Chad & Tami's big adventure: First Stop...New Mexico

Well before I write about New Mexico I have to tell you about a couple spots that we stopped at along the way.
We stayed in Palo Duro Canyon, which is similar to a mini grand canyon located East of Amarillo. It being a state park made it the perfect stop for our first night because it was very clean, very quiet & the scenery was breath taking!
I guess I might have had reservations about the trip if we started off staying at a scary trucker stop or some where equally unsafe & stinky...

These turkeys were our wake up call about 10 yards from our campsite!

Palo Duro Canyon

This is the view from the road leading in

On the way to Santa Fe we also saw a very peculiar siting along I-40 right outside Amarillo, when we got closer I realized that this was the famed Cadillac Ranch that I heard about a long time ago. It is one of the wildest forms of art that I have ever come across. The Cadillacs are buried nose down into the ground so the tail lights are exposed. After they were vandalized time and time again the artist began to encourage the graffiti. Unfortunately we didn't have any spray paint.I could tell you more about it, but I'll give you the link so all of the accuracy will stay in tact :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch

Ok now, about New Mexico! I always always new that I would love it, but of course it surpassed all of my expectations. There is something about this place that makes you feel so different, so free. It seems like everyone here has a story, you can almost see it in their eyes, it seems they know something that you don't....The Native American culture here is very mysterious and respected at the same time. It appears to me that all of the tourists here want so bad to be apart of the culture & the culture here is definitely aware of that. There are artists here from all over the world seeking the inspiration that New Mexico has given so many artists over time.
One of my personal favorite artists included, Georgia O'Keeffe spent many years in the New Mexico area painting desert scenes but mainly large scale flowers. The Georgia O'Keeffe museum is located in Santa Fe & I was ever so lucky to be able to spend some time there and learn more about her.
http://www.georgia-okeeffe.com/

As much as we enjoyed staying in Santa Fe, it was time to move on to Albuquerque.
We spent the majority of our one night stay visiting the old town down town area where I could shop and listening to some great live music outside in the middle of all the shops.
All in all it was a great place to catch up on some sleep and get inspired!

Ten reasons why we love New Mexico (In no order)

1. Green Chili sauce on EVERYTHING!!
2. The scenery of the mountains
3. Cool Cowgirls & there amazing style
4. Turquoise Jewelry
5. The Weather, it is warm but always with a cool breeze
6. speed limit on the highway is 75, we were passed several times going 80!
7. The Georgia O'Keeffe museum
8. The art and the eccentric artists that make people watching extremely amusing!
9. Shopping, er I guess just window shopping since everything costs an arm & a leg here, but it is fun to look around
10. The Architecture, all of the homes & commercial buildings are adobe style so they blend in with the scenery instead of sticking out like a sore thumb