Day 6 - Do you Know the Way to Santa Fe?

This morning started off with Shale making a trip over to Home Depot in Albuquerque - I am serious.  As cool as our Airstream is, there are definitely some things about it that we would change if we could.  In short, one of the cabinet doors in the kitchen area fell off because the screws used to hold it in place in PARTICLE BOARD, were too short.  Don't even get me started....besides the A/C (which is still working nicely) there have been a few things that we have had to "fix" but this cabinet thing was the first that caused a trip for parts.  Ok, I am done now.

On to Santa Fe!  For those of you that may not know, Santa Fe is north of Albuquerque by about 60 miles or so and is on Route 66 (the "Pre-1937" Route 66) which loops all the way up and then comes back down to join up with the "Post-1937" Route 66.  I know this makes no sense and trust me, my handy dandy navigation book doesn't make it any better.  A picture in this case 
says a thousand words...

I REALLY don't know what the "Pre-1937" travelers were thinking!  Why they would make the nutty trek all the way north to Santa Fe and come all the way back down south to Los Lunas (remember, they were traveling E-W) and then continue their journey west is crazy!   The "Post-1937" travelers were obviously were a little smarter!  Oh if you could only see the other 28 pages of navigational Hell dedicated to New Mexico alone!!

So, Santa Fe.  We could only park the rig for three hours so we had 
to spend our time wisely.  Of course, we went to eat first.  There 
was a wait so we walked up and down a couple of the streets to 
check things out a bit.  Art, art, art, more art, jewelry, jewelry, and more jewelry with a few intermittent spottings of clothes and sight seeing souvenirs.  Surely there was more to this that what we were seeing so we decided to make it back to the restaurant and venture out for more later.  Lunch was good but by the time we were done, we only had an hour left to continue our walk around.
We took a few pictures and then went into the Loretto Chapel which houses the famous "Miraculous Staircase".  Now this, was much better than walking around.  

Both Shale and I, are lovers of good design and architecture and this so-called Miraculous Staircase was very interesting! Here is the quick version of the staircases' construction which is why is is so miraculous......
In 1872 the Loretto Chapel was designed by French architect Antoine Mouly.  It was to resemble on a much smaller scale, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, France.  Construction of the Chapel itself 

was almost complete when the architect died.  The builders realized 
that there was no staircase in the plans to get up to the choir loft at the back of the chapel.  The Sisters of Loretto that were to take care of the Chapel prayed for nine straight days for St. Josephs intercession and an answer to this dilemma.  On the tenth day, a disheveled stranger showed up a the door and he told the nuns he was there to build them a staircase.  He locked himself in the chapel for three months to work.  The only tools he used were a saw, a square a bucket that he filled with warm water and non-native wood.  As soon as the staircase was finished, the carpenter was gone.  He left before the nuns could pay him for his work. His identity is still unknown.  Many feel that this staircase was constructed by St. Joseph himself.  Details of the staircase:  It ascends 20' making two complete revolutions up to the choir loft.  There are 33 steps (the age of Jesus Christ when he died). No nails were used, no glue was used; only dowels and square wooden pegs and there is no center support.  The stairs were not attached to the 
wall. Ten years after the staircase was built, the Sisters of Loretto had a railing added for safety.  Very, very interesting.

Loretto Chapel - Santa Fe, NM
The center photo was taken prior to the railing being installed

Old town Santa Fe
"You have a face como un burro" - Gru

I am sure one could spend a lot of time in Santa Fe but we will have to do that another time...we were back on the road.  Based on the poor condition of Route 66 from Santa Fe to Santa Rosa, we were going to have to make part of our journey on alternate roads. From Santa Fe to Tecolote, Route 66 lies on top of the historic Santa Fe Trail which was used between 1821 and 1880 as both an international commercial highway used by Mexican and American traders and a commercial highway connecting Missouri and 

Santa Fe, NM.  The road is rough and long.  The farther east we got, the darker the sky got.  We watched lightning over the hills for a while as we got closer and closer.  Just as it looked like we were going to drive right into this electric storm, the road turned south - relief.  I think everyone in the car was a little worried!  Nothing like driving a huge tin can into a lightning storm - I don't really want to think about the outcome. I caught the below photo 
on my phone as we drove towards the storm! 

"Holy mumbo-jumbo....that was humongo! " - Shale's exact words as we drove into this 

As much as we all wanted to press on a little more east so we were closer to Texas in the morning, Santa Rosa seemed like the best place to stop for the night.  It was early evening when we arrived so we had plenty of time to set up camp....before the storm hit!  Yes, unannounced and to everyone's surprise, we were now in the middle of what possibly was going to become a tornado - no, I am NOT kidding you.  The owner of the RV park just happens to be one of the two people trained in "tornado watch" in the area.  He was on his radio, the rain was pouring down and the wind was unbelievable.    The storm was coming from the west and it was coming fast.  While all this is happening, we are at the tiny restaurant on the property which has a patio outside and all of us were on the tables watching this thing happen right in front of us.  The owner, Chris, says to us, "Ok, now...if anything is to come of this; the four of you need to get into the bathroom stalls, duck, cover your head and your neck and hold on".  WHAT?!!!!  Is this guy serious?  I started to sweat immediately.  He goes on, "Don't huddle all together.  Robin, you and your daughter get together and Shale you take your son."  More sweat.  I think this is for real!  As the storm beats down, we try to stay calm while we eat.  We got back to the trailer without too much of a problem.  Our plan was to watch a movie this evening.  I thought perhaps it would be a good idea to come up with a family emergency plan just in case, as Chris had said earlier, "If anything is to come of this...".  We all gathered items to grab if we needed to get out quick and take cover in the earlier explained "huddle" position in the restrooms.

Our trailer swayed with the howling wind, the sky lit up all around us and the rain came down as we sat huddled together eating popcorn and watching our movie.  

By the time our movie ended, the weather had subsided a bit.  No more rain, the wind had died down and we could see the sky flashing on and off in the distance.  I think I am going to actually get some sleep.  

Between today's navigating nightmare and the stress of wondering if we are going to be sucked up in a twister like Dorothy and Toto, I am exhausted.  I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us, until then.....good night.

The view from our back trailer window.  Sun going down in the west, 

rain beating down on us and the sky was beautiful.