Day 9: June 21, 2011

Driving to Roswell

2:20 pm

84 degrees F

Writing on June 22, 2011

Just a thank you for all the great comments and road trip support! We love you guys!

Day 9 was mostly a driving day, complete with monotonous roads and lots of mirages. We crossed into New Mexico, traveling into a state neither of us had ever been to before. I have so been looking forward to New Mexico, with its art, jewelry and gorgeous buildings. I have this really idealized vision of the southwest—probably stemming from childhood trips we to Arizona and Palm Springs. I just want to lie out in the desert like a lizard with Native American flute playing in the background. And you know what? Santa Fe did NOT disappoint. But we’ll get to that in a bit.

Here are a few pictures from Colorado Springs right before we left

I looked away for five seconds, and PJ had nestled into our sleeping bag quite nicely.
Below Pike's Peak

I drove for a while down the long, straight desert road to Santa Fe. You really do become mesmerized by the unending sameness of the highway. I felt my eyes getting a little bleary even though it was the middle of a bright summer day. Teddy knew I needed to eat something, so we decided to pull over to the side of the road, lay out the tarp and have a serious picnic. Somewhere near Maxwell, NM, with little jumping bugs and spiky grass burs all around us, we snacked on our leftover pho and elk risotto. It was all very rustic, indeed.

We got to Santa Fe at about 5 pm and drove straight into the first traffic of the roadyssey. Teddy lucked out on a beautiful hotel through Priceline. The Lodge at Santa Fe was exactly what I’ve always wanted out of the southwest! The hotel was built in the pueblo style, with adobe walls, wooden overhangs and crawling desert vines. The room was so relaxing and was decorated beautifully. Thank goodness for the pool—we needed a cool soak.

We had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant and had our first, intense taste of southwest Texmex. I ordered the Indian taco with both green and red chile. Apparently, everything about southwest Mexican food is the “chile”. They get them from local farms and grind them into terrifyingly spicy sauces. My dish was delicious, but unfortunately, practically inedible. Teddy took a whack at it and didn’t think it was overly spicy, while I sat there with an ice cube to my lips. The best part about the meal was the sopaipillos (I think I’ve gotten that right)—these triangles of fried pastry that you eat with honey. Amazing.