The New Mexico trip began bright and EARLY on Saturday, August 8th. Once again we had one of those stupid flights that left before the sun came up and that meant getting up at 3:30am to get to the airport in time.
Lucky for us.....our boarding passes said TSA PRECHECK (that means you don't have to go through the regular screening and don't have to take shoes off or all that other crap and you get to go in a special shorter line).
We boarded our plane and crossed our fingers. We were once again flying American.....and we haven't had good luck getting anywhere on time with them without a bunch of delays. And secondly, we were flying to Albuquerque.....where we also seem to have a problem getting there without delays (no matter what airline it is).
The tickets for this trip were purchased with accumulated airline miles.....so we paid a grand total of $12 for our two round trip tickets. That my friends.....is the way to fly!
Plane took off on time and we had a short layover in Dallas. Grabbed a bagel in the Dallas airport to hold us over until lunch time in Santa Fe.
The husband kept himself amused on the flight from Dallas to Albuquerque doing a book of puzzles that he bought in Dallas airport.....I amused myself with mindless TV with the free stuff on the screen in front of me.
We got to the Albuquerque airport and picked up our rental car. We knew we needed an SUV because this trip was going to be LOTS of driving. We picked out a KIA Sorrento (an awesome choice) and headed north to Santa Fe.
On the highway to Santa Fe.....we saw about 50 of these little Spyders on a road trip....I'll have to send my friend Greg these pictures since he's an avid rider of these.
Once we arrived in Santa Fe.....we loaded up the kids suitcases and it was off to lunch before we hit the highway. Aaron had pre-selected a restaurant in the Santa Fe Plaza.
Del Charro it was.....and we enjoyed a nice Mexican lunch on the patio in this gorgeous New Mexico weather. We're glad we were here.....the forecast for Houston that day was 110 degrees.....yuck!
After eating our lunch.....it was time to hit the highway. Our final destination was going to be Chama, New Mexico......but we were taking the long and scenic journey to get there. This was our awesome view on the way to the Gorge.
We made it to the Gorge Bridge (even though Aaron was driving) and learned that this bridge is a place where the most people jump off to commit suicide (that's sad). They have this little crisis hotline box on both sides of the bridge just in case you want to talk to someone before you make that bad decision.
The view was magnificient!
It was really breezy way up there.....but we had to have a picture!
And we had to have a picture of these two kids!
And of course we had to ask a passerby if he could take a picture of the 4 of us!
The next stop on this journey was Red River, New Mexico. Reminded me a lot of Mount Lemmon in Tucson. A nice little mountain town that Aaron and Shay had spent some time there last year on her birthday.
We spent some time in the gift shops, art shops, and just walking along the streets enjoying the beautiful scenery and enjoying that cool mountain air.
And of course, I always need to take a picture with my favorite guy!
What a beautiful place this was and the weather was fantastic!
Our final destination for the day was going to be Chama, New Mexico....where we would be taking the train the next day. So we headed back on the road and continued on the journey.
Along the way, we were all on the lookout for animals. We got lucky and found a small group of Elk. We pulled into Chama and was introduced to the world of Chama Days. We had a hard time getting a room in this tiny town because of their once a year festival. Lucky for us.....I had booked it early and so we pulled into our 5 star (well not quite) motel.....the Branding Iron Motel.
It was a perfect small town old-time motel that I remember from my childhood.
It was quiet, clean, and perfect for our overnight stay in Chama. No.....we did not share a room with Aaron and Shay.....they were two doors down from us.
The owner of the motel told us all about what was going on in Chama that night for Chama Days....and lucky for us the Branding Iron seemed to be right where all the action was.
But......our first stop was dinner. We drove about 3 minutes down the road and found this restaurant.
Aaron and Paul feasted on chicken fried steak and Shay and I feasted on something, but I can't even remember what it was. The only thing I do remember is that Paul found a piece of glass in his salad.....so they ended up giving him his dinner for free.
After leaving the restaurant....we parked back at the motel and checked out some of the activities going on. There was live music in the tent next to the motel and an all night softball game. We went and hung out at the softball game for awhile and then decided we were just too tired and needed to get some sleep.
Tomorrow is the train ride!
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