On the Camino Real

 

We spend some time last night planning out our next few days. We’re trying to time it right so we end up in Last Vegas on the 21^st and balance the days so none are too long or too short and we can find a place to stay.  Finding a non-chain hotel that doesn’t look like the Bates Motel is not always easy.  I have to hand it to Sue who has done most of the planning this trip as well as the real-time navigation during the day.  We’re doing 2400 miles from Chicago, and there aren’t too many stretches that are more than 10 or 15 miles, so Sue has to navigate a lot of turns…it’s pretty much a continuous job during the drive.

We had some nice breakfast crepes a pastry shop attached to the hotel this morning. Then we went to visit the Loretto Chapel that’s a block behind our hotel with this fabulous staircase. The chapel contains the “Miraculous Staircase”, the legend of which is better related by Wikipedia than by me: Loretto Chapel - Wikipedia.  I can tell you though that the staircase really is a beautiful piece of workmanship and a sight to behold.

The Miraculous Staircase

Loretto Chapel

Leaving Santa Fe, Rt66 follows the route of the Camino Real de Tierra Adento, which from the about 1598 through 1882 was used by the Spanish colonial government to connect Mexico City to Santa Fe.

We drove through Albuquerque and stopped for refreshments at a craft brewery before moving on. We decided to not stop at any of the recommended sights in Albuquerque. Most of them are museums, and as Sue said, by this point we’re pretty much museumed-out.

Madonna of the Trail in Albuquerque: One of several statues memorializing pioneer women

The drive from Albuquerque was fairly unremarkable except for the open expanse and the beautiful mesas and vistas.  The trip brought us through several Indian reservations and pueblos. Our guide books advise us that taking photos at native pueblos is frowned upon without permission or a permit, and we saw a few signs at the entries to the pueblos that said as much. As we drive through these small villages in the middle of nowhere, we always ask ourselves, what do these people do all the way out here in the middle of nowhere to earn a living? There’s no farming and limited cattle raising and zero industry.  The answer is probably “not much” because the poverty rate seems quite high. Most villages are collections of tumble-down adobe brick houses, old single-wides and caved in ruins.

typical beautiful New Mexico vista

"Owl Rock", lava formation between Albuquerque and Grants

Many old homesteads are in ruins

We arrived in Grants NM, our next stop.  Sticking to the “no chain hotel” challenge we set for ourselves has become a challenge. So many of the mom-and-pop motels have closed down in the last few years and the ones that do stay open, Like the Sands Motel in Grants are a little sketchy.

The Sands Motel in Grants. One guidebook we read claimed Elvis slept here.  If he did, it must have been during his down-and-out phase. Maybe he thought he was being booked in the Sands Casino