5 States
4 ½ Days
3,075 Miles
54 Hours and 48 minutes driving time
11 Restaurants
3 Bakeries
1 Smoothie
The blank spots in New Mexico on the ‘before’ side of the map always bugged me. How’d I do remedying that?
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015
Fly direct to Denver International, a very familiar airport.
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2015
Since it had been snowing I choose to run the 7 flights of stairs in the hotel for half an hour and then got on the road by 6AM heading south by southeast enjoying the wide open spaces.
Mile after mile, hour after hour there was nothing. Which is awesome.
Lamar is like the metropolis of SE Colorado. The fascinating downtown evoked a 1950s feel.
This Apple Fritter is such a disk compared to the plump and craggy specimens one is used to.
Wide open spaces for 2 hours. Small town. Repeat.
Was in Boise City, Oklahoma years ago. It’s changed- there is now a Dairy Queen.
Clayton, New Mexico.
Nova Visa has seen better days.
I Heart Santa Fe enough to have visited it twice before. Have 14 Santa Fe eateries under the belt; including such culinary stalwarts as Santacafe, Pasqual’s, Five & Dime and Tecolate. But there are more on the list that need to be crossed off.
Bedazzled in holiday lights, the historic Santa Fe Plaza was stunning.
Speaking of stunning.
It was an hour and a half wait to get into the (obviously) popular The Shed.
This plate exemplifies all the best of New Mexican cooking- blue corn tortillas, green chili, red chili, pinto beans and posole.
Thursday, December 24th, 2015
State Capitol 2006.
State Capitol 2015.
While I would have preferred Anasazi Restaurant’s multi-course dinner; at least breakfast allowed visiting this celebrated destination.
Settled into the comfortable and bright dining room.
Duck Confit Hash, Diced Potatoes, Chipotle Hollandaise. Made it on the “Best Things I Put In My Mouth 2015” list.
On the morning of Sunday, May 28th, 2006 I walked across the Plaza, into Plaza Café and queried, “Don’t you have a pie rated one of the best in the country?” As luck would have it the baker was just placing a 9 pound (he let me hold it) Dutch Apple Pie in the case. It became one of the best pies I’ve ever had.
This morning I walked across a chilly Santa Fe Plaza,
into the 1947 Plaza Café,
and asked what kind of pies they had. Coconut Cream, Cherry and…..Banana Cream.
Walking out of Santa Fe Plaza got teary eyed up wondering if I'd see it again and turned for one last look.
Dropping out of the elevation of Santa Fe.
Imagine the glory days....
The last time I was at the Billy the Kid Museum and Gift Shop I only checked out the gift shop. Probably didn’t want to pay the museum admission. Cheapskate.
Turns out that museum is an amalgamation of rooms with all kinds of old stuff.
It was opened in 1953.
And expanded through the years as Ed Sweet kept collecting items from the countryside.
He passed away in 1974 and his son took it over.
A few miles SE of the museum is the original location of Fort Sumner where Billy the Kid was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14th, 1881 in a house presently outlined by the foundation to the left.
Billy the Kid AKA William H. Bonney AKA Henry McCarty was buried in this nearby cemetary.
Wide open spaces for 2 hours. Small town. Repeat.
After not being able to find panaderia I haven’t tried before went with a favorite standby.
Hobbs was a larger town.
Was hoping to revisit the marvelous Carlsbad Caverns, but would not have made it in time.
Along the southwest New Mexican border are hundreds of oil wells in every direction.
Navigating the straight and then twisting roads with seemingly endless vistas it was impossible to ponder the greatness of America.
Always remember Roswell from having two Sonic Drive-Ins; during a trip in which 22 New Mexico Sonics were visited.
Friday, December 25th, 2015
During the morning run I kept a sharp eye out for extra-terrestrial activity. There was a lime green car that seemed suspicious...
This is embarrassing. A chain. Denny’s was the only restaurant open in Roswell and with several hours of desolate driving ahead I had to fuel the belly. And being a sucker for anything pumpkin went with Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes. Though an aversion to refined carbs left most of them on the plate.
Spent some time wandering around the desert outside of Roswell arms outstretched gazing up, “Take me now!” Nothing happened. Though I suddenly felt sore. Odd.
Mile after mile, hour after hour there was nothing. Which is awesome.
Carrizozo lies at the crossroads of two minor highways.
Taking the mountain pass over El Paso, Texas.
That is Mexico to the left. After miles of driving parallel to the border just yards away I contemplated pulling over and walking over it. To say I did. Then thoughts of all potential situations thwarted that idea.
Views seem to go on forever.
Columbus in SW New Mexico.
All the businesses and homes in Hachita were mostly abandoned.
Hours of driving without seeing a car.
Near Lordsburg.
Which has a lot of trailer parks.
Swiveled out of New Mexico for a swing through Arizona.
Climbing Brushy Mountain.
Through Gila National Forest.
Back in New Mexico.
What a wonderful country!
Glenwood in central western NM.
THE business in Apache Creek.
The last time I was in Gallup on Route 66 was concluding one of the best food days ever. Today....well, get off my back about the chain restaurant thing! Good thing I didn't tell you about lunch!
Saturday, December 26th, 2015
After driving hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe today became the most stressful ever. And it was aggravating most of the route had been driven before so I couldn’t fill in more of The Map. At least the scenery was spectacular.
Got on the road at 5AM at 4 degrees in Gallup. After a short stretch of crawling on snow covered I-40 the route headed north for two hours. In the dark, blowing snow, 4 degrees, road slick with packed snow.
The sun started to rise near Farmington revealing acres of white melding into a pale sky.
Traditional Navajo Breakfast of fry bread, eggs and Spam. Huh? “How is Spam traditional Navajo?” She laughed. I thought of regaling her with tales of eating Spam in Hawaii or visiting the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota.
Think occasionally of the tortilla I had here in Bloomfield years ago. Yes, a tortilla. It was that good.
Today I got that tortilla in the form of a Machaca Burrito served by a cheerful young lady.
Three hours driving a stretch seen in the summer of 2006.
As stressful as the drive was the scenery coated in white was astounding.
Though when the wind picked up it got a little interesting.
Continuing east at a cautious pace I ran the equation... Middle of nowhere, hadn’t seen another car in hours, no cell service. Hmm.
After stopping in Chama (been there, done that) to get a banana and water from the grocery/hardware store and chatting with the friendly cashier it was back on the road pivoting south. The planned tactic to revisit Taos was thwarted after finding highway 74 closed due to heavy snowfall. Drat. That left heading south where there started to be other cars.
Gratefully the snow diminished and roads became clean pavement again.
I thought, "if you saw this every day would you get used to it?"
Since the new route went past Santa Fe figured I might as well cross another restaurant off the list.
Tucked in a residential area on the outskirts of town the popular Tune-Up Café was packed.
Huevos Motulenos
Black beans, green peas, roasted tomato salsa, feta cheese, pico, avocado
Back on the road I contemplated if I’ve ever had a bad meal in Santa Fe. Nope.
Heading east on the serpentine I-25, the winds were blowing snow so fiercely to yield visibility of two car lengths. I followed a pick-up at a safe distance using him to gauge where the road was. This was when the visibility was good:
Finally, by the Wagon Mound exit the snow had stopped as I followed 120 east.
The wind was insanely strong sending legions of tumbleweeds blowing south.
The ruler straight road suddenly twisted through a canyon. I decided I was going to build a ranch along the river and move my harem of wives there.
Roy. As real as it gets.
If you could have felt my biceps and triceps (you know you want to ladies) they would have felt like steel as the steering wheel was twisted to keep the car in a straight line. So windy!
Near Capulin Volcano National Monument (been there, done that) a semi on the two lane divided highway started to blow over. “Oh no!” The driver quickly changed lanes to spin the trailer back down.
Near Raton got onto I-25 heading north into Colorado. The visibility alternated from 3 car lengths to none between snow gusts. Not imagining being able to deal with this for 90 more miles to my prepaid hotel reservations in Pueblo I got off at the next exit (after a stressful 17 miles) to book a hotel in nearby Trinidad. And found no Internet. Could have kicked it old school and walked into places, but 7 degrees and tornado like winds carrying snow...na. So three hours later arrived in Pueblo and slept like the dead.
Sunday, December 27th, 2015
Was racking my brain for childhood memories of a late 70s (early 80s?) TV commercial that had a Pueblo PO box. Anyway, the town’s best highlights are the Union Avenue Historic District and Historic Arkansas Riverwalk.
The spreadsheet has 10 items for Colorado Springs and 2 were crossed off.
Back to DEN and back to reality.