July 19
Before we could leave the Santa Fe area, we had to make one last stop in the city to see a major attraction we had missed the day before – the Loretta Chapel staircase. This 33-step spiral staircase has baffled architects for years because it has no visible form of support. We only managed to snap one picture of the famous staircase before our camera ran out of battery. Bummer.
We were all reluctant to leave what we unanimously agreed was our favorite city (so far) of the trip, but we knew it was time to hit the road. We wanted to drive along part of the Historic Route 66 on our way out of New Mexico, and began to look for signs as soon as we hit Interstate 40. We knew that Route 66 ran alongside I-40, but we didn’t see a single sign for it, and we beginning to get worried that we would miss it. We pulled over at a rest stop to ask for directions. A worker there told us that we were already on the famous road, because in that stretch, I-40 had been built right on top of Rt. 66. Though slightly disappointed since we were expecting a much different drive, we continued to drive. It wasn’t until Santa Rosa, NM – right before where we were going to turn off of I-40 – that we saw a sign for Historic 66. B, a big fan of Disney’s Cars, was especially excited about seeing this landmark.
We entered Texas, and were surprised to see that its “welcome to” sign was much smaller than the other ones we had seen. Isn’t everything supposed to be bigger in Texas? K appropriately framed the picture of B to include both the Texas sign and the American flag flying in the background.
We were camping for the night in Lubbock, which from our pre-trip research appeared to be the only campground between Santa Fe and Austin, TX. The campground was far from the nicest we had stayed at, and its roads and campsites were not well maintained. The bathroom stalls didn’t even have doors! The tent sites were right next to the ATV park, but we managed to find a somewhat secluded spot down a slight hill. It even had a water feature! (Even though that water feature was a gross, smelly pond with lots of bugs.) Our neighbors across the pond were noisy, but we figured that we could survive one night there.
We climbed into our tent early, since the bugs were eating us alive. We would have fallen asleep early, but a few fellow campers had decided to take up some late night ATV-ing. We lay awake, wondering when the noise would stop and when we could go to sleep when we heard a different, but distinct, sound. Sirens and flashing lights suddenly filled the campground, and we watched as four police cars sped past our tent. C & K decided to “go to the bathroom” to investigate. On their way to the door-less stalls, C & K saw three more police cars and an ambulance speed into the campground, and then a helicopter fly in! Stunned, startled, and not quite sure what they had gotten themselves into, C & K hurried back to the tent where they met an equally stunned and startled B. We all set outside and watched from our campsite as the ambulance drove from one RV site to where the helicopter had landed. Our theories ranged from heart attacks to drug overdoses, to contaminated water poisoning, though it was doubtful that any of those were close to accurate. We fell asleep confused and concerned, and also eager to leave the strange town of Lubbock, Texas.
States visited: New Mexico, Texas
Yellow car count:
C – 200
B – 215
K – 267
Highs and Lows:
Group high – shorter drive (at least compared to some of our previous ones)
Group low – Lubbock, TX
C high – seeing the Loretta staircase
C low – campground
B high – learning more Santa Fe history
B low – ATVs
K high – Seeing more of Santa Fe before leaving
K low – Lubbock
Where is next stop????
ReplyDeleteDr. AP