Day 13: Santa Fe to Albuquerque

A little lay in and then we all had breakfast at the Inn.  We walked back into old town past many coloured doors.

Lots of people selling near-identical things along the road outside the Palace of the Governors (the Palace was built in 1610).

“The city of Santa Fe, founded by Spanish colonists in 1610, is the oldest city in the state and the oldest state capital city in the United States”

— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe,_New_Mexico

The highlight of the day was the first good cup of coffee I've had in America this trip.  A TINY store (cupboard) called the 'Holy Spirit Espresso'.  It was definitely a sign.

Moved by the Spirit of Good Coffee we went to the Catholic church.  It was every bit as kitschy as you'd expect it to be.

Santa Fe, as with a lot of New Mexico towns are full of Sugar Skulls.  I do like a good Sugar Skull.

We'd left the car back at the hotel after check out, so we wandered our way back as we had to drop Jules at the airport at 430pm.

On the way to Santa Fe, we'd seen signs to 'The Mormon Batallion'.  We'd come off to the interstate but hadn't managed to find it.  On the return, we saw the sign again and we weren't to be beaten and this time - success.  Totally not worth it.

A pizza on the way through.  Freshly made and as nice as the one we had back on Monticello.

After dropping Jules back at the Albueqyerque Sunport Airport we headed back to the hotel we'd been the night before last and crashed.

Day 12: Albuquerque to Santa Fe

Up early again to the location for the actual photos this morning.  It was the place in the show Breaking Bad in which the main character first cooked his drugs.

After an hour of photos, we went back to the hotel to pack up the car, then drove down the road for a well-earned breakfast at the fast food place that was used in the same show.  In the show is called Los Pollos Hermanos but really it's a branch of Twisters.

.Full of, it must be said, not the greatest food of the trip we headed up the interstate to Santa Fe.  Our first job was to find a hotel.  We plugged in "hotel" in the GPS and it said Marriott was closest.  $180 a night.  Nope.  We looked down the list and drove to a place called the Guadalupe Inn.  Absolutely the best hotel of the trip so far.  It even had a nice balcony.

We got an Uber into town - had a walk around old town and then a meal at

We got an Uber into town - had a walk around old town and then a meal at the Plaza Restaurant that had been recommended by the front desk of the hotel.

Then onto drinks at The Shed.  We all had a Lemon drop Martini.  Our resident expert said it hadn't been made properly, which would make sense as it really wasn't very nice.  I did plough through and finish it though.  Yes, I'm a champion.

Day 11: Albuquerque

We woke at 5am to go down to the location for the photoshoot so we could see what the light was like as the sun rose.

The hotel was handy so we cancelled the airport hotel and re-booked in where we were.

We picked up Jules from the airport, threw her stuff in the hotel then drove out to see Albuquerque's old town.

After building up a thirst we went to bar and Jane had a white wine a lemonade, Jules a tequila and me - the designated driver - a lemonade.

Off to Denny's for dinner since it was next to the hotel.

Day 10: Española to Albuqeuque

We're up at 5 am tomorrow so here goes the quickest blog ever.  GO.

The breakfast area offered some Free Gospel Tracts but I decided on just some toast, coffee and orange juice instead.  We jumped in the car pointing it roughly in the direction of Albuquerque.  Goodbye hotel - we'll not be back.

We pulled over when we saw a sign for 'Camel Rock Road'.  I can't remember exactly why it was called that.

We chalked up our thousandth mile of the trip and pulled over to take a photo to commemorate the occasion.  I'd like to say it was soemthing worthy of the occassion but it was just a road.

Seeing that we were close (by American distances) to Cline's Corner we decided to pop over because; (a) that's where I bought last year's "Stupid Holiday Hat" (and I was still without one a week into the trip, (b) we could pick up good old Route 66 from there and take some of it on to Albuquerque.  They didn't have a hat.  The bastards.

Whilst on Route 66 we passed through Moriarty and the Ria RV Park.  We half remembered seeing it last time, but today it was in total disrepair.  Of course we had a poke around.  It really makes you wonder how a business to turn into an overgrown mess so quickly.

Onwards, ever onwards.  The memorial of perpetual tears.  Cheery, right?

“NM National DWI Victims Memorial is a mock federal cemetery where hundreds of white tombstones represent the most recent 5 years of state DWI fatalities. Travelers can stop at the Visitors’ Center and walk around the Memorial.”

— www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/31388

Look - a sign telling you about petroglyphs,  You're thinking we saw some petroglyphs, right?  Sure, I'd think that too.  We didn't.  They weren't anywhere near the sign.  If it was me I think I'd move the sign.

The only actual task for the day (bar finding a hotel) was to check out the location for a photo we're taking on Thursday.  It's at a location used in the show Breaking Bad.  We needed some lat/long coordinates to locate it, but we did.  We are champions.

Job done we found a hotel about forty minutes away and we'll go back and take another look in better light at 7:15am tomorrow.

Photoshoot

Midway through the holiday Jules is flying into Albuquerque and we're all driving West to one of the locations from Breaking Bad since it's a nice accessible part of the desert.  It's only forty-five minutes from the hotel but it's not immediately clear how to get there with.  We'll need to get some lat/long co-ordinates.  It seems to be within an Indian Reservation.  Whether that makes access an issue I'm unsure.  Certainly last year were saw many signs saying we couldn't enter reservations - sometimes not at all because of prayer things going on - and sometimes without permits.  We'll have to investigate more.

Sunrise kicks in at 7:16am so we'll need to leave at 6am to get there at 6am to get there.

Booking Hotels and Planning/Not Planning

It's most unlike us to book many hotels in advance but we've actually booked three hotels (well, two hotels and a house) for the first six nights.  A night in Springville, then onto Moab for three nights where we can drive out to see the ghost town at Cisco then onto stay in a house for a couple of nights in Monticello.  Then as we're meeting Jules for a photoshoot in Albuquerque we've booked a hotel near the airport for picking up duties. And finally, we've re-booked the hotel in Springville for the return flight at the end of the trip.

As with Route 66 last year we're trying to draw the line between planning so we don't get back home and realise we were ten minutes from something cool, but equally not letting serendipity taking care of things.