01/08/07 Canyon (TX) - Santa Fe (NM) / 650 km

We were riding by 8 o´clock, again, in order to avoid the hottest hours. We went back to Amarillo to take Route 66 again. As soon as we left Amarillo we saw the Cadillac Ranch on the left side of he road. What is that? It was built in 1974 by Stanley Marsh 3, the helium millionaire who owns the dusty wheat field where it stands. Marsh and The Ant Farm, a San Francisco art collective, assembled used Cadillacs representing the "Golden Age" of American Automobiles (1949 through 1963). The ten graffiti-covered cars are half-buried, nose-down, facing west "at the same angle as the Cheops' pyramids. The distance from any authority also encourages ever-mutating layers of painted graffiti, which Marsh doesn't seem to mind.We took some photos before saying good-bye to the cars.

Before leaving Texas we went through the town that is just in the middle of the Route; Adrian. There is a coffee place over there that is called the Mid-Point Café, but we missed the exit and did not see it. In this part there are hardly sections of the original Route, so we had to do most of it by motorway.

Before arriving to New Mexico we rode through a village that was abandoned, there were some pieces of the old road, but not in a good enough condition to do them with the motorbike. We saw a typical Route 66 motel and coffee place that had been left behind. We went inside to nose around a little bit. It is a pity to find the remains of what back in the fifties must have been flourishing businesses in which all cars doing the Route had to stop, with their home made food, scents and the lively voices of the travellers sharing their adventures. Today nothing; only silence and abandonment. When entering New Mexico we had to change the hour again. We ran through a village called Tucumcari, and we fell in love with the motels. The most popular one is the Blue Swallow, but there are a lot of them as nice as this one. It was a pity that we did not have to spend the night in that village…

From now on there are two Routes 66. The older one goes through Santa Fe, capital city of New Mexico, but there is a newer version that goes directly to Alburquerque. We chose to go through Santa Fe, the road is quite nice. We had planned to sleep in Pecos National Park, close to Santa Fe , but when we arrived there we saw there was hardly place to camp, and the trees created a very humid and rainy microclimate that we did not like. In one day we went from the stuffy weather of Texas to the humidity of Pecos. We changed our minds and we went to sleep to Santa Fe. We found a camping right away, and we had just the time to camp and see de city centre. We were very surprised by the town, it is nothing like all the rest we had seen along the Route. All the houses are round shaped, covered with red clay, and it looks more like a Mexican town than an American one. Anyway we wondered if it was really the true character of the town or if it was a little “fake” in order to attract tourism.

We asked some street vendors where to go for dinner, and they recommended us Tomasita, that is not a Mexican restaurant but a New Mexican restaurant. The restaurant is located where the old train station used to be. There was a queue of people waiting to have dinner, we realised it is a very popular place, so we gave the name and went to see the station. As soon as we came back we had a place waiting for us, it is always easier to find a table for two than for eight…

We went back to the camp site and in the middle of the night it started to rain quite heavily. As the tent was small we used to leave things outside, so Josune run outside the tent to cover everything in plastic and put the stuff beneath a table. She was mad at me because I had not even moved: she is often right...