Day Three

We woke up in the mountains of Santa Fe, in the cutest, friendliest hostel & saw a little bit of the city. Tia Sophia's served us classic New Mexico style food: chili-smothered huevos rancheros & breakfast burrito, the plaza provided us with beautiful stucco buildings & art to gaze at , and the local Native American artists showed us their jewelry. We wanted a souvenir from Santa Fe & decided buying handmade earrings from a local artist was a great idea. 

Hostel

I thought this artist was adorable... The local artists sat along the building, with all of their jewelry carefully laid out in front of them & were very quick to tell us to feel free to touch their merchandise, offer a mirror, explain how the jewelry was made, or show us their "signature" on the  jewelry. 

Since we had limited time, we didn't get to peruse the plaza, but continued through the city to Loretto chapel. Loretto chapel is famous for their miraculous staircase... It was constructed by a builder from one piece of wood, makes two 360 degree turns & has no supporting structures. 

Before we left Santa Fe we wanted to experience a piece of the mountains so we went on a hike, as suggested by Alexander & Hannah. It was on this hike that our mountain-virgin eyes were amazed. We ooed & ahhed over every mountain, cactus, & rock. We soaked in the sun. We took a picture every 5 minutes. We gawked at the houses. We had no idea what was to come. 

Eventually, we got in the car & hit the road. We entered Arizona and spotted an adorable little run-down shack that was a little ways from the highway with Route 66 painted on the side. I decided this photo had to go in my Instagram album, so we took the exit. As we drove up the road to the shack, Jacey pointed out that this "shack" was someone's home! And then we met Jerry. He hobbled out of his 94 ford truck & his dog came barking towards us. I thought if I asked nicely he would let me take a picture. I have this theory that if you're nice to people then they are happy to help you out, do a favor, or at least let you snap a pic. Thankfully, Jerry proved my theory to be true. (In retrospect, he kind of looked like the type of guy who would have a sawed off shotgun & wave it around, warning us to get off his land or he'd put a bullet between our eyes.) Jerry lived in the shack & his old ford truck, at the base of this mountain/cliff & carved scenes in rocks, which then were sold at the truck stop up the road. His companion was an abandoned mutt he rescued, who went by the name Baby Einstein. Jerry showed us his art, and told us about his life through his missing teeth & dirt stained face- that he rented from some "injuns" (the same ones that shot his other dog simply because they didn't like it), that he was recovering from a heart attack, that he was called the Rock Man because once, a huge rock fell right on him so hard it made an imprint in the ground. And all he did was get up, brush the dirt off his jeans & went back to work. "So then all the injuns decided I was the rock man", he says as he pulls his business card out of his stained jeans & hands it to us. Clearly printed on his card "THE ROCK MAN". We laughed, thanked Jerry for the letting us take pics & jumped in the car. 

We ended the night in tusayan, AZ. Just 1 mile outside of Grand Canyon National Park.