My mom grew up in Milan/Grants and her family moved to Southern AZ when she was in high school but her childhood was all in Grants. We visited awhile back and saw her childhood home and she said the town was actually pretty depressing compared to how she remembered it as a kid but she still had great memories of everything there. But I just showed her this video and she said she knew about the uranium mining (which her dad, my Pa, would've worked at if he wasn't already a Sergeant in the US Army), but she didn't know there was a museum about it, so we're definitely gonna plan a trip to go back out there just to visit that museum. Happy to learn more about the state I live in than I ever knew before!
My grandparents retired to Grants, so we sometimes travel down there for a visit. I thought the mining museum was pretty cool, and we saw a couple of movies at that old theater. My grandpa liked taking us to the national parks in the area, they were neat but my feet hurt afterwards.
I love all those little museums. When I was a kid my dad would drive straight through on long hauls, so when I became a parent I would stop at the museums to let my kids get out and see something interesting. It got to the point where my kids would whisper, "Don't let mom see that there is a museum in this town!" LOL
Just wanted to say how much I am loving this series mate! New Mexico holds a special place in my heart, being one of the places I've probably visited most when I've travelled over to the United States from the UK. Such a beautiful land of enchantment indeed! I've made the California to New Mexico trip several times, even taking in some route 66 along the way, but I've never driven further east than New Mexico, so your next videos will be a complete new experience for me!
Justin when you take the back roads you get to see a part of America that has been passed by when the interstate came along there is so many places of interest out there.
You mentioned that people want to know why Rt66 is so special. Since you love history, it's simple, Rt 66 IS history. Hwy 90 is very similar to Rt 66 but on a more southern route. These videos are lots of fun ( and a lot of work for you ). Enjoy your time on 66.
Awesome videos...makes me homesick for I'm from New Mexico and traveled Route 66 often as a child. Can I fill in a gap you're missing as you pass the ruins? While the roadside places with "Rattle Sn..." on them might have had the occasional snake in a box to look at it was actually advertising that their diner SERVED rattle snake meat....a curiosity for all you outsiders who never ate true ranch food...and certainly coming from Chicago there were a lot of those. Most all trading posts/souvenir shops also had some small diner...it was standard. Rattle snake was a local cuisine and readily available for free!! I have long since moved away from the southwest and have been watching your videos, wondering why you hadn't shown one of those restaurants, for there used to be about 5 along the old 66. I guess this one might be telling me what happened to those uniquely NM Route 66 Diners.... Note that in your memory as you pass them next time.....and you might be able to poke around and still find one or two places that serve the snake meat!
Justin: Fire in the hole! *Presses button* Speaker: MY NAME IS BILL *Justin jumps back* Justin: Oh Bill! That scared the heck out of me... I laughed/beeped so hard
Spectacular video👍 I love learning new things through your videos. Love the history! !!!! Thank you again for sharing the adventure with everyone. 🇺🇸👏👏👏👏🎥
Im from NM. You didn't just SEE the rattle snakes at those places...at most you could eat them too. Look close and the faded word "cafe" was on that building. People coming from the east had never really seen a rattler and most certainly hadn't eaten any. Both were a tourist event that had to be tried! What does it taste like? Same thing every new and bizarre meat tastes like... CHICKEN!
That mine museum reminds me of the Scottish mining museum, just south of Edinburgh, they too have a mine simulator in the basement but it's much darker and the tour guides are all ex-miners who actually worked there back in the 70s and 80s before the mine closed
Justin, you've topped yourself again! As informative and colorful as your previous entries have been, this one is Packed with cool things! The Navajo Code Talkers have long been one of my favorite stories about WW II, and their largely unsung contribution to the war effort is now being recognized for the critical importance that it was (along with the Tuskegee Airmen and the Nisei, among many others). I've noticed also, that Europeans seem to be much more aware of the historical aspects of the Mother Road than a good many Americans. Wonder if it could be from all the Westerns that we've exported to the rest of the world, or just the fact that despite of US history being rather brief, it's been Very Colorful?
5:50 ! Agreed! A LOT of people don't necessarily understand that's the point of traveling. Most see it as "instagram op" to take selfies just to *prove* to the world they were there. I always said (and believed) that travelling is the key to understanding and LOVING humanity. You begin to love the world a whole lot more when you travel AND bonus jonus, your chances of experiencing "culture shock' is minimum! 7:06 : That train just seems to really want to be part of the videos, hahah. New Mexico always reminded me of the landscaping of Mars! With the Burgundy/Orange rock! Hmm..maybe that's why the aliens came crashing into it, pahah. Oh my goshhh all of those gift shops, all of those jewelry stops! I'd be buying at least two items each place!! The Kachina doll is adorable! That's crazy how they figured you out so quickly! 11:31 BOOKS! Oh my goodness I'd be spending the rest of the day there. Woul dit be bad if I took some with me LOL. I'd leave money for the spirits! Maybe it was an old book shop! Or a library?? That's incredible those books stayed on those shelves! It looks like storms hit that place pretty darn good. Oh my goodness this is definitely hitting my bucketlist! People there seem to be really nice~ To let you in at last minute like that! What an experience. I think doing that mine-tour alone like that really gets you to feel like the workers down in the real deal! Another great video! Thank you (once again) for sharing your adventures with us! It certainly inspires a lot of us (if not all!) to dothis ourselves :)
that was awesome! I grew up near o Oak Ridge, Tn., the home of where many nuclear weapons were built created etc.. I had no idea New Mexico held the mines for the Uranium. that was awesome!!!
Great video - I'm really enjoying this tour!! I've never looked at "1.21Gw" the same way after the last company I worked at. We had a machine that discharged 7.6 TERRAwatts... in 4 nanoseconds. It was fun creating man-made lightning bolts. :-)
If I remember right a Nisei Japanese American soldier from Gallup NM has an interchange on I-40 named after him and a high school also in his hometown of Gallup. He was Staff Sergeant Hiroshi H Miyamura who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Korean War.
I hope with the permission of you or your grandmother I'm going to start using the small town spitting rainstorm saying. That's something my grandmother would also say. That museum about uranium was fantastic. I now need to go. This I bet you already know but just the length of the trains that run alongside Route 66 and out west in general, are enormous. I can't wait to see what's yet to come on this trip.
You know, its trips like these,....a single person taking a long road trip, that makes me think it's going to end up as one of those "found footage" movies.
Great video! One point on the "underground" mine though -- the real thing is a lot more damp/wet. I grew up in a uranium mining town in Canada, and later on went to work summers (as a high school student) at a gold mine. Look up the song "Muckin' Slushers" by Stompin' Tom Connors. It's about the uranium town I grew up in.
That mine reminds me of my local natural history museum. Here in Cincinnati out museum has some "caverns" in the basement. Too bad they are doing a huge renovation on the museum right now.
I've been to that mining museum before, pretty cool. If you want some really good mines where you really go underground you need to check out Cripple Creek, CO.
yesterday video when you said I hope I make it to new mexico I thought you weren't going to make it till today's afternoon. Hope you cold went away and have fun. Bye
if you think that these landscapes are gorgeous, you would shit yourself if you came to Ireland lol I have lived here all my life and it still takes my breath away