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7300 miles of fun! Scroll down this page the click "next" for the next page or click a page below to skip around.
Memorial Day Weekend at Marshy Point on the Chesapeake
Minnesota and the road home, including Las Vegas!
Jack's and Lorri's Road Trip, Page 2
Well, this is really Page 1 of our road trip. Our plan was to head across the middle of the country, more or less, with camping along the way and hotel stays in Santa Fe, NM, and in the Louisville/Lexington area of Kentucky, taking bout two weeks to get to my brother's place in Williamsburg, VA.
On this page:
April 23 - Majave National Preserve, CA
Desert Diamond Distillery
Route 66
April 24 - Kaibab National Forest, AZ
Standing on a Corner in Winslow
Gallup, NM
April 25 - Bluewater State Park, NM
Casa Rondena Winery, Albuquerque
April 26 & 27 - Santa Fe, NM
Georgia O'Keeffe
Santa Fe Spirits
The High Road to Taos
April 28 - Taos, NM
We left San Diego on Thursday, April 23, and headed east ultimate destination only a few thousand miles away.
As we drove up I-15 and then across I-40 we noticed an awful lot of Harleys headed our direction. We checked with Siri and, sure enough, this was bike week in Laughlin!
For our first night out, we found a great place to set up camp in the Mojave National Preserve, 40 or 50 miles east of Needles, CA.
No one around, about a half mile from the road and FREE!
It was a little breezy but otherwise perfect.
Not very crowded at all...
It looked like there was some rain off in the distance, but it didn't get to us.
We brought the selfie stick!
Our traveled route on day 1
Cocktails to celebrate our successful beginning of our voyage.
The next morning, not a cloud in the sky.
It could have been a little clearer, though.
We first stopped in Kingman, AZ, to visit the Route 66 visitor center and museum.
Looks like it was still a little breezy.
This is it, the "Powerhouse Visitor Center"
At the Visitor Center we learned that a few miles down Route 66 there was a distillery, and of course we had to check it out.
This is what a state of the art small distillery looks like. According to the owner, it's totally computer controlled, even down to the cleaning of the tanks. Hmmm. I hope the computer doesn't crash, or get a worm. Maybe if it got a worm they could make tequila!
Desert Diamond Distillery
Most of Route 66 in Arizona looks like this. Yawn.
...or this. Yawn.
Kaibab
Night number 2. We found a secluded spot in Kaibab National Forest in a "dispersed" camping site, again, free camping!
It was a little rainy so we stayed inside.
Day 2 travels
It got a little chilly during the night! Good thing we have a heater which we turn on in the morning to take the chill off.
Here is the world famous Sultana Bar in Seligman, AZ. We didn't stop.
Next stop, Winslow.
I've been trying to figure out how this "sculpture" relates to the song.
Here we are with Jackson Browne.
Such a fine sight to see...
It's a girl, my lord, in a flat bed Ford!
Slowing down to blah, blah, blah...
We stopped in Gallup, NM, for lunch at this place, which had an amazing collection of sports memorabilia. How it all got to Gallup, I could never guess.
I took a poll and nobody has ever heard of Gallup.
I took this photo to show how picturesque Gallup is.
The cost of camping is going up! This site was $10!
Bluewater
We had the Bluewater Lake State Park campground pretty much to ourselves.
The water level was very low. It sort of reminded me of home.
See that camp site there just below ours? That's where somebody parked their El Monte Rental later that evening. sort of ruining our lake view. Oh well.
Putting the selfie stick to good use.
You can see that rental to the right, so it didn't totally wreck our view.
This is what we woke up to the next morning. That's the spare tire outside the back window with SNOW on it!
It was another chilly morning. The top temperature is inside. Like I said, glad we have the heater.
The route to Santa Fe
The Casa Rondena Winery, Albuquerque, NM
As far as I know there is no "Breaking Bad" museum in ABQ (yet) so we settled on a wine tasting at this place.
Although it looks like an ancient Tuscan villa, it was all built within the last 15 or 20 years and most of their grapes come from the area near Deming, in southern NM.
New though it may be, it's a pretty place.
You must join their wine club to have access to this part of the estate. No, we did not join.
At Albuquerque, we left I-40 and headed up I-25 toward Santa Fe. This is what we ran into. Hail.
Santa Fe
But, by the time we got to Santa Fe, the weather had cleared a little and we checked into our "hotel".
The room was nice, a king suite, but the hotel was an old-time motor court that has been refurbished and updated, mostly.
Our living room.
A building in Santa Fe
We visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and really enjoyed it.
She was a very talented and purposeful lady.
She painted what she wanted to paint and didn't care too much what others thought about it.
There are about a zillion photos of her taken by her photographer husband, but this one is by Ansel Adams who was a friend of hers.
A good show!
Looks sort of like a rather docile Penn State Nittany Lion.
That rabbit looks like he is up to no good.
Mostly Native Americans selling hand made jewelry and the like on the main plaza.
What does this sculpture mean? I don't know but we bought it for our back yard. Just kidding.
I forgot to bring my tomahawk.
We ate here. I had the green chili potato pork soup. It was HOT!
The Shed
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
The first Native American saint. She was no Pocahontas I bet.
24 short years old.
The interior.
The structure dates from the late 1800'sbut the congregation was established in 1610 and the first church was built that year.
I like the guy with the guitar in the upper left.
This place was around the corner from our hotel and we enjoyed cocktails at the bar.
We learned about Santa Fe Spirits at Secreto and the next day we went to their tasting room.
It was a nice cozy little place. We enjoyed the tasting so much that we also stayed for a cocktail!
Here are our cocktails!
Dinner on Monday was at Fire & Hops, a gastro pub a few blocks from the Plaza.
It was good too. The crispy brusells sprouts were the best we've had.
On Tuesday, April 17, we took "the high road" to Taos, a scenic drive through the back country.
There was still a bit of snow on the higher peaks.
I can see my arm in my sunglasses and Lorri's too!
Taos
Our "hotel" in Taos. Yup, it's another old motel, but it was cheap and spacious with easy access.
Easy access to the "Santa Fe Casitas" wing
Our casita
The rest of our casita
Taos Ale House was right down the street, so we stopped in for a refreshment.
Taos is sort of like a mini Santa Fe. This is the main plaza
Southwest shopping
Hmmm.
At least we were finally getting some good weather
Jackies!
Just off the Plaza
Dinner at our casita
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