A nice lie in then back (so we thought to Santa Rosa). We had breakfast at a Denny's and tried to figure out a route. There were three choices;
Roswell > Ft. Sumner > Santa Fe
Roswell > Ft. Sumner > Santa Rosa > Santa Fe
Roswell > Santa Fe
As you'd expect Roswell to Santa Fe was the quickest at three hours (but only by forty-five minutes). We plugged it into the GPS which said; "Turn right in 198 miles" which pretty much summed up the journey ahead. An undulating road ribboning off into the horizon for hours. The route took as back via Vaughan so we stopped off for a coffee at Penny's Diner were we'd eaten lunch the day before.
We pulled over in a few towns as we pressed on to Santa Fe. None had signs that we could see and it wasn't for the GPS we'd not have known their names. I saw towns - expanses of ranches, mountains and endless roads.
Getting to Santa Fe by 4:30pm or so we had a rest before heading out to Appleby's for dinner. The lemon chicken was one of the nicest things I've eaten on the trip. Each table had a portable device which allowed you to order more food and pay when you were finished.
We've mapped out the rest of the trip to make sure we're on schedule. We think it's about seventeen hours of driving to go. 4 hours in New Mexico, then about 7 in Arizona and finally 6 in California. By our calculations we think one more day in New Mexico, then four in Arizona and five to get across California. We did have a plan to drive North at Needles, California to Death Valley but it'd be a round trip of another 400 miles and that'd be pushing it. Next time then.
Finally fell into bed about 1am or so. Should go to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum tomorrow before driving to Grants, New Mexico (it's It is the county seat of Cibola County.)
