Day 9

Day's Traveling
    Start: 9:00AM (Lubbock, TX)

    End: 7:10PM* (Santa Fe, NM) *Mountain Time

Total Travel Hours

     Joanna: 32 hours 54mins

             4 hours 8mins 7 (train) 24 hours  41mins (car)4 hours 5min (plane)

     Alex: 31 hours 49mins

              4 hours 8mins (train) 23 hours 36mins (car) 4 hours 5min (plane)

States Driven through:

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland*, Virginia, Texas and New Mexico (7/10)

*only 14 miles were traveled in this state 

Another driving day today! And a good thing too, it was drab and gray outside. Our destinations today are Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM.  We thought we would have to wake up around 7AM to be able to pack everything into today but then remembered we gain an hour today! The border of New Mexico starts the Mountain Time zone, so we are now two hours behind everyone at home. So we slept in a bit longer got up and headed to the free breakfast in the lobby.

THEY HAD TEXAS WAFFLES!

Anyway, we went to the room after breakfast and Jo tried to organize a trail ride for us in Albuquerque. The man informed us that it was currently 25 degrees and snowing at the farm and asked if we really wanted to ride. We did, it is our only opportunity! He said he would call back with details… he never did. I think he didn’t really want to ride.

Jo and I hopped in the car and headed to Albuquerque anyway.

The sun had set before we had gotten very far beyond Fredericksburg the day before, so Jo and I hadn’t really seen much of the Northern Texas environment (minus the field of windmills and the smell of the refineries).  So this morning we were able to take in our surroundings. They were… interesting. As we left Lubbock the smell of oil refineries filled the car, wonderful. The fields were filled with those pendulum like machines dipping in and out of the ground glimmering in the morning light… not. Actually I was kind of overcast so the machines were just kind of there, bobbing up and down and smelling badly.

After the oil fields we passed through some more exciting landscapes. Cow farms, Pecan trees and cotton fields were plentiful. Jo and I wondered for a time when the actual Pecan picking season was…  after we wondered if Pecans grew on trees or on bushes (they go on trees). We didn’t know when their season was and it seems no one really knows. Well I bet the Texas farmers do and based on the appearance of the trees picking season is not during the second week of January.

So we crossed out pecan picking along with the previously nixed horseback riding from out list of activities to try today. Jo and I were at a loss of what to do once we reached New Mexico, luckily as we passed through the final city in Texas (aptly named ‘Farewell’) we ran into the New Mexico welcome center.

We stopped at the center and had to run from the car into the building. The sun still hadn’t come out and it was freezing… well compared to southern Texas. Two women were working in the center and after talking about Haggred (we had brought him in to take a few pictures with the Welcome to New Mexico signs) they pointed us in the right direction for things to do in Northern/Central New Mexico. Jo and I grabbed numerous pamphlets for Albuquerque and Santa Fe and headed back on our way.

But before we could leave we found a Ginny Hen just outside the welcome center doors! Of course we needed to get a picture of the Guinea Hen with Haggred.

But the Ginny didn’t really want anything to do with Haggred, rather wanted to follow Jo and I home. Luckily, it was unsuccessful in jumping into the car and Jo and I were able to leave without any extra members to our party.

One of the suggestions of the women at the Welcome Center was to stop at the Billy the Kid grave yard in Fort Sumner. Fort Sumner was a little town on our way to Albuquerque. I was pretty excited; I had heard of Billy the Kid and wanted to stop. Of course I tried to locate the Billy Joel song related to Billy the Kid, but I failed.

Interestingly enough Billy the Kid isn’t the only historical event to take place in the town of Fort Sumner. Actually a very bloody and unjust event also took place in the town. The national park just past the Billy the Kid grave site explains the confinement at Fort Sumner of several tribes in the New Mexican area up to the point of the Navajo peace treaty in 1886. After the treaty the Maxwell family purchased the property which the Native Americans had been held captive on which later was the place where Billy the Kid was killed.

The town focuses on the killing of Billy the Kid through the naming of their schools, road ways and museums and beyond the memorial hidden a few miles off the main road no mention is made of the Native Americans.

Now, I found out most of this from a pamphlet I picked up at the Native American memorial, Jo and I did not walk through the museum (which cost 5 dollars). We did, however, pick up some advice from the woman working at the memorial about what else to visit while in Fort Sumner.  Jo asked if the lake was anything to see, she said that if we were in the area we might as well stop and that there was a good burger and stake joint nearby. So Jo and I left the memorial and headed to the Billy the Kid grave site on our way to the lake.

The Billy the Kid grave site was just that, his grave. The museum was being renovated, aka they were renaming the museum from the “Billy the Kid Museum” to the “Old Billy the Kid Museum.” However, the stop was made more exciting by a stray dog that took a liking to Jo. For the second time today an animal tried to come home with us and for the second time today they were unsuccessful.

From the grave site we headed to the lake. Well, the lake left a little bit to be desired… There was water there so I guess it was a lake. But the graffiti-ed welcome sign and the run down and disease infested playground made the whole lake seem a little less than welcoming. Jo immediately thought that maybe the woman the memorial was just getting back at us for not purchasing a ticket to view the museum (this of the movie Rat Race when the two girls don’t by the Squirrel). However, after we got back on the road again we realized she had been talking about a different lake. Lake Sumner was a good five miles from the memorial where as the lake we visited was just around the corner. We didn’t stop at Lake Sumner, but we’ll assume the burger place does exist and the woman wasn’t mad we didn’t go into the museum.

Back on the road our next stop was Albuquerque. We drove through snow, sun, clouds, more snow and then finally sun while also driving through desert, town, forest, desert and then city. The pictures below can help explain the various driving situations. It’s amazing how many different types of weather/ climate we drove through. Further, it seems thousands of signs for a service station on the highway is the trend in these Southern states. We passed a handful of service stations that had at least twenty to thirty signs before you could actually take the exit to the stops .There is also a slight obsession with Dairy Queen in the south… and not just for ice cream but for all the food they serve.

Anyway, once we got into Albuquerque the sun was up and it was kind of warm (maybe mid thirties). Jo and I had found a wine tasting that was actually open on Monday (turns out that in New Mexico after Labor Day almost all attractions are closed on Monday- sweet). It turned out to be a great deal, six different wines and a souvenir glass for six dollars! St. Clair Winery and Bistro was a great find and I got to try a Wine-a-rita.

As usual Jo and I had stuffed our faces while tasting wine and needed to walk it off. Conveniently, Old Town Albuquerque provided the perfect opportunity to walk, shop and take pictures. As I mentioned before a lot of the attractions were closed because it was Monday, but we were still able to walk through the sculpture garden and parts of the recreated old town.

The sun went down and it started to get colder and Jo and I, still dressed for the southern Texas weather, decided to head back to the car before we became hypothermic.

Santa Fe is only an hour north of Albuquerque so it was a pretty easy drive. On our way north, Jo spotted the Santa Fe Brewery.

The Santa Fe Brewery is the oldest brewery in Santa Fe. It was started in 1988 (so old, I know!) and many of its devoted patrons have been around a bit longer. Jo and I arrived during happy hour ($2.50 pints) and because it was our first time were able to purchase a sampler of all 8 beers for $5. The sampler has 4 oz. samples of all their beers including their barley wine and seasonal Java porter. IT was a great buy and Jo and I walked out of the brewery having only spent a total of $10!

While we were at the bar we talked with some of the locals (many of them had actually grown up on the East Coast!). They gave us some advice about Santa Fe and the local tourist attractions. The best advice they gave us concerned the best Mexican restaurant in Santa Fe, Tomasitas.

 From the bar we went to find a place to stay for the night. A little wary of Red Roof and other chair hotels we picked the Sage In at Santa Fe. It turned out to be a great place and it was just down the street from Tomasitas. If it had been warm, it would have also been a great location to walk into the downtown and historic areas of the city.

Jo and I unpacked and headed over to Tomasitas. The guys at the brewery had been right, it was great Mexican food, but true to our nature Jo and I ate way too much and way too fast. Our plans to go to the Cowgirl Karaoke night and a few other bars downtown were replaced. Jo and I instead chose to take a driving tour of historic Santa Fe as the thought of trying to fit more into our stomach was sickening.

Our tour was perfect, minus a mishap early on where we ended up on 285 rather than the road that went around the city, it was a great way to see most of the sights. Many of the landmarks had lights on them and were easy to see from the car. Plus, not many people were on the road so Jo and I could drive as slowly as we wanted to snap pictures. At one point we got out of the car to take pictures, but then realized that the higher altitude and lack of sun made it feel like negative twenty degrees outside.  So in the car we stayed.

After the tour, we called it an early night and headed to bed- it was time to prepare for another day of driving!!