All the way to Santa Fe!

A bright, sunny morning in Tucumcari and time for a few more pictures.  The manager tells us that he uploaded a picture of Fred's car on to his Facebook page.  The car is becoming a huge celebrity!  At least 5 different people come to talk to Fred about the car and take pictures. 

 

 

 

After breakfast at Kix on 66 (where the guy running cash said, "Sweet car, dude." as we came in)  it was time to hit the open road for our first real day of driving.  And what an open road it is.  New Mexico on this stretch of Route 66 is big and dry and stretches out in all directions.

 

 

The truckers, however, aren't as interested in the view as much as getting to wherever they're going as quickly as possible.  We took the hint and got on to the old road as quickly as possible.

At Santa Rosa we stopped by "The Blue Hole".  It's an inland diver's dream because of the crystal clear waters in this deep cold spring and is located right on the pre 1937 stretch of Route 66.  Just after this picture was taken, I turned around towards the car and there was another guy taking a picture of it!  After that, Fred and I talked to another guy about the car and the trip.  Everyone loves the story.

 After Santa Rosa, it was time to head north towards Santa Fe.  The countryside changes pretty fast pretty quick, and before long we had trees, mesas and a chance of rain.  Route 66 in this part of the country starts to follow the old Santa Fe Trail

Near a town called Pecos, we visited the ruins of an old pueblo built high on a hill.  We braved the chance of rattlesnakes (no kidding) and did the mile and a quarter hike around the site.  Big fun at 6900 feet.  Really interesting, though.  They had a heck of a civilization going there before the Spanish explorers came upon them.  Also, just down the road is the site of a big battle in the Civil War, "The Battle of Glorieta Pass".  Union forces wiped out a Confederate supply train.  You can still see the ruins of the adobe barracks that were built for the troops, literally up against the road.

Finally, we made it in to the pretty city of Santa Fe, the oldest capital city in the U.S.  (1610 if you can believe it) We found our hotel in the maze of downtown streets around the Plaza.  It's really a great area, and I wish we had much more time here.

 Pizza was on the menu for tonight.  Green chili chicken pizza at the Rooftop Pizzeria.  Yummy.
The hotel is cool too.  It's made up of several  courtyards and all the rooms have these big clusters of red peppers hanging outside of them.  It's called the Hotel Chimayo de Santa Fe.  Check it out online if you can.

Cool.

 

Tomorrow, on to Gallup!  Join us, won't you?