sufficient

cleaner than regular mexico?

Saturday morning, we got up and headed west out of Texas. I believe the morning started with pancakes and I must say that Laura is an amazing pancake maker. Didn't even burn the first one.
We stopped not too far out of Amarillo at Cadillac Ranch. The number of people also there taking pictures at 9:30 in the morning was remarkable. As was the couple that appeared to be having their engagement photos made there. As I reflect, I am now wondering why on earth I did not document that...Once in the Land of Enchantment, New Mexico (a new state for me!), we headed to Santa Fe. And highly touted New Mexican food. I have no recollection of where we ate, other than upstairs on a balcony outside over looking the square, across from the Palace of the Governors, but our margaritas were quite tasty as I recall. And there were lots of interesting people to watch.
After lunch, we wandered around for a while. Being the cheapskate that I am, we did not pay to go in to any of the museums. We did though pay $3 to see the miraculous staircase at the Loretto. The chapel is supposed to have been modeled after Saint Chapelle in Paris- not sure I buy it. I was hoping that some sort of supernatural/ghostly something or other was the reason the staircase was miraculous. Nope. Just because it has two twists and is self-supporting. Rather disappointing.From there, we headed to the capitol to walk around. We found a lovely view and some sweet statues, including the CCC worker that I love. And then we found the New Mexico Department of Education Accountability. In a teeee-tiny building. Of course.Our walked continued back to downtown and we popped into a coffee shop/independent bookstore to figure out what we were going to do for the evening. And the bottom fell out of the sky. So we hung out there a good long while, waiting for a break in the rain since we were parked pretty far away. We didn't pay close attention and missed numerous of those breaks. And when we finally did decide to make a run for it in the pouring rain, we discovered that the car was, in fact, in a parking garage about 40 feet away on the other side of the street.

We drove around a bit, rather aimlessly, and happened upon a chocolatier. Alas, we were entirely too full to partake. It had by then stopped raining, so we parked on the road where all the art galleries are. Canyon Rd? Almost all of the galleries were closed by then, but luckily, many of them have outdoor sculpture gardens, perfect playgrounds!It started raining again and we decided to head campground-ward, to Hyde Memorial State Park north of Santa Fe, in the National Forest. We had a hard time finding a campsite, got the last one with a shelter. Thankful for that, as it rained all night long. At one point, Laura and I woke up having to pee at the same time while it was pouring. Our campsite was on a thin strip of land between 2 roads, a little wooded, and down a very steep hill. I was a little worried about my non-4 wheel drive SUV making it up the hill. Probably could have gone by a tree, but since it was raining, we hopped in the car, threw it in low gear, and chugged up the hill to the bathroom a quarter of a mile up the road. Probably not the decision I would have made in the light of day, but it seemed entirely rational at the time.

Labels: roadtrip '10, travel

posted by CP @ 8:01 PM 0 thoughts