As we neared Santa Fe, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. The lady running the gift shop in Arkansas had told us that the Santa Fe and Phoenix capitols weren’t anything much and we should lower our expectations. They had been lowered, but as we drove down town and noticed all the Pueblo style houses and the cobblestone streets, we fell in love with the little town.
We found the capitol building in no time at all. Fun fact: Santa Fe is the only round capitol building. The place was empty, give or take a few people wandering around. We got our stamp at the information desk then walked around looking at the beautiful quilt display. I love quilting but these quilts were so intricately hand stitched and looked like they took hours upon hours of work.
After marveling at the detailed work, we walked over to the House of Representatives chamber. They had just recessed for lunch but we sat down to check things out. A lady was sitting in front of us looking important with papers and a little briefcase. She overheard us talking and answered a question we had. We got to talking to her and found out she is the democratic chair for the county. After talking to her for some time, we decided we had better keep touring before we ran out of time.
We walked through the rotunda and up the stairs to the second floor to the governor’s office. Susana Martinez, the governor, is the first female governor of New Mexico and the United State’s first hispanic female governor. Unfortunately, she was out of the office so we didn’t get to meet her but we did get to tour her office.
There wasn’t a gift shop in this little place but the lady at the info desk told us to go to the Five and Dime store down the street where we would find enough coffee mugs to hydrate the entire town of Santa Fe.
And she wasn’t joking. We parked in downtown Santa Fe and entered the store. I spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to decide which mug to buy while RJ impatiently followed me around saying, “Just buy one already woman!” I finally ended up finding a New Mexico mug which was just right.
It was around lunchtime at this point, and RJ and I hadn’t eaten all day. Being that were in New Mexico, we *had* to get some authentic Mexican food. RJ found a great place through yelp, so we walked over to check it out.
We ordered an amazing smothered burrito with rice and beans. It came with an airy/fluffy warm small loaf of bread which you were supposed to put honey and cinnamon sugar on. It was beyond delicious. We also ordered a basket of chips and salsa which were some of the best we’ve ever had. The chips where freshly fried and perfectly thick and the salsa was a spicy and dark almost bitter flavor. Afterwards, we walked around the cute little down town before heading back to our bike.
We try to stay away from the interstate when we travel since their ain’t nothing on interstate but interstate, and it becomes tedious to drive straight for so long. So, we drove south to Soccoro, NM and then took highway 60 over to Phoenix to meet up with friends and RJ’s family.
We had to make a quick stop in Magdalena, NM for some gas. As we pulled into this ghetto gas station with dirt/gravel instead of pavement, and two whole gas pumps, we were offered a single choice of gas. No octane was given, and above the gas pump was a hand written sign saying “Real Gas.” Honestly, we didn’t doubt the credibility of the gas until we read the real gas sign which got RJ all concerned that we were putting some funky water solution in Moty. He went inside to pay and a few minutes later he called out from the store excitedly and said that I had to come check this out. I enter the store to see a young woman behind the register and RJ looking over at this counter full of large jars. RJ exclaims, “Dude, Emmy, check out these pickles!” and sure enough, advertised in this little gas station were absolutely massive pickles of various colors. The lady explained that they are called Poison Pickles and each of the jars held a different “Poison” which is just a different packet of Kool-Aid dumped in the pickle brine. We got to talking with this lady about the pickles and New Mexico and she ends up telling us about another New Mexico quasi-tradition of dumping Kool-Aid packets into bags of flaming hot cheetos! RJ was quite shocked at hearing that and said: “Dude, that’s ghetto.” The lady laughed and retorted with, “Well, yeah, New Mexico is ghetto.”
We finally left the store and filled our tank with gas which may or may not have been real and continued on our journey. The New Mexico deserts and plateaus were surprisingly beautiful in their stark simplicity. As the miles went on, the scenery transitioned from the barren mountain and field to green shrubs and trees as we came into Arizona.
We ended up driving eight hours to Phoenix and didn’t make it to our destination till the late evening. We were staying with our good friends, Mike and Angie Viland, fellow wake surfers, for night. Dad and the kids had made their way to Phoenix as well, and Mom had driven from home to meet up with the rest of the family. She wasn’t about to miss out on all the fun we were having!
We got a big hug from Mom as we came in the door; we hadn’t seen her in a month. We said hi to Dad again– Thomas and Jessie were passed out on the couch and recliner– and got hugs from Mike and Angie. After a little bite to eat and some catching up, we all went to bed so we could get up at 6am to go surfing behind our new boat.
Cheers!
em and rj