it's different things to everybody, it seems, but something about this place manages to capture the overlap between a whole hell of a lot of very different cultures. old route 66 runs through new mexico like a collapsed vein, right through santa fe and albuquerque. it must have seemed like magic once. families loaded in a massive chrome and steel chariots with powerful v-8 engines and took off down that blacktop highway. they slept in whimsical motor lodges and bungalows, swam in kidney-shaped pools. then it all went redundant. route 66 was decommissioned, chopped up, largely forgotten, except by desperate and lazy travel show hosts. >> does anyone else at cnn do this, like drive around 10:15 at night looking for tacos? >> yeah, probably. >> i'll say this. the strip takes on a much more interesting look at night.