Day Seventeen

Woke up in Winslow, Arizona, and what else could we do?

Afterward, we had breakfast in Holbrook at Mr. Maestas diner, one of Rt. 66's kitchy places. It was fun to look around and the huervos rancheros and breakfast burrito were delicious.

Our next (unplanned) stop was an antique shop on Bucket of Blood Street (really!). The owner was a nice guy who liked to talk, but he was interesting enough, too. I found something my mother's going to love : ) and a bracelet for myself. We did not purchase the huge, shellacked $125 animal skull we saw there, even though I thought it would look pretty cool in the living room.

We decided to skip the Petrified Forest National Park, as everyplace we stopped had some and we felt we'd seen enough to fill a forest anyway! We left Arizona behind us and entered New Mexico, where the scenery changed to miles of eye-catching red rock buttes and mesas.

Our next destination was Acoma Pueblo: Sky City, where we'd join a guided tour to the top of a mountain and see some amazingly well-preserved buildings inhabited since 1150 AD. On the way, we stopped to buy an Indian blanket; I tried on some moccasin boots and had an ice cream.

We sped to Sky City, only to find that the last tour had left 5 minutes before we arrived. I blame the boots and ice cream. Here's a long view of what we missed.

Undeterred, we headed off to save the day with a visit to one of Pete's favorite places--a shooting range. At Calibers we killed a couple of zombies and Pete got a free hat to boot.

Here are some interesting rock formations we saw today on our way to Sky City, a typical New Mexican village on a hill, and the road...that all-important part of our journey.

We drove through Albuquerque (where Bugs Bunny always makes a wrong turn) to Tutumcari (you may have heard of it in the Little Feat song, Willing). We have a room at the Blue Swallow Motel, an old Rt. 66 standby with very quaint, homey rooms for just $55 a night, and we ate a yummy Mexican dinner at the PowWow and Lizard Lounge. We had the fried pickles, Tricia!, and they were tasty--can't go wrong in the fryolator, can you?!

Goodnight from Tutumcari. The next few days we'll be packing in the miles, but still looking for fun along the way (like Cadillac Ranch for starters!).