On the road to Santa Fe

September 22, 2008
Santa Fe, NM

On Monday, we left Show Low and headed for Santa Fe. I made a slight change in the route in order to stick with our strategy of avoiding Interstates where practical. Rather than head 30 miles north from Show Low to pick up I-40 in Holbrook, we decided to head east on US-60. This route took us all the way to Socorro, NM, where we took I-25 north, through Albuquerque, to Santa Fe. OK, so we didn't avoid the Interstate altogether, but it was a good choice all the same.

This route took us past the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array radio telescope. There was a convenient rest area right at the site, and it was an opportune time for a rest, so the location was perfect for us. This installation was featured in the movie Contact, one of Geri's favorite sci-fi films.

After our break, it was a smooth ride to Socorro and then north to Santa Fe. We ran into some traffic as we passed through Albuquerque (there's no bypass loop for some reason) but we were early enough to avoid "rush hour". By 4:00, we were parked at our latest "home base", Santa Fe Skies RV Park. This park is about a mile off I-25 (no real highway noise - yea!) and on a small hill about 10 miles south of downtown Santa Fe. That makes it a little breezy but convenient and quiet. We have a nice view of New Mexico's famous sunsets and Santa Fe's nighttime lights from the park. Santa Fe is the state capitol, but there are no tall buildings in the city, so it looks quite different than other medium-sized cities. Our plans call for more exploration during the week.