Desert driving toward a night in a Wigwam!

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An earlyish start in Santa Fe included enjoying a continental breakfast (bagels and coffee) at the Silver Saddle Motel. We then took a sidetrip up to a jewelry designers studio in the hills surriunding the city. She specialised in turning tiny model people and animals into various pieces. Ellie is now the proud owner of some earings bearing swimmers being chased by a shark!

In a garage on the outskirts of Santa Fe we found a "gas" station (petrol station) which amongst it's selection of groceries had hard cider (normal cider really, but americans seem to think cider is apple juice, if you want alcoholic cider you have to look for the hard stuff) as well as locally brewed Santa Fe pale ale.

Then followed several hours of driving through hills, mountains and desert, through Albequerque, over the Rio Grande and into Holbrook, Arizona. Holbrook is home to one of two surviving Wigwam motels on Route 66. They were the inspiration for the traffic cone motel in the film Cars.

Sleeping in a concrete wigwam is surprisingly comfortable, and with a good BBQ restaurant down the road, it was an ideal stop for the night.

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