Las Vegas to Gallup

I stopped at the town of Las Vegas (not to be confused with the one in Nevada) to have a look around. Although it was only founded in the late 1800's (hardly worth mentioning by European standards) it sports an Old Town with a charming town square replete with park and Victorian band stand. Most of the buildings here are original but many have undergone some unfortunate changes. The town seems to be just hanging on. The most impressive edifice is the Plaza Hotel. Again, this is the pic I would have taken if...but I have used someone else's shot. Continuing south the road enters the mountains. Here they are covered with pine forests and, with a dusting of snow, they are magnificent against the blue wintery sky. The altitude here is over 6,000 feet.

I reached Santa Fe just in time for lunch. Not to sound like a broken record (I have commented on this before in my blogs), but the quality of food available to the traveler on this continent, and especially the vegetarian traveler, is just plain awful. Outside of Wichita I got off the freeway to find a place to have lunch. There were restaurants all right, but all six of them were burger joints. Doesn't anyone eat anything besides burgers? (Okay, there was a KFC, but that's just a different variety of junk food.) I knew that Santa Fe, the sophisticated town that it is, would have something to meet my needs -- but how to find it? The guiding spirits of Bonne Cuisine were with me as, just by accident , I found a bakery/cafe that had the most wonderful black bean/mushroom veggie burger I have ever had. And with sprouts! And salad! Real food! I intended to have a walk around the famous Plaza but couldn't find it. I drove around in circles and got quite lost until I found myself on a highway going south. It was too far to turn back so I kept on going and eventually joined the interstate again. I have been to Santa Fe once before. I reckon it was in 1978. That's 32 years ago -- half a lifetime. Gradually descending in altitude I turned westward again at Albuquerque and made it to Gallup, the last big town in NM before Arizona. I am now in the Great Southwestern Desert. New Mexico is the sixth largest state in the Union but it only has a population of two million.