Day 43 - Amarillo, TX to Santa Fe, NM

Wanted to get to Santa Fe early, so set the alarm for 6:00 am. Out of bed, in and out of the shower, bags in the car and on our way to Starbucks at 7:10. We ordered up two of the regular and split a blueberry muffin before heading west of a fogbound Interstate 40. And it stayed fogbound until New Mexico.

Ah yes, New Mexico. Lots of nothing. Wide open spaces, little traffic and a 75 mph speed limit. Crossing the border put us back an hour, so we really didn’t have to get up at 6:00. At least today I had two headlights. Our only stops were at the Visitor’s Center on the border and for gas in Tucumcari.

It looks like New Mexico may have opted for billboards rather than road kill. Approaching a town of any size, and fortunately there weren’t many of them, the road is lined with billboards on each side advertising the single store that sells everything you need. Knives, pottery, jewelry, burgers, cold drinks, moccasins, blankets, ice cream and others, which I choose to forget, appeared over and over. Disgusting. It was along in here that we got a call from our Chicago friends, who were in the fog about two hours behind us.

Having seen a number of Old Route 66 signs and because we had a couple of hours on our friends, I decided drive a few miles on the old highway. Followed a sign off the freeway, looked around, couldn’t find Old Route 66 and headed back to the safety of the interstate.

Took a right at Clines Corners near the Shell Food Mart and Clines Corners Retail, neither of which exceeds 1.5 stars on Google, onto Highway 285 heading north. Then a short drive on Interstate 25 into Santa Fe. It was only about noon so our room wasn’t ready, but we got upgraded to a suite. Very nice.

Ok, so today I’m wearing shorts. I’ve been wearing shorts for weeks. What else would you wear in the South? Right, shorts and a t-shirt. So today its 44 degrees and windy. I can’t get into the room to change. So off we go looking for a Wells Fargo and lunch. I see one other guy with shorts, he just arrived from Florida. Anyway, found a bank and we split a sandwich for lunch. I had a cold beer with it. And followed that up with a margarita.

We are now is the room and I’ve changed into jeans. Just got a call from our friends and we will be meeting them soon for dinner. Tomorrow will be spent window shopping in Santa Fe. 276 miles today.