New Mexico

We awake in Santa Rosa ready for a new day, our big decision this morning is do we head to Albuquerque via Route 66 post 1937 which is about 190 miles shorter and eliminates Santa Fe. Or go the older pre 1937 Route 66 which winds its way up to Santa Fe. We chose the older route and headed to Santa Fe!
About 10 miles from the border between Texas and New Mexico the landscape began to take on a very different look than we had been seeing. Gone now are the lush green roadsides and fields, gone also is the flat land, so flat that you could see for miles. The topography is now very hilly with sharp mounds of clay colored soil, very rich in color, and the lush growth is replaced by scrub trees and bushes. Further into new Mexico the small mounds or hills begin to disappear, but hilly terrain and Plateau's or Mesa's begin to appear as well as Mountains in the distance.
It's Hot, starting in the morning over 80 degrees, and it builds during the day to over 90. We roll down the 2 lane 66 and pass a little town Dilia, much like the many other little towns that line this route, old structures, some partially empty, we stop and snap a picture of a Church that caught our eye. We rely heavily on our Route 66 guide maps for this day's trip, as 66 takes turns, crosses the highway and runs through a lot of towns, it takes some careful reading and interpretations by "Noel the navigator" of the written directions to stay on course. Even with those directions there is a lot of guesswork and trial and error during this trip. One nice perk is that it runs so close to the Interstate that if you do make some wrong turns you can almost always jump on for a couple exits and get off and be back on course.

Route 66 follows the Santa Fe Trail to Santa Fe, we cross the Pecos River, well known in the history books. As we are traveling we see a sign for the Pecos National Historical Park and we decide to stop in. I proudly produce my Senior National Park pass for the very first time, Boom, free admission for both Noel and I! We took a short hike to the Ruins of the the 2 Spanish Colonial Missions that were built in the early to mid 1400's. Part of the ruins have been restored, but only a small part. The evidence is that these Plateau's once has as many as 500 to 600 rooms and were up to 5 stories high. The Chapel was constructed when the Franciscan Friars arrived and began to introduce the Indian inhabitants to Christianity. The Pecos farmed and produced crops for many years before the Spaniard's arrived but were introduced to raising livestock by the Friars, The livestock became a very important part of the local economy. This area was abandoned after a Pueblo revolt against the Spanish authorities uprising in 1680, the various groups united and drove the Spaniards

from the area. They gained their freedom but only for a short time. The Pecos people move to a relative community in another area.
We also found out that this area was very active in the Civil war and a battle fought in Glorieta Pass was know as the Gettysburg of the West.
A short trip from Pecos took us to Santa Fe, we lunched at a 66 landmark called "Harry's Roadhouse" and then headed to the square in downtown to look around. There was a lot of shopping, Art galleries, Churches and Chapels to see so we decided to get a room here for the night and head out in the morning. We also came across the "Miraculous Staircase" In the Loretto Chapel, built by a mysterious carpenter in 1870 who left when it was finished, without payment, thanks, or recognition. This staircase was featured on TV's Unsolved Mysteries.