Day 3 - Thelma and Louise Notes From the Road

Day 3 dawned bright and beautiful with blue skies over Albuquerque. We had breakfast at this funky little diner right next to our hotel called the Owl Cafe and I'm going to count that as our first site seen of the day. Located on Route 66, it has that same retro feel as we found in Amarillo. There was an old time juke box when you walked in and even little mini juke boxes all along the counter. The owl motif was carried all through the decor and it was just fun. And even better, the food was great!

Since we had nothing planned to see in ABQ (the hot air balloon festival is in October) we set out for Santa Fe right after breakfast. The drive was only an hour and we were parking near the Santa Fe Plaza in no time. Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, the Plaza is the heart and soul of the city. It is a gathering spot for residents and tourists alike. 

We put money in the meter and set an alarm on my phone so we could come back and feed the meter if we needed more time and off we went. There are many darling boutiques and restaurants along the streets so we spent some time window shopping and then headed to the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in the heart of the square. Unfortunately for us and a bereft family there was a funeral going on so we didn't go inside.

There is also a large park in the center of the plaza and it is surrounded by artists and artisans selling their wares on blankets. We looked a bit, bought a few treasures and eventually headed back to the car.  Even though there was still time on the meter, there was a ticket on the windshield. We were so concerned with the meter to the rear that we neglected to see the loading zone sign in front of us.  Oops! Nancy never really lets things bother her too much and this was just another incident on the great Thelma and Louise road trip!

From Santa Fe we headed to Taos which is only an hour and a half away. The plan was to visit a pueblo and then go somewhere to hike. We made our way to the Taos Pueblo first. It is a living Native American community. It's multi storied adobe buildings have been continuously inhabited for over 1000 years. It is fascinating to see and has been designated both a World Heritage Site and a National Historic Landmark. It is also quite large, covering 99,000 acres.

As you can see in the photo of the church yard, a storm beset us just as we were leaving the pueblo. We raced to the car just in the nick of time before the heavens opened up - which made the hike we were planning a no go. We recovered nicely by heading into town and shopping!

Planning to spend the night in Utah (remember power site seeing) we began to head that way. The skies cleared and we were once again cruising, top down along the scenic New Mexico highways. Nancy spotted one first and then mentioned to me that the cow crossing signs looked as if the cows were wearing sombreros that were blowing away. Thinking she may need a break from driving, I started looking and lo and behold, she wasn't crazy. Only they weren't sombreros, they were UFOs hovering over the cows! I kid you not. After all, we were in NM home of area 51 and Roswell.

We had to go from 80 mph to a dead stop to get this photo but hey, it was worth it! According to a friend of Nancy's who is a local the signs are meant to mean danger of imminent alien abduction - for the cows, I hope!

Continuing on, the next item of note was the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. The gorge was indeed impressive at 650 feet below the bridge but what really got to me were the suicide prevention hotline phones placed at both ends of the bridge and in all the lookout areas.
 

Motoring on we could see that we were likely going to get a great sunset that evening. At the point where it seemed we should stop to snap a photo we came upon this random road that took us to the most perfect overlook. We jumped out to take pics and realized it was really cold! We had been driving with the top down, heat on full blast and our butt warmers on. It was 48 degrees outside and we were in shorts and tank tops! Luckily Nancy had brought us Thelma and Louise 2019 Tribute Tour fleece jackets (photos on another day) which we thought we would not be needing at all on my portion of the trip. Earlier that day we had been cruising in the high 80s. We tore into the car looking for the jackets, put them on and still shivering we stuck it out and took some great shots. When we turned to go back to the car we realized that as the sun was setting, the moon was simultaneously rising. More great photos! A bonanza!!

At some point we entered Colorado and stopped at a little place called Kip's Grill in Pagosa Springs for dinner.. Even though we were beat, we powered on - driving four more hours to Monticello, Utah where we spent the night.  Day 3 was long - but awesome!

Some things I learned on day 3:

• the sky is really big out here
• the clouds are really amazing
• it is perfectly acceptable to drive top down with the heat on AND with the butt warmers on!

Thanks for reading along. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see what day 4 holds - and here's a little teaser - its not what you expect!