Day 51: Santa Rosa to Las Vegas, NM 90 miles
Day 52: Las Vegas to Santa Fe, NM 96 miles
Day 53: Santa Fe to Bernalillo, NM 63 miles
Days 54-57: Bernalillo, NM 0 miles
The day we left Santa Rosa, we had to make a biiiig choice – because as you’ve heard many times, there are often multiple alignments of Route 66. Usually, we do them all. In this case, the different alignments were just a liiiiitle too long to do both, so we had to choose one. It was either head northwest in an arc to Santa Fe and then southwest along the arc to Albuquerque, or head directly west on I-40 to Albuquerque. We chose to go to Santa Fe on our way out West, and then do the Albuquerque alignment on the way home. This meant we’d miss some towns and sights between Santa Rosa and Albuquerque for now, but we’d also avoid just being on Interstate 40 forever, so yay!
Unfortunately, even heading up to Santa Fe meant a lot of interstate – just a different one. But there were some pluses. The first thing we noticed was how big the sky was – it reminded us of Montana. Next we noticed the mesas. Or was it a butte? We later learned that mesas are wider than they are tall, and are larger in surface area than buttes, often spanning large chunks of land, even miles! Buttes are smaller and are technically narrower than they are tall. Wow, driving in New Mexico was beautiful!
Since we’d been driving on the interstate a lot and I could see from our guide book that there was plenty more interstate in our future, we were more than happy to follow the suggestion of a side trip to Las Vegas, NM. Our book didn’t tell us what to see there, and we didn’t see any casinos😜, so we just headed toward the main square in town and walked around. We saw a lot and learned a lot! There was the beautiful Plaza Hotel and several shops, including a music shop, an antique place, and a lot of art studios. There was a Riverwalk! We learned that Las Vegas was an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail, a Territorial capital during Confederate occupation of Santa Fe, and the town where General Kearny announced the US annexation of New Mexico in 1862!
On the main street we came upon the E. Romero Hose & Fire Building. It said it was “open, c’mon in,” so why not? It turned out to be a free museum, and the guy there gave us a little tour – he let us get in the old fire truck and explained the idea behind the poles in fire houses: Spiral staircases were initially used to prevent horses from climbing upstairs to steal food from the kitchens, but it took the firemen too long to go down a spiral staircase in full gear, so, why not poles? He showed us a cool collapsible ladder, and took us out back to let us ring the fire bell, which was LOUD.
We also ducked inside The Crowded Table – a game store. It wasn’t our first game store on this trip, but it may have turned into the most interesting game store stop we’ve had! Store owner Brett told us about his shop, about some hot springs just a few minutes outside of town in Montezuma, and about the nearby World College – a boarding school where high school aged kids from around the world are taught peace, understanding and sustainability along with their education – and advised us not to miss the Dwan Light Sanctuary, a meditation room with windows and prisms that cast rainbows all over the walls. We were sold! We’d go visit these sites, come back for games in the evening, and stay in town overnight. (The joy of NOT having an itinerary.)
Montezuma was right where Brett said it would be. We drove to the world college but unfortunately the sanctuary was closed due to a private event. Disappointing, but not as disappointing as if we couldn’t go to the hot springs!
We found the cars parked along the road and knew we were at the hot springs. They were waaaaay too hot in the middle of the afternoon, but Brett had told us there was a river right there as well. We walked along a rocky/grassy/squishy/muddy path down to the river and found a place to get in. It was shallow and cool but not cold – I could see bubbles from the hot springs percolating up from the bottom! The sand / fine gravel river bottom was warm; if you dug your feet in, you could feel it was hot! So so neat! We eventually dunked all the way in and got our hair wet, to try and get cold in preparation for the hot springs. It was fun trying to tread in two feet of water!
Then it was back up to the hot springs. A regular there informed us about the different temperatures of each level of the spring so we could choose the best one for each of us. The top one, known as the Lobster Pot, was way too hot to even dip a toe in, but the water cooled as it flowed down to the lower springs. We met another guy who had just spent three months in Alaska living out of his Prius, travels all the time in a Greyhound bus he owns (yup you read that right), and was headed to Asia the next day with his travel buddy! You can’t make this stuff up. We also met a sweet family – a couple and their four kids – who were traveling for two weeks from Texas and back.
That night we got some food from some local restaurants and went back to The Crowded Table, where we taught Brett and his friend Daniel to play Splendor, one of our favorite games. (We always travel with a couple of games because you never know.)
Back on our route to Santa Fe the next morning, we learned that this alignment of ’66 follows the old Santa Fe Trail. It was going to take us to a town named Pecos, along a scenic stretch of ’66, backstopped by the beautiful Glorieta Mesa. In Pecos we found an old bridge (yay for old bridges!) we could walk on that spans the Pecos River, as well as Pecos National Historical Park.
We pulled out our Explorer Edition of the National Parks Passport Book (you know – the BIG one) and headed straight to the Visitor Center at Pecos National Historical Park to learn more about what we could do there.
We did a self-guided trail where we learned all about the Pecos people: Ancestral Puebloan farmers, master traders, and builders who inhabited the Pecos River Valley for over a thousand years. We explored the remains of their Pecos Pueblo, a massive, multi-story complex made of rock and mud. We even got to climb down into a kiva (circular underground or semi-underground chamber used for religious ceremonies, political meetings, and community gatherings). At the end of the trail we learned about the stupid Spanish missionaries who came along and forcefully converted the Pecos people and took over… the Pecos people did successfully rebel at one point, but the Spanish were back 12 years later, and for good this time. Booo!
We met up with National Park Ranger Alice and a few others for a free tour of the Forked Lightning Ranch House. This tour covered the more recent history of the land there – the historic ranch house built by architect John Gaw Meem, once owned by rodeo star Tex Austin and later by movie star Greer Garson.
In the gift shop I was feeling adventurous so I bought us prickly pear-flavored dark and milk chocolate bars as well as gummy bears. They were ALL a hit, so I recommend you go for it if you ever get a chance to try prickly pear flavored candy.
Between Pecos and Santa Fe we gained more elevation as we traversed Glorieta Pass. At over 7500 feet, it is the highest point on Route 66. It was also the site of a Civil War battle known as, “Gettysburg of the West.” This is where Union soldiers defeated the Confederates and ended the Confederate’s incursion into the Southwest.
We arrived at the Santa Fe Visitor Center just before 5:30, but it had closed early at 3pm for 9/11. Bummer! Suddenly I realized it was Friday night and we were in a city – which meant we wanted to check for any dances that were happening. We found one that was starting at 7pm, and in 1.5 hours we managed to find and book a hotel, drive there, check in and shower, change and go to and through a Burger King drive-in and get food and eat, and still get to the dance on time! (And whereas I had to make an exception on my no fast-food rule, Burger King does make a good Impossible burger😁) The only problem was that Elliott’s right hip, which had been giving him some issues for a few weeks back home, and had gotten worse with all the sitting and driving on our Route 66 road trip, was hurting him a lot. He had needed to rest between tours at Pecos National Historical Park – super unusual for him – and so before our dance, he popped a couple Ibuprofen, and off we went.
It was Blues/Swing Fusion night with Elli & Mike, where we hadn’t a clue. Of all the types of dances we do, this is not one of them. Luckily there was a beginner lesson which was quite good where we learned a few moves, met the instructors and got to dances with some other dancers. It was a fun night and there is clearly a lively and fun dancing scene in Santa Fe. Someone told us about a Swingout workshop happening the next day, and we couldn’t resist, as the Swingout is a Lindy hop move we’ve been wanting to master for quite a while now.
That night, Elliott was drop-dead exhausted – Santa Fe is 7200 feet in elevation, which makes everything exhausting. Poor Elliott also seems to feel the effects of higher altitude much more than I do. The next day, his hip was still hurting a lot, but he was determined to do the four-hour workshop with me. This workshop was just what we needed as the swingout has eluded us for a while. Our instructors, Josh and Emma, were terrific, breaking everything down so it seemed so logical. In fact, Emma (who was way too humble to tell us this herself) recently won first place at a national Lindy Hop competition. So we can’t actually tell you much about Santa Fe itself, as we spent all our time there dancing, making friends with the other dancers, and going out as a group to Anthony’s Soul Café – an amazing eatery, with lots of vegan options for me, and down-home catfish for Elliott. Anthony’s even had live piano music, which naturally led to more dancing for all of us!
We didn’t do a whole lot more than dance in Santa Fe. We saw the St. Francis Cathedral from 1714, and visited the Jackalope Mercado, a famous “home/outdoor goods store.” In the evening we went downtown to attend an outdoor evening event which had live music, food and clothing and jewelry and craft vendors. We walked around, shopped in an adorable 5&10, found the Palace of the Governors, listened to the band and (you guessed it) danced a bit.
Eventually we left and headed back to our car. It was after 9pm and dark. We usually try not to drive Route 66 after dark (you just miss too much), but we were both ready to move on from Santa Fe. We drove through Algodones on “El Camino Real,” a scenic byway. Even in the dark, we could see gorgeous clouds and stars – we even stopped a couple times and looked up to see them. I could see the Big Dipper right out my side window!
By the time we got to the town of Bernalillo, where we planned to bed down for the night, Elliott was in extreme pain from his right hip. We lay down in bed, and after a half hour of extreme discomfort no matter what position he was in, he ended up sleeping on the floor. The next morning, it was no better. Uh-oh! We had many an in-depth conversation with AI about what might be going on. He took lots of Ibuprofen, used the new heating pad I bought him, and did nothing but rest for two days. Still no improvement; in fact, he was now having trouble even putting weight on that leg.
Off to Urgent Care we went. The doctor was great and diagnosed him with a torn iliofemoral ligament in his hip, something she had been through herself a few times before. She sent us home with a steroid prescription, a muscle relaxer prescription, and crutches. She gave him orders – complete rest while on the steroids for 12 days, then hope you rested enough so that you’re not in intense pain when they’re done. No driving, no walking without the crutches, no turning the leg/hip outwards (external rotation for you medical techies), no crossing your legs in any way, both feet flat on the floor when sitting, and hips always higher than knees when sitting. Estimated timeline for total healing? Six months.
Boy was this going to be interesting going forward.
