Day 37 Traveling to Santa Fe

We took our time leaving the CG in Gallup with the intention of seeing some of Gallup on the way out of town. The idea was grand, but not practical. Where do you park a 32 ft. MH in the busiest area of Gallup on route 66? We decided since we would be traveling a major portion of the day we would stop for breakfast en route. We looked at Jerry's restaurant, but no possible parking spot. Then there was the traditional Earl's on Rte. 66. It was established in 1947 (before I was born as I pointed out to David). It must be good if it has survived that long. It did have a large parking lot with lots of cars after all. Once we pulled in to the lot, we were stuck--no backing out (literally). Also, no parking for MHs. David was able to barely squeeze us around the back of the restaurant to the other side where there were some open spaces. That was the first interesting part of Earls. As we approached the front of the restaurant there were tables and tables of Navajo jewelry to wade through to get to the front door. HUM MM. Is this a flea market or restaurant? Once in the door, the hostess very quickly seated us and the restaurant was surprisingly very large inside. As we looked around we were the only non-Navajos in the place. Ah HA--locals this place must be good. And the food was good, good n plenty and very fast. The waitress Sadie, as well as the other staff were Navajo and very friendly. Except for our parking issue we would definitely come back again. The only turn off was the table to table selling of jewelry. I'm not sure who they were hoping to sell to since all the other customers were Navajo and probably didn't need it anyway.

On well --back on Rte 66. We past El Rancho Hotel which was established in 1937. http://www.elranchohotel.com/   This was a famous hotel when movies were made in this area of the cointry. Too bad we couldn't stop. It looked very interesting.

 I tried to take a few pictures, but we were moving too fast for much to turn out. Here are a couple on Rte 66.

 Gallup, NM.

We've seen lots of casinos along our way. This one is next to the gas station where we filled up.

 This is a picture as we approached Albuquerque. It's a fairly large city with all the amenities.

We did manage to pick up our rental car after arriving in Santa Fe and make our way to the CG. Santa Fe is much larger than I had imagined. Where we are staying is SW of the downtown or old Santa Fe area. The CG is very cramped for space, but other than that pretty nice. It's close to lots of shopping. Santa Fe seems to have everything you might need....Best Buy, Whole Foods, lots of Mexican restaurants. tomorrow we hope to explore the old historic Plaza area.