On the way to Santa Fe

---

Today we drive from Amarillo to Santa Fe(Google Earth), taking a few (intended) detours. One thing that struck me was how perspective dramatically impacts your view on something. I often fly over the mountains (and also Google Earth them) and they almost seem insignificant. However, driving through them is a huge difference from flying. They are far more grand than when they are viewed from the sky. Same thing with clouds. When you're flying at 33,000 feet clouds just kind of pass you by. But when you're driving underneath them they are pretty cool.

Driving to Santa Fe, we took the scenic way between Pecos & Cowles, New Mexico (Google Earth). It was a twisting and turning road, some places almost one lane; one of those roads where if you slipped you'd have a 5,000 foot drop before you hit the canyon floor in certain places. We tried to find the town of Cowles, but it turned out to be just a camp site. So, no food. But there was an out-house which, by that point, we were more than willing to use. Cowles itself was a detour we took on the way to Santa Fe through the Santa Fe National Forest. I think the highest elevation we were at was roughly 11,0000 feet. The Pecos River runs through it and all ages of hikers and fly fisherman were out trying to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Yesterday, on the way to Amarillo, we listened to 2 of Chuck's sermons on the road. Man, that guy can preach. Today we listened to one of his sermons when we drove from Cowles to Santa Fe. Santa Fe itself is basically a big dry city in between 2 mountain ranges. But even though it's an arid climate it's only about 75 degrees, compared with 90+ in Dallas. Feels pretty warm, though, since the sun is shining.

Not sure what we're going to do this evening. We're both a little tired, perhaps it's a Redbull crash. However, tomorrow the plan is to get up early and get down to the Santa Fe plaza which is apparently the "it" place in Santa Fe. Looking forward to it. Might have some good pictures, perhaps of some celebrities (did I mention I'm bringing water balloons?).

One thing that's a bit of a bummer is that the Beartooth pass is closed. At least the nice part of the pass is closed because of an avalanche 2 weeks ago!!! 2 days after leaving Santa Fe, we were going to driving up to Billings, so we could drive into Yellowstone via the Beartooth pass. If you don't know why you'd want to drive that, Google it. However, all's not lost. We might end up taking a slower route up through Colorado and spend a night in the Grand Tetons, which are just south of Yellowstone. I don't remember having been there but I think it will be nice. That would also give us a full 2 days in Yellowstone which would definitely not be a bad thing.

So, check back tomorrow and perhaps we'll have some new pictures for you.

---

Photos

Laurie's Street
Driving towards Amarillo and saw this sign. They got the spelling of the name right and everything.

Hey we're on vacation!
This was the first picture we took when we realized we weren't in Texas any more

We're on vacation! 2
The opposite direction

The Pecos River
See the fly fishers to the left.

Mountains in the distance
Cowles

From a fish pond
This was kind of a neat little idea. There were tons of people fishing in the stream but this was a pond where you had to be either a child or handicapped (meaning you couldn't go to the stream) in order to fish.

Perspective is everything
Look the the sign on the left, about the size of a person. There were thousands of trees like this all over the hillsides.