After a restful night (it was very silent in Tucumcari, traffic-wise), we head off and continue West, toward Albuquerque. We don’t drive straight though, we follow the pre-1937 alignment which curves north towards Santa Fe. The first place we encounter today is Santa Rosa. Route 66 carves a straight path through the town, with left and right remnants of how it used to be. And even with all the modern buildings and signs along the road, it *does* give (I think) an impression of how it used to be.

Soon after Santa Rosa, we leave the I40 for now (we had followed it’s course so far, for the past few days, mostly on frontage roads), and head North. The landscape slowly changes a bit, from the barren wasteland above to more forested hills and mesa’s.

Santa Fe is different from all towns we’ve seen so far. As Jonathan put it “It’s like someone put Europe and the US in a bowl and then shook it”. We can clearly see that this town has been created long before people thought to use a rectangular road pattern. And the historic district is truly old. The oldest church in North America is located here for example, the San Miguel chapel. It was built in 1610. We wander around for a bit but always with an eye to the sky, for it has been thundering for awhile towards the East, and the sky is dark. But it stays dry for the time being, luckily.

From Santa Fe we head South again, towards Albuquerque. The sky stays dark and we can see rain falling left and right of us. We manage to reach the hotel before it rains, and even to find the old historic downtown and take a few quick pictures. But that is about where our luck runs out and it starts to run ON us, not around us. We call it a day and after some dinner in the 66 Diner along Central Boulevard and some grocery shopping for tomorrow’s lunch we head back to the hotel.