We read often of Route 66 but other US highways crossed the US going from Sea to Sea while the fabled Route 66 was from Chicago to Santa Monica. US 60 once stretched about 3000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to San Diego but in 1972 the California portion was deactivated as a US designated highway. US 60 is a road I drove often living in Williamsburg as it went through town and a good alternate route to I-64 if you were traveling to Richmond. I have driven it from the starting point in Virginia Beach to the end in Virginia at the West Virginia line and beyond. So, I was excited to find in a very rural and out of the way portion of New Mexico that I was once again traveling on US 60, this time from Abu to Mountainair along one of the busiest transcontinental railroads. We spent a bit of time in Mountainair waiting for the NPS Visitor Center to open and toured some of the town. This block of of three motel units was all that was left of a 1920’s - 1930’s motel, from a time when Mountainair was a busier place with the coast to coast traffic. So if you want to explore a long, scenic and endlessly interesting highway try US 60 or US 2 or US 30 and leave the over-hyped Route 66.
