Days 9 and 10 - Amarillo TX and Santa Fe NM

Two busy days!!! Yesterday was Amarillo, TX. Today, Santa Fe, NM.

On the way from OKC to Amarillo, we stopped just on the east side of Amarillo at a Huge cross which also had twelve stations of the cross. The weather was threatening so it was a quick stop.

After arriving in Amarillo we grabbed a snack at a local restaurant then around 6:00 headed toward Palo Duro Canyon, 30-40 minutes out of Amarillo. Storms were in the area but the forecast said it would be clearing by 7:00. On the drive to the canyon we saw a rainbow in the distance. Everything is so flat in Texas (and even flatter in NM) that you could look behind you and see yesterday and in front of you into tomorrow, or so it seems. The rainbow didn't fade and we inched our way closer and closer to it. Finally I said to Linda, "we might even find the end of this rainbow." A few seconds later we were actually INside the rainbow itself. It ended in the road. We were surrounded by the brilliant colors of the rainbow. It was an errie feeling but one of the neatest things I've experienced. We're still looking for that pot of gold though. Linda thinks it might be under the hood of the car.

The outdoor drama, "Texas" was about 1000 feet at the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon, a steep 10% grade drive. Beautiful beautiful surroundings and a wonderful night of entertainment. We had signed up for the steak dinner before the play and it was actually pretty good. I think I've eaten my yearly quoto of red meat the past ten days. Barbeque or ribs practically everywhere we've been, though tonight in Santa Fe I finally had chicken!!!!

The drive from Amarillo to Santa Fe was amazing, at least to me. I've never seen landscape like what I saw today. Miles and miles of road that you can see in the distance ... so flat you think you're going to run off the edge of the earth. Once into NM the mesas were abundant. We both agree though that Virginia and Tennessee are the prettiest states we've seen.

Just outside of Amarillo, we saw the 10 cadillacs buried in the ground. Pretty amazing. And so many places along the way saw Wind Farms (groups of wind turbines).

We got into Santa Fe and streets were blocked off in the downtown area due to an arts festival. It took a bit of tricky maneuvering to get to the hotel. We're staying at the La Fonda on the Plaza, which is one of the historic hotels of America (if you have the book Historic Hotels of America, check it out on page 133). Like all the buildings in Santa Fe, it seems, it is made in the pueblo style of architecture.

After getting settled we walked around Santa Fe and the arts festivals. Lots of handmade crafts, many made by the local indians. Beautiful jewelry and garments. We're both tired tonight.

We were just getting use to Central Time and today crossed into Mountain time (two hours behind our Eastern time). We've been waking up around 6:00 so we'll probably be up at 5:00 (Mountain time) tomorrow.

Tomorrow is an overnight stop at Flagstaff, AZ and Tuesday .... Tuesday, the Grand Canyon!!!!!