen wrecks of people who apparently didn't recognize the problem!

The MPG surprised me as well but the Z does quite well when speeds are held pretty constant and 70-80 seems to be the sweet spot for a balance between speed and mileage.

I did do some high speed passing but of course, speed wasn't what this trip was about. :) It's easy to see tipple digits and the 370 practically leaps to high speed - you wouldn't think that loosing a few pounds and adding a few HP would make that much difference but as good as the 350 is, the 370 is noticeably better.