Day 17 Thursday 4th September, Santa Fe.to Amarillo Texas.

The fuel reduction burn between Albuquerque and Santa Fe made for a spectacular sunset.

Today we travelled from Santa Fe, NM to Amarillo Texas. We are trying to stay off the Interstate highways as much as possible and let us see more of the countryside, but sometimes this is very difficult. The advantage with using the Interstate is that you can travel at 75mph and can therefore make up some time allowing stops at specific sites. 

With this is in mind we followed I25 for a while, then followed US 285 south to I 40, turning east to Santa Rosa.   In Santa Rosa we took a break and visited the Route 66 Auto Museum which houses approximately 30 cars and a large selection of Route 66 memorabilia. With an entry fee of only $5 pp the display was very worthwhile and gave us a chance to stretch our legs before continuing on.

Route 66 Auto Museum in Santa Rosa

Interesting modifications to an Edsel

Dale wondering if the garage is big enough

And we thought the land was flat before - wide endless plains

 We then went south again through Fort Sumner, and one can only wonder at the hardship the Native Americans went through when forced to march here through winter from Monument Valley.

Turning east again we went through Clovis before heading north east into Texas through Hereford, "Beef Capitol of the World" {their words}.  We passed countless trains heading both east and west and each of them around 1.5 to 2 miles long.  We then headed to Amarillo for our overnight stay.

The trains just seem to be getting bigger.