Santa Rosa to Santa Fe
The scenery, again, was fantastic, and as we climbed into the mountains, things got greener and more fertile. This time I made no attempt to photograph any of it, because it's futile.
Along the way, we happened upon the Pecos Pueblo State Park, and stopped, not really knowing what it was. It turned out to be a ruined ancient Indian fortress, and a slightly less ruined, less ancient, Spanish mission church. We're talking Aztec-type pueblo indians here, not Comanches with headdresses -- although the two warred and traded by turn. It's just like something out of Mysterious Cities of Gold.
Rattlesnake warnings as we set off on the short trail from the visitor centre to the ruins meant Debbie had to hold my hand very tight all the way round, which was quite nice actually.
We carried on to Santa Fe, intending to have a quick look around, before getting back on the road to Albuquerque -- but Santa Fe turned out to deserve far more attention. That's the beauty of a flexible schedule. Pretty much every building in Santa Fe is built in the Pueblo style -- even if it's a modern building it's covered in concrete so the corners are rounded, and painted terracotta. That includes the multi-storey car park.
We ate some delicious Mexican food and had a look around the arts and crafts shops (despite its population of about 70,000, Santa Fe is has the third largest art market in the USA, after New York and Los Angeles), before calling it a day and finding a motel. We're in the Thunderbird Motel, which is white not terracotta, but decorated with Native American motifs so that's OK.
We're going to have to see a bit more of Santa Fe before we leave it, and since we don't really have time to do it properly, it looks likely we'll take a guided bus tour tomorrow morning, before we head on.
Too lazy and stingy to sample Santa Fe's nightlife, we've been to the
nearest liquor store (the bit on its neon reading "drive-thru window" was
turned off) and bought some local microbrews to sample in our motel room,
as well as a selection of snack foods, so now seems as good a time as any
for a...
Snack Food Summary Aside
We've sampled a few of America's fine snack foods from convenience stores, gas stations and supermarkets, and I realise I've been remiss in keeping you informed: let's fix that.Kool Aid, I've told you about - citric acid, remember? I didn't mention at the time, but a few years ago during my brief homebrewing fad (before we moved to a house so cold that homebrew was impossible - we've since moved out) we'd go through citric acid at a phenomenal pace, because Debbie would snack on it like sherbert...
Twinkies are vanilla flavoured sponge fingers which you buy in sealed plastic wrappers. They're filled with vanilla flavoured buttercream, and frankly they're just like a buttercream filled sponge cake your mum might bake - except with that Mr Kipling factory-made artificial touch. They're outrageously sweet, but that's buttercream for you.
Hersheys Bars are supposed to be chocolate. I say supposed to be, because I've tasted chocolate, and that ain't it. Hersheys tastes of vomit. I'm not using vomit as some kind of catch-all unpleasant-taste icon: the taste of Hersheys chocolate is the same as that of vomit. My vomit, anyway. Perhaps I should bottle my vomit and try to sell it to the American confectionary market?
Jerky is biltong: thin strips of seasoned dried meat. Usually it's beef, not the deer or bison or springbok you get in Africa -- but I have seen some deer and 'gator jerky for sale in gift shops.
M&Ms also come in peanut butter and crunchy flavours - neither is an improvement over the chocolate and peanut varieties we have at home, so it's no loss. There is also an almond variety, which we have yet to try.
Pringles come in Pizzalicious flavour and fat free variety. The fat substitute in fat free pringles can apparently induce stomach cramps and loose stools in some people, so perhaps a little bit of grease is worth putting up with.
Mountain Dew is delicious stuff, the best I can describe it is as Sprite with a hint of chlorophyl, an unnecessarily vibrant green-yellow colour and caffeine. Lots of caffeine.
Bottled and canned Coke and Pepsi taste different from how they do at home, yet they're fine from shop and restaurant soda fountains. As the Americans say: "go figure".
Beer and all alcohol comes with government health warnings all over it, yet there is no indication of the alcohol content: no AVB, no specific gravity, no percentage by volume - nothing. How are you supposed to guage how much to drink sensibly without this vital information? How do you know what's a nice low-alcohol beer suitable to have with lunch before driving, and what's a blow-your-head-off Dogbolter/Theakston's-OP/Roger-And-Out concoction? As Asterix and Obelix might say: "toctoctoctoctoc".
More as we try it.