Return to Colorado

Had our breakfast buffet again, packed up stuff and went on a little walk around Santa Fe Plaza area.  Was literally freezing with a biting wind, so didn’t stay out long!  No blizzard today.

360 miles to cover, but didn’t leave until 11am.  Stopped in Las Vegas (New Mexico) for some snack attack and essential exclusive game purchase in WalMart. Drove through some of the old town with it’s cute little houses.

The road follows a chunk of the Santa Fe Trail which was a main trading route in the latter half of the 19th century.  Saw antelope, buffalo, eagles, deer but sadly no bears or mountain lions.

Driving past Colorado Springs, saw Cheyenne Mountain, were the NORAD headquarters is – seen Wargames?  This is the big place built into the mountain that (in the film it has those big screens, but it real life it’s not supposed to be that impressive).

Sun was setting by the time we checked in at the motel in Manitou Springs.  Seems like a really nice little mountain town!  Back at over 6000ft so got that old altitude knackeredness again.

Watched Rocky III on the TV as we needed to relax before we went for food.

Dinner at the Stagecoach Inn.  Really nice service but the food was shocking. Styrofoam steak for Tracey and horrible cod for me.  Tracey got inside the real stagecoach outside.

Watched The Office on NBC, YAY!

 

Santa Fe, NM

Our room here at the Inn of the Governors has an open wood burning fire, so decided to stay in and watch the presidential election coverage!  Being at 7000ft in elevation and a cold front moving in, the fire was very welcome, and always good fun!

The election results came in quickly and the foregone conclusion came about far too quickly for my liking – I wanted a drawn out battle to keep me entertained until the early hours!  Oh well.

Had a nice breakfast from the help-yourself buffet downstairs. Walked around a bit, checked out some local malls.  Got caught in a small blizzard….

Taking it easy today, had a little siesta as all the walking around and altitude took it out of us!  Nice to relax and stay in one place for a day, although we haven’t seen as much of Santa Fe as we probably should!

 

Heading North

Seemed quite nice to leave Texas.  Stopped off for a very quick Macdonald’s breakfast (bad I know, but convenient at this time) and saw a couple getting married guidance in the restaurant!

Back in New Mexico, we were heading north this time, away from the dreaded Mexican border!  About 360 miles had to be covered today so cruised along at about 80. 

Stopped for gas and supplies in Hatch, the self-proclaimed Chile (sp) Capitol of the World!  There are a lot of chilies here and they even have them drying out on the roofs of the stores.  Past cotton fields and buffalo.

Passed not far from the Trinity test site (where the first atomic bomb was detonated – I know… nuke obsessed!) and the place where the huge dishes point to the sky (you might have seen them in Contact movie or other thing on TV – Very Large Array is what it is called.

Saw more eagles and hawks (falcons?) flying around as we have done on the whole trip.  Loads of coyote roadkill litter the hard shoulder.

Passed through Albuquerque and headed off route up the Turquoise Trail.  All very pretty and made a nice change to be off highways.  Stopped at Tinkertown but it was closed for the season.  Madrid was very strange and we didn’t stop here.  We tend to get a little scared now of these ‘art’ communities, such as here and Chloride, AZ.  We saw a deserted coach which kinda freaked me out. Reminded me of the bus the Mansons lived in for a while.

Arrived in Santa Fe in good time.  Pretty cold here!

 

Juarez, Mexico

The border crossing was only a few blocks from the hotel, but to get there we had to walk along a street lined with Mexican (what looked like) pound shops and we thought we might have crossed the border already.

The Santa Fe bridge was the crossing we had chosen (as suggested by others), paid our 30c and walked along the covered walkway.  At the Mexican end, we just walked past 3 armed guards…  Didn’t even have to show our passports!

We walked about 3 blocks into Mexico itself.  Found it to be a complete hole, turned around and walked straight back.

Queued for 15 mins at US border, showed our passports this time and went straight back to the hotel. Job done!

 

Across The South

Loooong drive today (about 360 miles) across the south to Texas.  Stopped off at ‘The Thing’ service stop.  This is one of those places that has signs over 200 miles back along the highway (I kid you not) saying stuff like ‘Don’t miss The Thing… Only 258 miles…’.  Won’t give away what ‘The Thing’ actually was, but they had mad stuff like a life-sized torture scene carved from wood and a Rolls Royce perturbed to be used by Adolf Hitler at one point.

Crossed the Continental Divide again, this time on more flat ground…

Driving, driving, driving along the same highway for over 300 miles!  We passed through New Mexico and into Texas.  Thought gas would be cheaper in Texas but thought wrong.

El Paso is not far over the border so quickly found our hotel which was (fairly) swank. Checked in, dumped our bags and headed out the door ready for our jaunt to Mexico….

 

Tuscon and Beyond

Actually staying here for 2 nights so didn’t have to worry about packing up and leaving so quickly (makes a change).  Still got up fairly early though and got breakfast in the hotel.  Kind of a get yourself what you want so we had some eggs, pasties and juice.

Drove the 60 miles back north to Tucson and attempted to find the Titan Missile Museum (the only underground nuclear missile silo open to the public).  I put the wrong end of the road into the sat nav and we were directed down some dirt tracks, eventuallytrying to get onto a dried up riverbed that was chained shut!!  Eventually worked out that we didn’t need to drive through a working mine and found the museum eventually.

Museum was very interesting (especially as I am some bizarre nuke freak) but spoiled a little by a family of trailer trash.  Didn’t buy any nuke memorabilia today.

Took a little detour on the way back to check out the ‘boneyard’ at Davis-Monthan airforce base.  This is one of the main places where the US Air Force sends out of commission palnes.  Most are kept mothballed ready to be sent back into service (it’s estimated 1 in 4 will fly again) in case of a national emergency.  Some however, like the F-14 have been cut up as the USA don’t want foreign states getting hold of the parts (such as Iran, who bought F-14s when they were a most-favoured nation in the 70s).

Drove back to Tombstone before sunset to look around the town. This was the town where the famous gunfight with Wyatt Earp and clan at the OK Corral took place (actually, it was in the street near the Corral but nevermind).  It’s a very hokey and cheesy town, but we liked it.  Reenactments happen all over the shop, the main street is dusty and closed off to vehicles and the buildings are restored to historic looks.  Visited the  historic courthouse, where the attendant was very weird and had some sort of toilet fetish.  The ‘Birdcage’ Theatre was very interesting with crazy artifacts and old stuff just lying everywhere!

Decided against going back to the Longhorn Restaurant, instead opting to drive around the town randomly and gamble with an ‘unknown’.  Luck had it we stumbled upon a steak restaurant and the food was good! Better yet was the bar adjoining had karaoke going.  Some guy’s rendition of Born To Be Wild was genius!! 

 

Sliding Down Arizona

Intention to leave early, but had a lay-in for an hour or so.  Went down for breakfast (you can go into the bakery, where they will provide you with something from the counter plus drinks).  Asked for a croissant and a cinnamon whirl, ended up getting both each.  Had a chat with the proprietor about this and that, including things that go bump in the night, bears, biggest deer shot just outside town, digital cameras and a place he is building in Nicaragua.

Long drive ahead, so packed up and hit the road sharpish!  Mostly stayed on highways all the way today to rack up the miles and get to Tombstone before dark.

Tracey slept a little in the back of the car.

Stopped off for gas just after the southern exit for Sonora and was horrified by the selection of redneck locals.  A family decided to park in front of pumps while they chatted, shopped, used restrooms etc.  A pickup arrived with 3 guys and a girl. she was as think as a rake and dressed like some country hooker (hard to explain).  Picked up a crate of beer…. (this was midday).  Another pickup arrived and attempted to try and tow a 70s RV (seen The Hills Have Eyes?).

Rest of journey was pretty uneventful.  I stopped off at a Best Buy near Phoenix so I could pickup a Playstation pre-paid card (only place in world that does them) so could pay for US content.  Looked around some other shops in the huge outdoor mall complex thing.  Tracey got loads of cheap yarn from Wall-Mart.

Arrived at around sunset and a rattlesnake skitted across the ground in front of us as we entered the Holiday Inn Express.

Hotel was nice and clean and NEW!  Front desk guy was a bit mentally challenged, possibly been bitten by too many rattlesnakes.  There are warning signs everywhere.

Dumped our stuff off and drove into Tombstone proper to get a bite to eat. Tripadvisor gave the Longhorn Restaurant an OK review but we waited over 30 mins for our food from ordering, half of Tracey’s fries were soaked in grease from the steak.  The steak was tough as old boot leather (maybe Wyatt Earp had reared the cattle himself) and my burger was just plain fair.  Wrote a 1 star review when got back.  No tip.

 

Williams, AZ

As today was Hallowe’en, we had previously decided to find a small town that would capture the spirit (so to speak) for us.  We had visited Williams last where as our gateway to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Today, we were just here as it was a nice little town and our choice of hotel had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it was supposedly haunted!  The Red Garter Bed and Bakery only has 4 rooms, but it is really nice, with the staff being friendly and informative.

Had dinner at the Pine Country Inn.  Had visited this restaurant last year and was impressed by the food and pies, ESPECIALLY THE PIES!  Didn’t disappoint this time and the pies were just as good. 

There was a ghost tour starting from next to the hotel, so as the tourists we are and it being Hallowe’en, waited patiently outside at 7:45.  The guy doing the tour was a pasty (from make-up) 60 year old with a cane looking like an undertaker.  His 30 year old Navajo wife was dressed as a french maid.  She scooted off to the bar to join up with a party in progress.  Some other people due to join the tour didn’t turn up, so it was just us 2!  The tour was great and very informative, with the undertaker giving us a little history as well as the hokey local ghost stories of old.  The ghosts have wiped my mind though and I can’t remember the details right now!  Turns out this was the last night (end of season) and the chap is changing direction of the tour next year to more of a historical tour, so maybe this was the last tour of it’s kind from him?  We gave him information on English tea drinking habits.

Watched ‘Halloween’ in the hotel room and I fell asleep.

 

Back to Arizona

Woke up and decided to go back shopping to pick up some bits we were umming and arring about the night before.  I picked up some cheapish Tommy Hilfiger jeans.

Checked out sharp from the hotel and was on the road again!  stopped off ON the Hoover Dam!  You actually drive across the dam which is pretty cool so parked up and took a little wander on foot.

Driving through the Arizona desert, took a small detour off the highway to a ‘ghost town’ (in that people used to live there, but generally don’t now) named Chloride.  This place we creepy as hell, some people did still live there and you got the feeling a gunsight was on you at all times!  Mad ‘artwork’ was in people’s yards.

Carried on out of town ASAP.  Braked sharply on the highway as noticed the derelict Santa Land.

Carrying on swiftly, we joined up the old Route 66.  Stopped off at Seligman for a bite to eat at the Route 66 Cafe where we had eaten last year but walked straight out again!  No-one came to seat us and the decor had changed to a bland cafe – nothi g like the quirky place we had visited last year!  They didn’t get our business.

Hungry, we zoomed on up the highway to Williams making up good time.  Saw some clouds for pretty much the first time and it rained all of 5 seconds.

 

Las Vegas (again)

This was the second time we had been to Las Vegas, last time we stayed in Excalibur and this time was at Hurrahs.  Found the entrance to the parking lot by guesswork and checked in with no queues (yay). Room was functional and as expected but with LCD tv in bathroom (why do Americans insist that every flat screen is a plasma?).

Had a buffet dinner (as you do in Vegas).  Piled as much random rubbish as we could onto the plates.  Loads of people were obsessed with crabs legs and having them piled so high (and going back for more).  In the end, our stomachs just aren’t up to the challenge and we failed miserably at the buffet ‘contest’ and could barely finish one plateful!

The Fashion Mall beckoned for some shopping.  Forever 21 is Tracey’s drug.  Walked around a little, then headed north on the strip as we hadn’t been up there before.  Stopped in the Sahara casino, then walked back looking in Circus Circus.  We expected to go in the indoor theme park, but as it is Hallowe’en time, they have a special show on, which cost around $35 each.  We couldn’t be bothered to pay as just wanted a look and didn’t want to go on the rides.  Got a taxi back to hotel as we had already walked miles that evening!

Sleep was good that night!