DAY 39 Last Day in Santa Fe

Santa Fe would truly take a week or two to see all there is to see and do here. There is just so much in this area. A drive to Albuquerque would have been nice also, but there's just not enough time. This weekend in Albuquerque is the big Balloon Festival with hundreds of balloons lifting off. That would be a great site to see, but we will be headed in the opposite direction Saturday to Taos, NM.

The MH needed a little clean up today. Finnegan is afraid of the vacuum cleaner which really isn't that noisy. He has gotten better when we pull it out. Normally when we take it out he crawls in the upper corner of the MH. Now he is sitting in the kitty ottoman with his Finny face on. He doesn't look quite as worried as he normally does--just concerned.

Nicholas on the other hand is pretty relaxed.

 Many places here decorate with the big bunches (?) of chili peppers. It's beatutiful here in Santa Fe, but I don't think that look works in Ooltewah.

 Another trip to the Plaza area to see more places, art work and architeture. We saw this cat outside one of the exclusive art galleries. He sort of looked familiar.

 

 Afterward we took a ride into the Sangre de Christo mountains. The aspen trees were starting to turn and the landscape was gorgeous. I love the way the houses are terraced into the mountain and blend into the landscape.

 

 

 

Back to reality.

Day 38 More Santa Fe

More Santa Fe.

 The Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.

 The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

 

Loretto Chapel with a miraculous spiral staircase. The staircase was built by a stranger who left mysteriously without recognition.

 More bronze statues and Navajo rugs for sale.

I love the boots in this store window. Not that I would wear them, but I know  Sue Patten, the long arm quilter would love them. I'm sure they cost a pretty penny in this shop.

DAY 38 Santa Fe, A Feast for the Artist Eyes

Santa Fe has more artists, silversmiths and SW jewelry than any other area I've ever seen. It could take weeks to visit the numerous artist studios, jewelry stores and SW clothing shops. The number of  museums in the area are numerous also. We spent most of the day walking around the area. I had always pictured this area as smaller, less populated and less touristy, but I was in for a surprise. It was a large area with lots of tourists and lots to see.

 This is the Plaza, a park like square in the middle of town. Surrounding this are shops, museums and artists studios. At one end you can see a stand selling fajitas.

 One one side is the Palace of the Governors where Navajos sit on the walkway selling their jewelry.

The museums in the area are built in the adobe style. Notice the guy on the bicycle with his dog in the back. Cute.

 This bronze statue is in Burro Alley.

 I love the name of this shop---Yippee Yi Yo. It's next to the Five and Dime Store.

More bronze statues and art work.

 I love this old street (Palace Ave). The shops are small with the beautiful turquoise painted doors and windows. This is more of what I envisioned in Santa Fe. We ate at The Shed a SW (what else) restaurant on this street.

 

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.

DAY 36 Getting Our Kicks on Route 66

We left Sedona for a leisurely drive to Gallup, NM. It wasn't a destination, but a stop over on the way to Santa Fe. We had reservations at an RV park on RTE 66 in Gallup. The CG was rather barren with no foliage, but it did have other advantages. The sites were large, spaced out and very comfortable. When we checked in the nice man at the desk told us they were having peach cobbler and ice cream at 7:30. yum!! We're up for that since out diet has gone out the window. I'll be back on my diet big time once we get home.

We wish we had rented a car here, even though we are only here for 1 night, but we'll try to see some sights on the way through town tomorrow. We'll have another leisurely drive as we head towards  Santa Fe.

Sorry no pictures today. I'll try to do better tomorrow when we go through Gallup and Santa Fe.

DAY 35 MORE OF SEDONA

We had a very relaxing day in Sedona. We had time to drive around the area and look at the beautiful red rocks. I'm just going to post some of the pictures. The colors of the foliage against the red rocks is just gorgeous. I love the different shades of greens against the red.

 

 I love the way the houses and building melt into the red rocks and are almost invisible. Everything here blends with the landscape. Notice the houses on the top of this mountain of rock.

 

DAY 34 JEROME, AZ

Sedona is a bit warmer than most of the other places we have been the last few weeks. The temperature during the day is high 80's and 90's, and at night it is about 60. The kitties are much more relaxed, not having to worry about the big elks.

We decided to let the kitties out in their play pen to enjoy the morning. The CG is large, open and very shaded by the big cotton wood trees and oaks. The kitties even had a couple of visitors this morning.

If you look far to the left you will see 2 kitties that came to visit.One of them walked right up to the playpen and was nose to nose with Bentley. They just said "Good Morning" an kept on going. No hissing or anything.

Then we got another visotor. Now the boys are really starting to have fun.

This was a very nice CG and very close to town on the other side of the creek.

 

 Sedona is such a beautiful city. We were here about 10 years ago and have always wanted to come back. It is incredible how much it has grown and expanded with new areas. Sedona, like Santa Fe is a very artsy and spiritual area. Lots of art galleries, crystal shops and people willing to read your aura.

 When we were here before we flew in to Las Vegas and drove to Sedona. It was the second week of October and just starting to turn cold. We stayed in Oak Creek Canyon in cabins across from Oak Creek. We were lucky to be on the right side of the creek. While we were here it rained quite a bit and the creek flooded. Everyone on the opposite side of the creek was unable to get to their homes unless they lived by the walking bridge. They could park their car on the east side of the creek and walk across the bridge to the other side to get to their home.

The next day we were to drive back to Las Vegas. When we got up it was snowing and snowing hard. It was a little tricky driving down Oak Creek Canyon in a snow  storm.

Well, since we were here and it was nice and sunny we decided to take a ride up Oak Creek Canyon and visit the area where we stayed. This road is so beautiful.

After Oak Creek we drove back through Sedona headed for Jerome, AZ

 Jerome is an old copper mining town that was built on a steep mountain about 5200 ft. high. The roads are narrow and winding with many switchbacks. This is the view part way up the road to Jerome.

 Jerome was very inhabited in it's hey day, but eventually became a ghost town. Today it is a major tourist attraction with restaurants, bars and gift shops. It is a favorite of motorcyclists.

 We had lunch at The Haunted Hamburger which is in Jerome Palace. The Haunted Hamburger was featured on Rachael Ray's program a couple of years ago. The food was quite good even though it was quite a hike up hill to get to it. Actually every thing in Jerome is up hill.

 

 We drove back to Sedona to give the kitties a little more time out for the day.

Tomorrow we plan to see a little more of Sedona.