Day 42 Clear and Sunny – High-78 Low-38
The weather this morning was the same as it has been everyday since we arrived in Santa Fe: crystal clear skies, crisp autumn temperature, with humidity around 3%. The drive from Las Cruces to Santa Fe does not seem to increase in altitude much; however, we discovered that we had ascended over 3,000 feet to 7, 000 feet. We were reluctant to pack the car to start heading east, but all good things do come to an end, or so they say.
As we have mentioned, the area outside the cities in New Mexico is in abject poverty. Except for agriculture, it seems that most jobs are in the 
service industry. In the past, there has been a market for day laborers to do handyman chores, gardening, or supplement skilled workers. Since the job market tanked, the day laborers are waiting on the corners of many of the streets for someone to offer them a job. This same scene was played out in California and Arizona as well. They told us that it is tough, as there just isn’t any work. One man, who is a construction carpenter, told us that he has not built anything new in over a year. This is in stark contrast to our last stop in Santa Fe, Canyon Road.
Canyon Road is zoned strictly for “residential arts and crafts.” It is a ¾ mile street where there is Spanish colonial, Spanish/Pueblo and American territorial architecture which has been burnished and mellowed by the passage of the years. On this little street, there are more than five dozen galleries with paintings, sculpture, Native American crafts, traditional Spanish crafts, Santa Fe fashion, mixed media, photography and antiques literally spilling out of the doors and windows and sculpture gardens in the front yards. The artwork on display was incredible; the various artists captured the essence of New Mexico and the melding of the diverse cultures that have defined this area for over 400 years. The galleries were on par with ones we have visited in New York, Toronto, Mexico City, and the other artist colonies such as Carmel, CA.
If you were decorating your dream home, Canyon Road would certainly be on your list of places to visit to find the perfect composition or creation to accent a room or more likely, to find a treasure to build a room around. The paintings and drawings were beautiful and made you want to linger to just take in their artistry and remember the emotion you felt while viewing them. The sculptures ranged from the lifelike to the whimsical. One of the artists featured life-size sculptures of children playing that were incredibly realistic while another displayed hundreds of lawn sculptures called spinners.
The galleries on this street are not for the frugal minded or bargain shoppers. With no price stickers, we followed the axiom, if you have to ask you can’t afford it. In one gallery, they had a modern glass sculpture that sparkled in the pinpoint light. The price was $65,000. The gallery owner said it could be ours. We told him we had to eat a few more years. We did have fun wandering through the galleries admiring the outdoor sculptures, paintings, and architecture. We were there early, so easily found street parking, but we’re sure by noon that would not have been possible. The crowd build slowly while we were there; the ones the we talked with were from all over. One couple we met from Florida were there on business, but hoped to pick up some artwork while there. After a two-hour tour of the galleries, we connected to Interstate 40 and headed east.
We have noticed roadside memorials all over the west along many streets and highways. The crosses are understandable on the dangerous, twisting mountain roads, but the ones on wide, flat highways are a little puzzling. In the east, we are used to seeing simple crosses or crosses with a few flowers. In New Mexico, these roadside memorials can be simple crosses, but more likely are an elaborate display with a multitude of silk flowers, ornate crosses, statues and pictures. Since we were in New Mexico for El Dia de los Muertos, we observed that these more elaborate memorials were placed on most every grave in the cemetery.
As we traveled across New Mexico into Texas, the landscape changed very little. It was extremely flat with 
arid sandy soil and scrub brush for mile after mile. As we got closer to Texas, the aerial haze reappeared. Since there were no factories or other obvious sources of pollution, it seemed to be blowing dust. At one stop for gas, there were dust swirls blowing all around the station.
There were huge cattle ranches along the road, and at several places we saw large pens with thousands of head of cattle. There were old-fashioned windmills pumping water for the stock. However, in both eastern New Mexico and western Texas, there were large, power-generating windmill farms. While not as large as the ones we have seen in California and Wyoming, they were still impressive.
The multicolored buttes that we saw along the way were reminiscent of the ones in Colorado and Utah. The New Mexico and Texas buttes seemed to also be slowly dissolving like a bar of soap sitting under constant drips of water.
The interstate didn’t seem to have much car traffic; however, there were a lot of trucks. The speed limits ranged from 65-75 mph, so we were able to make good time. We did notice dozens of huge, bus-sized RVs pulling SUVs heading west. These vehicles were elaborately painted, custom-made, and huge. Some were so big that the lone Greyhound bus that we have seen during our entire trip seemed small. For several miles, we were on old Route 66. Looking at a map, our route back to Columbus through St Louis will parallel historic Route 66, known as The Mother Road. We have been on sections of this road several times in the southwest. 
Tomorrow will probably be a full day of driving. We met a man from Oklahoma and asked him what there was to see and do. He asked if we rode horses or liked the rodeo. Since we answered no to both questions, he said, “Then there’s not a damn thing for you to do in Oklahoma.” Hopefully, we will find a few other adventures along the way before we call this trip history. With a bit of luck, maybe there will be some kicks on Route 66!
