After getting to Taos, New Mexico after dark, we were pretty exhausted from our excessive sight-seeing. We were really glad to find the Hampton Inn in Taos. We spent a quiet night in Taos and bright and early in the morning of Day 3, we headed to Taos Pueblo. Taos Pueblo is a thousand-year-old, still lived in traditional pueblo. Unlike Acoma, it was right by Taos, the city, and we didn’t have to go searching for it for long. We paid our entrance fee into the pueblo, and paid a mere $5 per camera to take pictures of the pueblo. After Acoma Sky City’s $10 per camera, it felt like such a better deal! And they charged a group fee for the 4 of us that was cheaper than the advertized $10 per person rate. Already, I warmed up to Taos Pueblo. 🙂 The day was bright and sunny, clear […]

So, after we left El Morro, we went east on the NM 63 until we hit the Interstate I-40 again. And we went on for a short way, and decided we would visit Acoma Pueblo, and then look for some lunch. For your convenience, here’s another look at the map of New Mexico. [[image:us63.jpg:Review Map of New Mexico:center:0]] The plan for the second half of the day was after Acoma Pueblo, we would drive to our next hotel in Taos, New Mexico. So, we got off the I-40 by Acoma and took the road into the pueblo. Acoma Pueblo is also known as Acoma Sky City because this thousand-year-old still lived-in traditional pueblo is situated on the top of a mesa. So the people who lived in the pueblo were able to defend themselves from invaders, from other native american tribes to the Spanish conquistadores. They lived on top of […]

After a relaxing evening at the Hampton Inn in Gallup (Mak and Abah ate their tar paued mexican food, and Vin and I went out briefly for a quick bite), we had a good night’s sleep and hit the road at 8:00 AM again. Gallup is a lot colder than Phoenix so everybody was bundled up for the 40+ Fahrenheit (about 5 C) weather. [[image:us63.jpg:Map of New Mexico:center:0]] On our itinerary for the day, from Gallup, we would get off the I-40 and head south on the NM 602 then east on NM 53 a little ways to see El Morro National Monument. After El Morro, we would take the NM 53 north east to the I-40 and then stop at Acoma Pueblo. We took so many cool pictures I’ll divide Day 2 into first El Morro, then Acoma Sky City. The weather was a little overcast and cloudy. Here’s […]

So on October 27th, the four of us flew from Dayton to Phoenix where we planned to embark on an ambitious tour of the Southwestern USA. We arrived in Phoenix and rented a car. Armed with our guidebook and a roadmap of the United States, we thought we were ready for everything. We had a half-planned itinerary, and some hotel reservations along the way. The rest we would make up as we went along. We arrived in Phoenix late in the evening of Friday October 27th, so we got our rental car and drove straight to our first hotel in Phoenix. We planned to spend the night and in the morning we would hit the road. [[image:us32.jpg:Map of Arizona:center:0]] From Phoenix, we planned to drive north on the I-17 and at Flagstaff, head east on the I-40. We had reservations at a hotel in Gallup, New Mexico (just east of […]