Central New Mexico

If you don't take the Santa Fe (pre-1937) loop north, you spend about 100 miles on I-40 between Cuervo and Moriarty. Interstate miles are a different animal, and not as much fun.

But from the interstate you get to see the billboards for all the trading posts/tourist traps such as Clines Corners. Moccasins! Knives! Indian Pottery! Snake Stuff! The billboards remind me of the ones we used to see for the Buffalo Ranch in Afton when we were driving to Joplin. I understand the Buffalo Ranch is no more, along with many of the roadside attractions that used to line Route 66. We stopped at Clines Corners, although it's less of a trading post and more of a huge gift shop these days.

The mountains around Albuquerque are a pretty drive, and take you back off the interstate. Once through Albuquerque, though, you're back on I-40 for a while, until Mesita.

Even when you're not directly on the interstate, following Route 66 involves a lot of I-40 frontage road. But the stretch from Mesita to Lupton, Arizona is one of the prettiest and most scenic stretches of original mother road we saw, with many miles where the interstate is nowhere in sight.