February 26, 2016
Today we headed out at 900AM
for Santa Fe with a morning temperature of 41 degrees. In just under 3 hours, we arrived in Santa
Fe. We wandered the central plaza window
shopping and then on to tour the St. Francis of Assisi Church. It had a statue of St. Mary that was the
oldest statue of Mary in the United State (from the 1700’s). We also visited the
Loretta Chapel with the spiral staircase.
This famous spiral staircase was built in the late 1700’s with no
support system and no railings (3 spiral turns – 360 degrees). Eight years later they added railings (still
no support system) and it was used for almost 100 years.
We stopped for lunch at an
outdoor patio in Santa Fe and then on to Gallup, NM with an arrival of
6PM. The temperature climbed to a high
of 70 degrees today.
Miles: 366 miles
States: NM only
February 27, 2016
We headed out today around
900AM with morning temperatures of 41
degrees. Gallup is known as one of the
most patriotic cities in America. We
stopped at their Veteran’s Memorial that honored soldiers from New Mexico from
all of the major wars. Gallup is known
for their downtown outdoor murals. We
enjoyed traveling through the historic downtown viewing the various murals.
Finally, it was time to
continue on our journey on Interstate 40.
Our goal was to make it to the Grand Canyon; however, we came upon the
Petrified Forest National Park (52,00 acres) and of course, we had to
stop. The park had a 28 mile driving
loop that had pull-outs to see the Painted Desert Overlooks, Newspaper Rock
(650 petroglyphs, some old as 2000 years), Agate Bridge (petrified log spanning
a gully), Jasper Forest (petrified logs) and much more scenery.
We all were happy with this
impromptu stop along the way. Tonight we
plan to stay in Williams, AZ and head into the Grand Canyon tomorrow. We arrived in Williams around 6PM and the
high temperature for today was 76 degrees.
Miles: 271
State: NM/AZ
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