Route 66 Road Trip Day Three: Tranquil Rest In New Mexico

a living room with a couch and a table

Everyone slept in except me. Thankfully, we had been assigned a nice suite at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya and I was able to go into the living room and get a jump start on my work before anyone else woke up. It was a quiet morning and a cold one…25ºF, though the sun shone brightly as it peaked over the mountains.

Route 66 Road Trip Day Three: Rest At Hyatt Regency Tamaya

I wanted to spend two nights at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa to break up the trip and because it looked like a nice resort and I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought…

After working the entire morning, I headed downstairs to workout at around noon. Then I sat in the sauna and steam room, which would have cost $50 for access but was free for Globalists.

a gym with exercise equipment

a pool with a ladder and a sign

a door and a trash can outside of a building

a wooden bench in a sauna

Heidi took the kids to the swimming pool, which was thankfully heated, considering the forecast high was in the mid-40s.

a pool with chairs around it

a pool and a building with a pool in the middle

You may be asking, what about breakfast? One thing I loved about this hotel is that breakfast went until 2:00 pm each day. It allowed me to return to my intermittent fasting, even if just for two days. As an aside, we didn’t starve our kids, who do not fast like Heidi and I do. We had plenty of groceries in the room so they had apples and strawberries and yogurt in the morning.

And breakfast was excellent. The food was delicious, including the coffee, green juice, eggs, and particularly the blue corn pancakes (Augustine’s selection on the menu). Even better was a kind waiter named Christoph from Dusseldorf. How does a German wind up in Santa Ana Pueblo? He studied there, married, and never went back. What a wonderful man and we conversed in German over the next couple days.

a room with a stone wall and a couch and a painting on the wall

a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice

a glass of green liquid on a table

a plate of food on a table

a plate of pancakes with toppings and three bowls of sauces

The hotel is nestled in the foothills of Santa Ana Pubelos and there are hiking trails on the property. We took a nice walk around the property with trails that take you down to the Rio Grande River.

a group of kids running in a field

a two children walking on a dirt road

a road with bushes and trees in the background

two children walking on a road

a girl standing on a rock next to a sign

a dirt road with trees and grass

a landscape with a mountain in the background

a field with bare trees and a mountain in the background

a flock of birds flying in the sky

a group of people walking on a path

a person walking a dog on a dirt path with trees and a fence

a body of water with trees and bushes

a river with a body of water and bushes

a group of birds flying over a lake

a building with a fire pit and a patio

It was a crisp, cool, but beautiful winter day.

This was New Year’s Eve and I like to reflect back on the year and look ahead to the next one on the last day of every year. So I ordered room service for the kids and put on a movie for the kids (Madagascar in German). Heidi and I then went downstairs to dinner and spent the next several hours reflecting on the year in front of one of the fireplaces in the lobby.

a boy and girl sitting at a table with plates of food

2024 was another rough year for me, especially because I lost my dear father. But it also was a year of progress in other ways. It was good to look back, look ahead, and renew our goals for the days, weeks, months, and year ahead.

And before the clock struck 12, we were asleep…

Back on the road tomorrow for our longest drive of the trip.

This trip report covers my road trip along the old Route 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago.