Day 6 Santa Fe, NM~Gallup, NM

Good evening blog mates. This morning we woke up at a very comfortable hotel in Santa Fe, NM. After a "Super Start" breakfast (that again lasted about one hour), we drove to Albuquerque, NM. Honestly, I think we enjoyed the drive more today than most of our stops.

In Albuquerque, we went to the Old Town area and walked around a very cool part of town. This is a picture of an old church that the Old Town area is built around.




We went into shops for a few hours. Jen and the girls all bought handmade jewlery. Brekyn even had a piece made especially for her. Ask her to see it next time you see her. I'm sure she'll be wearing it. I should also mention that the temperature is probably 80 degrees with about 15 % humidity. This is a beautiful area. We have some friends who just left their church in Southern Indiana and moved out here to plant a new one. We can now see what the draw was for them.



From Albuquerque we started to wander toward Gallup, New Mexico. While on I-40 heading West, we stopped at a road side observation spot. There, set up on the side of the road, were several native Americans who were selling handmade goods. One of the ladies took time to tell us about the matriarchal culture of the Indians. Apparently, when a couple marries, it is common for the man to join the woman's tribe or village. For various reasons, her mother had to move to her dad's village. This took an act of approval by tribal leaders. There was a tribal meeting, when they got married, that eventually granted approval for this highly unusual act. It was amazing to hear the story. She also told us about Indian pottery. Indians believe that the clay that they use (which comes from the earth), has a spirit. So, in order to not "capture" that spirit, all pottery has a "break" in the art work. The art scroll does not fully attach to itself. You can see an example of this at the top of this piece of pottery that she made:


After visiting with this very kind lady, we traveled Route 66 for about 40 miles. Again, the surroundings were absolutely spectacular.

Our internet connection at the hotel seems to be slow, so I will update this post tomorrow evening. I'll put pictures of some landscape up when I get a better connection.

Tomorrow, we head toward Sedona AZ where we will settle in for almost a week. I think we are all ready to "land" somewhere for a while. It has been a good trip thus far, but the loading and unloading and new beds each evening, has made the Van Meters a tad bit grumpy :) We're all doing well, we're just ready to get to our destination. (Jen is not grumpy)<---edited by Jen.