First day, May 28: departure time for Munich at 6 am

It’s a day when I traveled for at least 24 hours, with two intermediate stops and several time zone changes: from Naples, at dawn, I left with Lufthansa for Munich where I arrived after about two hours of flight and here I made a stopover for four hours. At 12:20 local time aboard a huge Boeing 777 I took off in the direction, always with Lufthansa but operated by United Airlines, USA, Texas, Houston George Bush Intl Airport, where I arrived at 16:25. Only four hours? No no, I didn’t take an intercontinental rocket, you have to calculate the time zone change going east, it was about 11 hours of flight from Munich to Houston! Another four hours of stopover, a bottle of Coca Cola paid for 8 dollars (!), then I went to the security checks where everyone had to take off their shoes, belts, phones, keys, etc. and go through the body scanners. At passport control the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) agent asks me some questions and among them he asks me where I am heading, I answer Albuquerque and he asks me if there is a sea… I look at him and say “but there is no sea in Albuquerque!”. Now, I speak and understand English discreetly, I may have misunderstood, but it was a strange question, like wanting to find out who knows what with a small trap. Oh well…

I left Houston I arrived, in a couple of hours and another time difference jump, in Albuquerque around 10 pm local time, all happy I pick up my luggage and head towards the exit to catch a taxi and go to the hotel. Taxi? Which taxi? I leave the airport, convinced that I find many taxis in line to pick up the arriving passengers and I only see cars and pick-ups passing by without any taxi or car rental symbols. And now, how do I do it? While I was thinking of trying to look up the number of a taxi company or hotel on the phone to hear if they had a shuttle service, a light bulb goes on in my head: Uber! It works here, these cars and pick-ups that pass by are all Uber! And in fact looking up at the columns of the airport shelter it was written “Uber pick up”. I hadn’t noticed, I had a moment of terror to be alone in an unknown country. Maybe in the end I would have asked someone, luckily I speak English well and understand it enough. I open the Uber application and write the name of my destination, Hilton Doubletree, the cheapest price appears and I book: an exaggerated new and super equipped Audi Q5 arrives in five minutes. Finally at the hotel, I go up to my room and get lost among the four elevators and the various floors. The room was huge, with a huge TV, comfortable bed and alarm clock on the bedside table, it had been set up early in the morning by someone who had been there before me and woke me up much earlier than necessary. Note: only today, as I write, I realize that I really didn’t remember the hotel room in Albuquerque, a sign that the jet lag had struck! But no, I don’t think so, I traveled for 24 hours and I have to say that I didn’t feel uncomfortable even the next day, when I got on the bike. Maybe that’s why the first day is a mini stop, from Albuquerque to Santa Fe’ it’s about 160 km.

For completeness of information I must say that the complete Route 66 starts from the city of Chicago and after almost 4000 km arrives in Los Angeles, on the Santa Monica pier. I chose to do the most characteristic stretch, the one that starts from Albuquerque and always arrives at Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles. There is no shortage of wonders even in the Chicago – Santa Fe’ stretch and the difference in cost is not excessive. The travel time doubles, it takes about fifteen days to do the entire original route. I was 99% sure that I was able to do the whole route in its entirety, but I didn’t want to exaggerate and go more than safe. Those who can afford it, both economically and in time, it is better to go all the way. I think it’s also important to add at least two extra days: one on arrival in America, if you do the whole Route 66. to visit the Harley Davidson factory and museum; the second, essential in any case, in Los Angeles.