Matt embarked on his second week of work while Meg spent the days hanging out with her mom (and finally got a haircut!). We cooked a bit and also visited some favorite Phoenix restaurants including: North Italia, Greenwood Brewing, a return visit to Welcome Diner, and takeout from China Village. It was a relaxing week.
It was a busy week: Meg spent the week at Gammage getting ‘Wicked Bodies’ up and running (Meg’s mom and Matt saw the invited dress rehearsal on Friday), and Matt spent the first week of his new job at Vectorworks on-boarding, celebrating the launch of the 2023 version of the software, and getting up to speed on all of its new features. It was pretty wild to spend a week in the middle of our road trip with both of us working!
We started our 3 weeks in Phoenix by waking up to a flat tire, which lead to replacing 3 tires, and then new front brake rotors, rounded out with the 120,000 mile service on our intrepid Prius: thankfully we had Meg’s parents to help drop us off and pick us up from all of the various mechanics. Meg spent most of the week prepping for her performance at ASU Gammage, and we spent the evenings hitting up our favorite restaurants in Phoenix. We finished out the week with a trip Payson to fulfill Meg’s Aunt Sally’s last wishes.
We poked around Gallup in the morning before getting on Historic Route 66 for the first part of our drive, crossing into Arizona and on to Petrified Forest National Park. We started our visit in the Painted Desert, taking in the stunning vistas and visiting the Painted Desert Inn, before making our way to the Petrified Forest proper. We then descended into Phoenix via Tonto National Forest, wrapping up 275 miles of driving.
After five days we said goodbye to Albuquerque and drove to Chaco Culture National Historic Park in Northwestern New Mexico, where we hiked among some of the Chacoan great houses preserved there. After a picnic lunch we drove through the Navajo nation, passing everything from lush farmland to barren badlands, until we reached the delightfully kitschy El Rancho Hotel & Motel, capping off 330 miles of total driving.
Albuquerque Day 5: Today we took the tram to the top of Sandia Peak (from 6,500 ft to 10,378 in 15 minutes!) and hiked up to the Kiwanis Cabin via a number of trails. Afterwards we had stuffed sopapillas for lunch at Ex Novo Brewing Company and an amazing dinner at Farm & Table.
Albuquerque Day 4: We drove about an hour Northwest of Albuquerque to Jemez Hot Springs today and spent two very relaxing hours soaking in the hot pools. From there we took Route 4, the Jemez Mountain Trail National Scenic Byway to Valles Caldera National Preserve, a 13-mile wide volcanic depression. We rounded out the day with a brief stop in Los Alamos and then treated ourselves to ice cream on our way through Santa Fe, followed by a return visit to Bow and Arrow Brewing for a late dinner.
Albuquerque Day 3: This morning we headed East out of Albuquerque to Santa Rosa. We beat the heat with a dip in the Blue Hole and then had a picnic lunch: breakfast burritos (egg, hash browns, cheese, and green chilis) that we brought along from Golden Pride. On the way back to Albuquerque we dropped down to Historic Route 66 for the last 40 miles before picking up some serious New Mexican dinner from El Modelo. In the evening we attended our first baseball game since the start of the pandemic: a matchup between the Minor League Albuquerque Isotopes and El Paso Chihuahuas. Unfortunately, the Isotopes lost in the final inning, but it was a beautiful night for a ballgame.
Albuquerque Day 2: This morning, before it got too warm, we visited the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park to walk through the Bosque (forest) and then stopped at an Albuquerque institution, Duran’s Pharmacy to grab lunch. It’s still a working pharmacy, but also contains a lunch counter with (possibly) the best tortillas in town. In the afternoon we did some work and caught up on editing travel photos. For dinner we visited Bow and Arrow Brewing and ate delicious pupusa’s from the food truck that was visiting: Yarling’s Pupuseria.
Albuquerque Day 1: We set out this morning on the High Road to Taos Scenic Byway. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and pine forests between Taos and Santa Fe. Lunch at Rowley Farmhouse Ales was fantastic and we waited out some monsoon hail before continuing to Albuquerque via the Turquoise Trail and parts of Historic Route 66. After settling in to our Airbnb (an apartment near Old Town) we headed to Sawmill Market for dinner.
