Road Trip Day 8 - Santa Fe

Its hard to believe we are more than half way through our trip and we've been on the road for a week already!  We are having so much fun I don't want it to end.  But sadly on Saturday we had to move on to our next stop so from Amarillo we drove to Santa Fe on what seemed like an endless stretch of Interstate 40. Some of the landscape was really beautiful but the towns, which were mostly tiny, were very far apart. Many were old mining towns left to fall into ruins after the Santa Fe railroad was completed. We stopped at one of the ghost towns right off the Interstate to take a few photos. It was definitely interesting but kind of depressing to see so many completely abandoned towns. 

In New Mexico, we took the Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway - a stretch of road from Albuquerque to Santa Fe that has some beautiful sights. There was a small town called Madrid along the byway that had been an old mining town during the building of the railroad but has since turned into an artist haven and was featured in a Will Ferrel movie called Wild Hogs though I haven't it.  We didn't have a lot of time to look around but there we some nice galleries and shops selling local arts so it worth a visit if you are in town for more than a day. 

Once we got to Santa Fe we went to the plaza at the center of downtown and hit up some Food Network recommendations for dinner and drinks. Our first stop was the Dragon Room at the Pink Adobe for a drink. The Pink Adobe is located in a historic part of Santa Fe across the street from the San Miguel Mission, which is said to be the oldest church in the US. The restaurant is in 300 year-old house and the Dragon Room is in a separate structure across from the restaurant that looks a little like a barn with trees growing through the roof - its really cool.  I decided to try the Pink Dragon margarita made with prickly pear juice and it was a bright shade of pink!

For dinner after our margaritas we went to this restaurant called The Shed in the center of the Plaza  famous for its red chile sauce. It's apparently very popular because we had to wait an hour to be seated but the food was delicious and definitely worth the wait.  Dave ordered the red chile but it was too spicy for me to have more than just a taste

Elvis seemed to like the southwestern themed hotel we stayed in too!  Our ext stop is the Grand Canyon and then finally Las Vegas so stay tuned for more updates soon!