Left Tucumcari this morning headed to Santa Fe. Had to use the interstate for about 50 miles as there was no other way to go. Rte. 66 is a dirt road for most of the way. Since we had plenty of time, Mahgrit found another set of back roads for us to follow. We headed up to Las Vegas ( no not the Nevada one) which was on the back way into Santa Fe. We have been going through a lot of small run down towns and Las Vegas proved to be something very different. It was a nice, clean, prosperous place. As usual full of very friendly people. There is something about mini dachshunds that draws out friendly people. As we were walking through town, we spotted a quilt shop. So we crossed the street so that Mahgrit could go in. As we crossed a nice gentleman from a gallery saw the girls and came out of his shop to talk to us. Mahgrit went into the quilt shop and I chatted with the shop owner. He told me that we were at elevation 8,000 feet. I knew we were going up since we left Tucumcari but I didn’t realize we had gone so high. As we drove into Las Vegas we could see snow in the mountains. He also told me that there was a university there that had been started by Armand Hammer. This explained the better prosperity we saw.

From Las Vegas, we went on to Pecos National Park. I got to use my senior citizen national park pass. Whoo hoo!! This was the first pueblo we have seen up to now. It has been abandoned since the 1700s. There is an old Spanish church made from adobe that is pretty run down. Weather takes a toll on adobe. There were two pueblos that are being excavated and the trash dump that has provided most of the artifacts so far. The park was donated to the National Park Service by the late actress Greer Garson and her husband.

All in all this was a pretty drive. After crossing the Texas panhandle New Mexico is fabulous.

We arrived in Santa Fe where we are going to spend a couple of days. We walked around the downtown area for awhile to get the lay of the land. Tomorrow will be a museum and gallery day. We are getting a sitter for the girls so we will have more time in these spots.

It will be good to decompress and stop driving for awhile.