We got up shortly after sunrise from our lodging at the Roadrunner Lodge in Tucumcari, dressed and started walking with camera in hand to photograph some of the signs, motels and other buildings in the early morning sunlight.  This without the first cup of coffee!

After we returned we got coffee at the motel lobby and got in the car to drive to some photo ops further than we wanted to walk.  Got back to the room and had a breakfast of cereal from the supplies we brought with us.  Then showered, packed, loaded the car and departed around 9:30 AM for Santa Fe.  Today’s drive was only about 180 miles so we arrived about 5:30 PM in Santa Fe.

This was a really interesting drive today.  We alternated between the old historic Route 66 roads and the new I-25 interstate highways.  Where this happened most of the time it was because the extra work to cut a new road seemed to outweigh the advantages of using the existing roadway for the new highway.

Lots of buttes and big sky along the way today.  We had the windows open most of the day today even though the carmometer showed about 88 degrees.  Really nice to have the wind in the car which reminded me of the days without air conditioning!  Places we passed through today included:

Montoya
New Kirk
Santa Rosa (Saw the Blue Hole deep water sinkhole–81 ft deep, 60 ft across and clear to the bottom)
Romeroville
San Jose

We found several caches along this route which was the pre-1937 Route 66 alignment.  Due probably to politics, when the highway system was upgraded, this route was changed to go directly to Albuquerque from Tucumcari (now I-40).  In the early days, it was probably routed this way to follow existing Santa Fe Trail and later the Santa Fe Railroad.  We followed the railroad line most of the way today.  We also crossed the Santa Fe and Pecos, trails at various places in the last three days. Also the Pecos river (3 times) and the Red River.

Making this trip today in a few hours reminded me of the difficulties early travelers on Route 66 had to get to the promised land in California.  There is little water along the route, hot and dry in the summer with the potential for violent storms and travel over rough unpaved road surfaces.  Still, a beautiful country.

Just before Santa Fe, we stopped to see the Pecos National Historical Park.  This was an unexpected stop and very interesting.  We learned about the Pecos Pueblo and it’s inhabitants before and after the Spanish arrived in the 1500s.  We were able to climb down in a kiva and see the footings from the first mission that the Spanish Catholics built in 1625 and the standing structure from the replacement mission about 100 years later.  We also got a geocache there by answering some questions posed along the 1-1/4 mile interpretive trail.

In Santa Fe we got two nights at the Hotel St. Francis in the downtown area using Priceline.  This will permit us to walk to most of the interesting things.  Had a nice dinner at the Cowgirl BBQ–Joyce’s choice (no surprise here).  Enjoyed  some NM craft beers; Gary had Sierra Blanca Nut Brown and Joyce had Monk’s Ale.  Then nice walk back to the hotel for the evening.

Have a lot of catching up to do before we leave town.  No interesting photos today.  Lot of high country desert!