Cuba NM to Santa Fe NM

Sunday October 9, 2016

One thing the Frontier Motel did not have was breakfast – however there was a McDonalds connected to the gas station where we bought gas - so a McMuffin it was.  Then we headed on south. The weather was not great as it had rained in the night.  Clouds hung heave as we drove the 72 miles to I 25 where we would headed north to Santa Fe.  

Clouds hanging low

 When we arrived in Santa Fe we searched for the visitor center hoping to get a map as New Mexico was the only state we had requested information from pre-trip that did not send a map…well finally we gave up and headed to our Hotel hoping to get some information to begin our explorations.

The Sage Inn of Santa Fe turned out to be near downtown but not on the Plaza – which was what we had planned.  It was of course too early to check in but – they have an hourly “shuttle” to the Plaza so we parked the Sprinter and hopped on the shuttle.  We were on the Plaza in time to eat lunch at the Café on the Plaza.  Had a great bowl of soup to fortify us for our next few hours! 

We took a once around the square approach and looked at lots of beautiful jewelry, rugs, western wear, Indian crafts, and more.  One shop had some very interesting old pawn Navajo jewelry and Ben began talking to the store owner.  It appears he had lived most of his life in Knoxville and Nashville. They both knew some of the same people in the construction business in Kingsport – small world.  We could each have easily spent $10,000 and I imagine much more with little trouble.   Then we enjoyed browsing and talking to the Indian craftsmen and women who were displaying their wares under the Palace of the Governors.  This is always fun and Ben loves to talk technique with them and get ideas for things he can craft for sale at the Holston Mountain Artisans in Abingdon.

La Fonda - one of the original hotels in Santa Fe - we stayed there on our first trip to Santa Fe

Throngs of people on the square

Ben shopping and learning

One of musicians that entertained the crowd

We then enjoyed about a hour in the New Mexico Museum.  Their exhibits cover the history of the state from early Spanish explorers, through the western expansion of the US, the history of the Harvey Restaurants along with the railroads, the events of WW2 and the role of New Mexico , Route 66 and the hippie culture that evidently played a role in New Mexico as well.  

This one surprised me - the silver used at one of the Harvey House hotels in Southwest

There was one huge exhibit tracking the history of the Catholic and Jewish religions in Mexico and New Mexico and their struggles. It was way too deep for me and will require a bit of study on return home. 

We returned to the “pick-up”   site and soon the shuttle picked us up for a quick return to the Sage Inn.  This is going to prove a great benefit. 

We got checked in and found our room to be quite nice – I trust Trip Advisor but one never knows – one night is one thing but we plan to be here 3 nights.  Tired and needing to be finished with dinner to watch the Presidential Debate tonight we ate close to home.  In the De Rail Yard at the Hotel – really a sort of pub but the food was good.  A special treat was a beautiful rainbow right outside the window as we ate dinner. 

Our home at Sage Inn 

One end of rainbow we saw during dinner

Watched the debate – since we have been fairly uninvolved with TV news the past while it was interesting.  I wish they would stick to the important issues instead of cutting each other down…of course there is so much fuel I guess they just can’t stick to the issues.

Caught up on writing the blog but will need to work on posting tomorrow.  Afraid my photo taking has not been too good the last couple days!