MZ West Coast Road Trippin!!!: January 2016

All packed up and ready to get back to Denver, we checked out of the Inn and Spa at Loretto and were anticipating about a 5-6 hour drive back to Denver. The snow had stopped and the skies were clear and we were off! We grabbed a quick coffee and some sandwiches again so we could drive straight thru and we were off! The roads were clear and we were looking forward to smooth sailing all the way back to Denver... until... we hit a road block :( A traffic patrol officer came up to our window and let us know that due to huge snow drifts and high winds the highway and pass to Denver was CLOSED... and that it would probably just be a few hours so we joined the line of cars waiting for the highway to reopen. We were a little bummed but no big deal we would still be home that evening! We ate our sandwiches and continued listening to our Eric Clapton book on tape. Less than 30 minutes later the same man came up to our window and let us know that unfortunately they had made the decision to close the pass overnight because it was just too dangerous to be driving over it until the winds stopped. Funny enough, we were in the little town of Las Vegas, NM! LOL! Quite different than the Las Vegas that most of us have heard of! Knowing that everyone else in the line to get on the highway was going to be looking for lodging we booked it to the strip where the lodging was. We decided on the Best Western since we had been accumulating rewards there staying at a lot of them on the trip and were lucky to get one of the last rooms, not to mention for FREE and a "suite" upgrade using all of the rewards we had earned over the past few months! Let it be known that the "suite" was really just a room with 2 queen beds, a small sofa, and a mini fridge and microwave :)

We were met at the front desk of the Best Western by this cute little guy!

We settled into our "suite" and soon enough it was dinner time! Not sure what this little town had to offer we decided to drive around and check it out... to be honest Las Vegas was pretty much a dive of a town and more of a truck stop than anything else so it was a lot of fast food and a few run down looking restaurants. We walked into a few and decided to go with what we knew and went thru the drive-thru at Wendy's for some chili and salads which we brought back to our "suite!" Our last dinner came to a grand total of $10! LOL! Not to mention it was everything we expected it to be :)

Fine dining at it's best... Wendy's!

The next morning we were happy to find that the highway and pass was OPEN and we quickly packed up and took off! It was an easy drive back to Denver and HOME SWEET HOME just in time for Thanksgiving!

The road home...

Due to the business of returning home after traveling for FOUR months I have yet to finish our last days of the trip! Having some free time today as I am recovering from a cold and being under the weather seems like the perfect opportunity :)

After our exciting night at the casino (not to mention slight upset stomachs after the all you can eat crab dinner lol!) we headed off for Santa Fe. Personally I was really excited to have Santa Fe be our last stop since I'd never been there and had heard so much about the amazing New Mexican cuisine, history, and culture that the city has to offer.

We had about a 5 hour drive from Flagstaff and grabbed some breakfast and sandwiches from the casino so we could drive straight to Santa Fe and not have to stop. The drive went quickly thankfully due to the Eric Clapton autobiography that we were listening to...thanks for the recommendation Evonne Dunn! :) One nice thing about this trip is we really got into listening to books on tape, so we will enjoy this for future road trips to come and trips to the mountains here in Colorado! We arrived in Santa Fe at sunset so of course it was a beautiful arrival into the city. I was so excited I could barely sit still my mouth was watering just at the thought of all the green chile I would be eating over the next few days!

In character with the rest of our trip we did not have our lodging secured so we did some research on Trip Advisor, Hotels Tonight, and Hotels.com to find something quickly since as usual it was about wine time/dinner time and we were thirsty and hungry! We found a great deal at the Hotel Santa Fe which was a short drive from the famed Santa Fe Plaza but it accommodated our rig and the price was right so we just booked one night in case we found something else the next day when we had more time. A boutique hotel, this is Santa Fe's ONLY Native American owned hotel and really embodies the Native American culture & spirit with its decor.

After dropping our luggage into our great suite (not sure how Michael managed the upgrade!) we headed out to grab a bite. We drove down to the Plaza to check it out the restaurants there but everything had a wait of at least an hour to an hour and a half so we headed back to our hotel area where there were a few other restaurants. We decided on La Choza, a casual New Mexican style cuisine and the sister restaurant of a popular place that we actually tried to get into down at the Plaza! The menu is exactly the same so we really scored! We started with margs and Michael didn't like his so I got to double fist, lol! We had chips and salsa and guac (which was delish and they kept hapily refilling it) and I had the green chile stew and Michael had some combination plate. This was also our first introduction to the fact that warm fluffy sopapillas come at the end of EVERY meal in Santa Fe! They bring you honey to drizzle on them and omg omg even though we were both stuffed we each ate a huge sopapilla... they were so delish and have become one of my favorite foods!

Dinner at La Choza

We had a great night sleep after our yummy meal and woke up ready to explore Santa Fe! We headed off to the Plaza for brunch at the renowned Tia Sophia's, which was recommended by EVERYONE that we had told we were going to Santa Fe. Of course I had to try their famous Huevos Rancheros which was everything and more that I expected. Stuffed again, I still indulged and had a sopapilla for my brunch dessert. We then strolled around the plaza for a few hours checking out the different hotels to see where we would like to move to for the next few days. We stumbled in on the Inn and Spa at Loretto , another Santa Fe style hotel just 2 blocks from the Plaza. Somehow Michael worked his magic and got us an amazing room for our last few nights complete with 2 balconies and a woodburning fireplace! This was much needed as the next day the weather took a turn for the worse and started SNOWING! Unfortunately we were not prepared to still be on the road in the middle of November so we didn't have any winter clothes (I was dying for my Uggs!!) so luckily we had this cozy room to stay warm in. Due to the changing weather and the lack of warm clothing we got as much exploring as we could done in our first full day in Santa Fe, visiting shops and galleries and walking around the Plaza and surrounding areas. We enjoyed several fabulous meals and I ate more green chile than I thought was possible... the only thing I regret not having is a green chile cheeseburger at a popular restaurant we didn't have time to make it to :( The next few days got a lot of snow so we extended our stay and waited it out until we were able to make our final leg to Denver... or so we thought... to be continued :)

The outside of the Hotel Santa Fe
Nighttime...