Veni, Vidi, Emi

Guess who went shopping in Santa Fe today? The town is much smaller than we anticipated. Albuquerque is a far larger city. But it's plenty impressive as the oldest capital city in the union (founded 1610.)

Since I couldn't resist, I picked up a Real Estate Book for the area...only to discover that we would all live in very large pueblo mansions out here. Sigh.

We wandered the town square, which, like Albuquerque is the center of the Old Town, home to a zillion art museums and native jewelry, furniture, artwork stores & galleries.

There isn't much of old 66 on this alternate loop. We saw a few yards of Original Crispy, which is the name we've given to the oldest pink pavement, sometimes visible to the side of whatever blacktop we're on. But the motels on Cerillos Rd, 66 in Santa Fe, are neither closed nor deteriorating. They're perfectly maintained working "Motor hotels" with "100% Refrigerated Air" and "TVs in Every Room".

Coming back into Albuquerque we dined at the Route 66 Diner, one of those magnificient deco buildings remodeled into a 50's diner (black and white tile undercounter, turquoise faux leather booth seats and stools, shiny pressed tin backsplash) paying homage to Route 66. They make old fashioned thick shakes and serve half a dozen types of pie.

Too perfect.