Roadtrip day 13

Breakfast, since it’s complimentary and from an actual resturant across the street, and then I’ll go the day without having to stop for lunch, since it’s going to be a long driving day. Been gaining weight with the BBQ crawls and New Orleans food, so need to cut back anyway!

Slightly long haul to Santa Fe, but time for a few stops, want to get into town early enough to see the Singing Waiters at La Cantina, part of La Casa Sena, they play at 6:30, the website says, so I should make it.

Pass several great photo ops, and a couple Route 66 business route small towns worth a few pictures.

But, 40+ MPH winds the whole way. Most excitement is I pass through a town, have 1/2 a tank of gas, and just over 100 miles on the odometer. Been getting 20+ mpg. But, we now start climbing into New Mexico, and continued 50mph winds, now headwinds.I notice the gas gauge is visibly moving, with 210 miles on the odometer, the gas light comes on. Uh oh. I check the Tom Tom (which has shown this trip that it’s maps are bad enough to need a new GPS next road trip), and it tells me 20 miles to next gas. Um, this doesn’t look good, I usually get 20mpg, I’m obviously getting a lot less, and I can watch the gauge move. We hit the top of the hill, and an oasis, a no-name gas station with a mini mart. I fill up, 15.49 gallons, on a 16 gallon tank. Average MPG, 15. I was obviously getting less than that up the hill with the headwind, so I only had 5 miles left before I would have run dry. Yikes! Next exit ended up being 8 more miles down the road. I’d have run out just short of that. Then, 10 miles later, the gas the Tom Tom knew about. Gee, thanks.

See signs saying construction on the road I’m taking to Santa Fe, expect 30 minute delays. Ok, maybe I won’t make dinner, but I’ll still get there in time to find a room and get dinner somewhere. We do hit the construction, and it is probably 30 minutes. 5 miles of total road reconstruction, driving on gravel. Glad I was in the FJ, it’s pretty rough, and a lot of it you had to drive with one set of wheels 4″ higher on the shoulder. The cars behind us were driving much slower than the pilot car and the first 3 vehicles.

Get into Santa Fe about 5, still plenty of time, find a great place to stay, the Sage Inn, walking distance to downtown (8/10 of a mile), and $60 a night with the AAA discount. Love the AAA discount, it’s paid for at least 4 years of membership this trip alone.

Head over to the resturant, show starts at 7:30, they reserve a great table for me, and I go for a walk! Get back for the show, ends up only 1 free table during the show, the place was packed. I’m so happy for them. Great show, a lot of fun.

Popped by the Catamount bar, had a (very) slow poured Guiness. Fun talking to the bartender. A nice couple comes in a bit later, has an Irish Car Bomb, I tell them that was all the rage in Ausin, asked what was in them. Sounded pretty good, but I didn’t have one. They’re from Colorado, she’s a teacher, he’s an online ad salesman, doing pretty well. She’s on spring break, so they came to Santa Fe to meet a bunch of her relatives she’s never met. We have a great time talking about their trip, my trip, families. Walked back to the hotel at midnight, so much different than any of the other places I’ve visited, the city is dead. No homeless, no traffic (except the occasional police officer), really quiet. Made for a nice walk, but a bit eerie that is was THAT deserted.

Tomorrow, a relaxing day of touristing.

Mar 23 2009