Day 7: A day of rest in Santa Fe

August 6, 2005
Albuquerque and Santa Fe

Today I left Rosco to live like a king is his motel room, and I headed out to explore the area. First I went out to Petroglyph National Monument just over the Rio Grande from Albuquerque.

Then I went downtown to Old Town Albuquerque. Lots of shops for the tourists. Then I hit the Turquoise Trail, Route 14 from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.

It's the old route between the two, before the interstate. It passes through beautiful mountains and plateaus, and small mining towns. There are now a bunch of art galleries and tourist shops in the small towns, particularly one called Madrid.

Santa Fe is nearly completely all adobe buildings. Adobe Target was particularly amusing. But how unusual for even suburban commercial strips to conform to regional architecture. Downtown there were no skyscrapers; all buildings were done in some variation on the adobe theme.

I got there at the same time as a weekend arts festival, which meant there was even more beautiful things to look at, as the whole downtown is full of art galleries and jewlery shops.

I love western art, especially pottery and anything with buffalos or armadillos in it. Did I mention that starting in Arkansas I saw tons of armadillo roadkill? They just kind of get knocked over, usually not smushed. So it's like seeing a bunch of stuffed armadillos lining the side of the road. Anyway, the turquoise was amazing, and amazingly expensive. Not much in my price range.

Onward to Day 8>>>

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