Land of Enchantment: Ranchero Santa Fe Campground, Santa Fe, NM 6/21/08

Once again we got up about 10ish. Geez, you’d think we were on vacation or something. By the time we left the campground and worked our way out of the canyon it was close to 12:00. Our first stop was Cadillac Ranch, and yep, it’s 10 cars stuck in the dirt. You park your car on a frontage road next to the freeway and walk thru a recently plowed (and muddy field from the rains) to get a close-up view of the cars. They are all heavily covered with graffiti, and it is encouraged for people to add their own markings. It’s a work of art in progress, so to speak. We continued traveling on I-40, getting off at various towns to pick up the Historic 66 route. My favorite town was Tecumcari, TX that seemed to have the most preserved/undemolished vintage architecture. The best was a motel called Blue Swallow wherein each unit came with it’s own one-car garage. It was also billed on the neon sign as “100% Refrigerated” – classic. We also had fun looking at Route 66 souvenirs and chatkis at the Tee Pee Curio shop. We finally made it to Santa Fe at about 5:30. We found a private campground that is fairly close to downtown that is pretty good. Turns out the state park doesn’t have showers and only has pit toilets. Yeah, that ain’t gonna work! The best thing about this campground is that it has free wireless and laundry facilities. After taking advantage of both, we headed downtown to check it out. I LOVE IT! This is definitely my favorite city of the trip so far. The architecture, artistic vibe, amazing history – this place has it all. Seems like everyone was out tonight and it was fun to ride our bikes around the Old Santa Fe square checking out all the musicians playing, people eating outside and strolling through the streets.(I snapped this photo when we first came into town). After riding our bikes for about 4 miles, we decided to stroll through all the courtyards and find a fun place to sit outside and have dinner. This place is really magical and I completely understand why New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment. Ned thinks I’m just gaga over the place because there are no mosquitoes, no humidity, and it’s the summer solstice. (Yes, there was also some drinking involved). I’m liking it so much that I’m hoping to spend an extra day here. I really enjoyed seeing the Oldest Church in the US, and tomorrow we’d like to check-out the History Museum and some other churches. So, if you hear from me manana we stayed in town. If not, we’re headed to Chaco Canyon National Monument where there is no water, no electricity and obviously no internet. We’re playing on spending sometime exploring the Anasazi Culture. I’ll keep blogging and post when we reach civilization. In the meantime, Happy Summer everyone!

King of the Road: Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX 6/20/08

Well, it never did rain last night (poor Winnie could really use a shower), but it did cool down enough to sleep comfortably without the fan. We were all fired up to continue down Route 66 and left camp about 9:30. Ironically, we didn’t get very far because we were just having too much fun puttering around the old towns, spotting the bygone icons and stopping at museums and roadside stands. On a whim, Ned pulled into the town of Erick, Oklahoma to drive by the Roger Miller Museum. This is a one stoplight town and looks completely deserted. We thought, what the heck, let’s go inside and poke around. One of the best decisions of the trip! We were greeted by a very sweet woman who gave us a personal tour, including a description of every piece of memorabilia, and told us more than one could ever hope to know about Roger Miller. He’s from the town of Erick and they are VERY proud of this home town boy. We thoroughly enjoyed her stories, seeing original lyrics written out on scraps of paper, the clothes, posters, record albums, motorcycle – you name it. To fully appreciate the ambiance of this place, let me explain. The entire “museum” is one room and then we were lead into an adjoining room that had cloth covered card tables. We were asked if we would like a soda (served in a styrofoam cup with ice) and watched a 50 minute video on Roger Miller. All this for the price of $3! (Once again, Mr. Ned was singing along to the songs, even the more obscure ones.) By this time it was after 1:00 and we decided to eat lunch at the Main Street Café next door. The waitress took our order while holding her one year old daughter, Madison, on her hip. The good folks at the next table, two men dressed in denim overalls and baseball caps, struck up a conversation with us. They were telling us about the weather and how everywhere it seems to be flooding, but in this piece of the world they were experiencing a drought. They wanted to know where we were from, what we’ve seen and where we were going. They completely approved of us heading out to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, but thought we were crazy to want to see Cadillac Ranch. As one gentlemen put it, “It’s just a bunch of cars stuck in the dirt, what do you want to see that for?” By the time we left, we realized that we had traveled maybe 45 or 50 miles in 4 hours! At this rate, we were never gonna make Amarillo. Still not feeling hurried, we continued to explore the old Route 66 towns (while singing along to our new Roger Miller CD – “King of the Road” - and some Johnny Cash), seeing leaning water towers, 150 foot steel crosses, and old cowboy signs. Too much fun! We finally reached Amarillo and decided to visit Cadillac Ranch tomorrow and instead head straight for Palo Duro Canyon State Park. WOWZA! This place is amazing! It is 120 miles long, 800 feet deep and the second largest canyon in the United States. It’s so beautiful that you swear you are on a Disney wild west set and this is make-believe. (The photo really doesn’t do it justice.) The cool thing is that our campsite is way down at the bottom of the canyon and we are surrounded by these great, bright red claystone and white gypsum cliffs. We couldn’t wait to jump on our bikes and go for a ride. They allow bikes on the trails and we had a blast riding through the canyon floor, up and down trails, through Juniper and mesquite trees, and over wooden boardwalk bridges. We even passed a place called “Toad Suck Bog”, not sure about that one… At one point I had to get off and walk my bike up the trail it was so steep. (Ok little bro Scott, if you’re reading this I know you could have taken it straight up but I’m pleading girl and being 50). We only did about 6 miles, but it still felt good to stretch our legs. Turns out it was a good decision that we headed right for this State Park since there were only two spots left on this Friday night. It would have been a shame to miss this. There are a lot of activities to choose from this evening: a Texas Hoe-Down Bar-b-que, A Texas Musical put on at the amphitheatre, and an interpretive night hike along the canyon floor with flashlights. Of course, there’s also hanging up the hammock and doing some chill time. Right now this ol’ cowgirl is gonna hop in the shower and get rid of some serious road dust. Addendum: it’s the next morning and we had the most spectacular lighting and thunderstorm last night! The storm passed right over us and the blinding lighting, booming thunder and torrential rains were really thrilling. Ironic that we didn’t encounter any rain in the south, but caught up with it in the desert. It was also a bit of an adventure getting out of the canyon this morning. We had to ford through FIVE waterways where the flash floods took over the roadway. I was a bit nervous, but Ned calmly steered our way up and out of the canyon. Poor Miss Winnie is more red then white!