Yesterday we had an extra day in Santa Fe, NM which was meant to be a day of rest! We had a lie in then went into Old Town, Santa Fe for a walk around on a city tour. We went to the Hotel Eldorado to meet our guide (Phill). We were the only ones on the tour, so it was very nice and our guide had a mountain of knowledge about the history of the place and its origins through the centuries. He told us about the place where the scientists met before they were taken in blacked out buses to what is now known as Los Alamos. Where the first atomic bomb was created. We waked around Santa Fe for 2 1/2 hours but time just flew by. The last stop on the tour was at the Loretto Chapel, which was originally a girls school run by nuns. They had a choir balcony but when the church was built a staircase was not put in. The story goes that they prayed for a solution and on the 6th day of praying a gentlemen carpenter came and built them a spiral staircase. He made the staircase with no nails, no screws or supports, only pegs. As mysteriously as when he arrived, he disappeared without a trace when the work was done. The nuns took it from this that it was St Joseph (patron Saint of carpenters) himself who did the carpentry on their staircase and that it was a miracle from God. It was a lovely piece of work, which in its original form without a handrail looked a very scary staircase to go up and down!
On Thursday (today) we set out to go from Santa Fe, NM to Gallup, NM which wasn't meant to be that hard. However, right from the beginning even trying to get onto the old rt66 at Albuquerque was a very difficult thing. The signs for route 66 we nearly none existent and when they were there, they were not very helpful as the was no indication as to which way was which or there'd be a sign then no more signs at the next fork in the road! We ended up going the wrong way quite a few times today which was very frustrating and more than a little annoying. Craig realised we had at one stage got onto the old road but the wrong way, the shame was that he realised because his left arm burnt badly in the sun rather than his left (we were traveling east not west), though on this 40 mile detour we saw (and waved at/chased/were awestruck by the size of) some very long freight trains travelling across America.
Once on the route there were some fantastic views of the landscape including hills with very red cliff faces, one sight which is very famous called owls rock (we saw a red cliff looking like an owl so had to guess it was that one)! A slow day to start with but ended well at the El Rancho hotel, which is a classic styled New Mexican ranch/hotel. Here we met Gaz (Gareth) and Alisa, and ended up having tea with them and enjoying reminiscing over all the things we had seen so far, and talking about some which we missed along the way, and what was ahead of us still! (And Clare tried Alisa's Triumph for size whilst Gareth experienced the bone shaking ability of the Harley).
All in all today has turned out pretty well, we have an early morning so better go.
x
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