Albuquerque is one of those words that no matter how many times I spell it I still have to look it up to get it right. At any rate that is where we are tonight after a good 300 mile trek today.
Now if you check a map it is only 200 miles but Route 66 prior to 1937 turned north at Santa Rosa and ran up to Santa Fe before descending to Albu …whatever. We decided to take the longer route because the shorter one was just going down I-40. It was probably one of our better decisions of the trip. We were witness to some of the most breathtaking views we had ever seen. To the North it seemed you could see a hundred miles and to the South huge mesas rose from earth to unbelievable heights. In fact we passed over the highest point on Route 66 at the Glorieta Pass (7,500 feet). We also had a chance to see the site of a Civil War battle that took place at a place called Pigeon Ranch. Frankly I never thought about the Civil War taking place in New Mexico.
Santa Fe is absolutely breathtaking. Route 66 follows the old Pecos Trial in to town and you are immediately impressed with how the old Spanish adobe architecture has been maintained throughout the city. As soon as we saw Santa Fe we knew immediately we wanted to come back when we had more time.
So today I guess we got as much a feel of the West as we did of the Mother Road.
Blog Alert!! I probably will not be able to make an entry tomorrow as we are staying at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona. For those of you who do not know this the Wigwama is a still surviving chain of motels that are concrete, formed in to the shape of wigwams. I doubt they have a business center.
Staying at a Courtyard by Marriot tonight that is homebase for a women’s tennis tournament that is in Albuquerque this week.
Life remains quite Good.
