Oct. 26 - 29th Sedona to Santa Fe

Bell Rock in Sedona

     "On the road again, just can't wait to git on the road again...".  Thanks Willie.  Once again I am writing from poolside. This time at the lovely Inn of the Governors in  Santa Fe where it is sunny, beautiful and 66. I confess I have all my clothes on plus a jacket as its a "dry heat" don't you know and chilly.  I'm taking a break from looking at turquoise bracelets. Its like coming up for air. But I'm getting ahead in my story. Let me catch you up.
     Last Tuesday (Oct. 26th) I drove from Palm Spgs. to the the Phoenix airport and picked up  my two high school buddies, Lynn Murray and Harriet Averill (to be referred to as Hats from here on).  We've known each other for ever and back at Nottingham HS in Syracuse we were members of "Sub Deb", a high school sorority. Nothing like sharing in the hazing and loss of self esteem one gains by joining a high school sorority to form a life time bond among us. We have a nice group of "subdeb" pals we get together with frequently...heres a shout out to Susie M. , Susie B, Kristin D. and Linda M. We wish you were all here.

     Our first night was spent in Sedona followed by an early rising and 3 mile hike around Bell Rock. If you have never seen Sedona, it is just a spectacular place with canyons of "red rock." So, hike, take a picture, move on.  We drove up thru Oak Creek Canyon towards Flagstaff and then east to Winslow, AZ. Its good this town was right on the way because if I'd detoured even 2 miles I think I would have felt duped. Other than standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ the only other option is to have lunch in the Turquoise Room of the La Posada Hotel. It was built in 1920 by a famous hotelier named Fred Harvey at this location as it was the headquarters of the Santa Fe Railroad. (Judy Garland starred in movie "The Harvey Girls. Call netflix). The trains literally pass by 30 feet out the backdoor. Its full of memorabilia of all the stars that stayed there. See the link if you want more info.
     We were hoping to drive down Rte. 66 but had a little trouble finding it. It runs parallel to Interstate 40 but tends to turn into dead ends frequently so we pretty much stayed on 40. Our destination was Gallup, NM and the ....drumroll please...historic El Rancho Hotel. Gallup is not a pretty place. Nor was the El Rancho. I've been trying to go native when I could but this was one historic hotel too many. We were given the key to the "Marx Bros." room (quickly arguing amongst ourselves over who was Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo.) The decision to move on was made when Hats referred to the bedspreads as slimy.  We stayed at the boring Best Western without bedbugs or slimy bedspreads.

     Our spirits recovered yesterday after breakfast at the El Cafecito somewhere in New Mexico where I did have the huevos rancheros.

Rt 66 motel....hmmm

This was also near the Continental Divide which I last passed going west thru Yellowstone. After a couple more false turns and dead ends we did manage to travel down Rte 66 for quite a few miles. We passed many a hotel that was down on its luck. The pink flamingos had lost their luster. We were humming along to the theme from the old TV show on my ipod. It was fun. Out in the middle of nowhere, we could see for miles, mountain ranges off in the distance. All we needed was a corvette and Tod and Buzz in the car with us.  As I  took the picture of the train headed east from an overpass, the engineer waved and blew his whistle. Cool.

     A small aside here. I always assumed there were three mountain ranges in the U.S. The Adirondack, the Catskills, and the Rockies. There are mountains EVERYWHERE !! This is a beautiful country.
We took the "Turquoise Road" from Albuquerque to Santa Fe passing thru some funky and fun towns. Stopped for refreshments at the Mineshaft Tavern and arrived here in Santa Fe late afternoon. Lynn has spent some time here before so she is playing alpha dog for this part of the trip. Her choice of hotel and restaurants has been supurb and if there is any screwup, I can blame her. Off to Taos tomorrow.

PS Still accepting entries for mileage contest until Nov. 1. Then I'll post my distance updates. And stop asking what the prize is.

The Turquoise Room "Rte. 66 Cadillac Margherita!"