River of the Cows

July 17

We started our day determined to get what we could out of our sketchy little motel before leaving. Three hot showers and various sniped food products later, we drove out of Farmington, NM for good, determined never to look back.

Our planned route was to drive through Los Alamos, the location of the nuclear test sights for the atomic bombs of World War II. Unfortunately, we chose not to listen to the GPS and unknowingly forged our way into the Santa Fe National Forest. What we though would be a shorter drive turned out to be a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Oops.

We passed a sign that said “Rio de las Vacas”, which K translated to “River of the Cows.” A few minutes later, we passed several of the river’s namesakes chewing cud right on the side of the road (Yellowstone-style). They were literally within two feet of the car. And then it began to rain. Let me remind you that we were on a dirt road, somewhere in the middle of the Santa Fe National Forest. After about an hour drive (we could only go about 30 mph) we eventually made it out of the forest, only to have the car caked in red mud.

Since we had been stuck in the forest for so long, we found the quickest route from there to Santa Fe, so we could get to the campground in time to claim a spot. After another couple more hours in the car, we pulled into Rancheros de Santa Fe, and set up the campsite for our two-night stay in the city. B & K took a turn cooking for the night, and whipped up some delicious Annie’s boxed mac and cheese! C somehow managed to sneak out of all dinner chores that night, and B & K also ended up washing that night’s dishes.

This campground was another Ritz Campground, and it even had an indoor movie theater! (Translation: extremely hot room with a couple of chairs, and a TV hung on the wall). We decided to go to their nightly showing of a short documentary about the city of Santa Fe. The movie was about 30 years old, as was evident by the neon wind-breaker clothing, Mohawks and shoulder pads. It was helpful in instructing us on all the local landmarks, and we made several notes of what to see and do the next day.

Although the movie showing after the Santa Fe documentary was The Blind Side, we thought we should take advantage of our limited time in the city and walk around for a few hours. Our campsite was east of Santa Fe, and on our drive downtown we witnessed the most incredible sunset any of us had ever seen. The poppy and magenta colored sky fit in well with the vibrant colors of Santa Fe, and the distant rain storm smeared the colors above our heads.

We parked in downtown Santa Fe, and strolled through the city’s plaza. Few shops were open, but we peered through the windows and scoped out the shopping scene. We walked down to the St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral and saw the statue of Kateri, the first Native American saint. Not wanting to leave downtown just yet, we decided to find a place where we could sit down and admire the plaza at night. Since K’s infamous pizza rumor in San Francisco (see Painting the Town post), we had all been craving the Italian delicacy, so we found a restaurant where we could sit outside on a balcony and split a pie. Though our artichoke-eggplant-squash-sundried tomatoes-garlic and Parmesan pizza was delicious, it turned out that our craving was mostly for some of Cooperstown’s finest (Sal’s), so we had yet to be satisfied.

Tired and anxious to explore the city in the daylight, we drove back to our campground and quickly fell asleep.

States visited: New Mexico

Yellow car count:

C – 179

B – 202

K – 246

Highs and Lows:

Group high – Santa Fe Sunset

Group low – Not satisfying the pizza craving

C high – Blackberry Sage Iced Tea

C low – Hearing the coyotes at night

B high – Pizza!

B low – Not the right pizza…

K high – Seeing the sunset over Santa Fe

K low – Being lost in the River of the Cows