Had a nice lazy start in beautiful Santa Fe. Went to explore downtown which was super-pretty, all red stone and olde worlde plazas and things. Also felt a bit like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in that there were no children about: this is a city the over-50s have claimed as their own! Left town in 90 degree heat with the plan of getting gas on the road. After driving about 20 miles it appeared there was nothing on this road. With the gas level resting on red we stil...

Treated ourselves to a bit of a lie-in and left hotel at 11. Went to check out downtown Gallup. Visited the El Rancho hotel which was built by the Hollywood studios in the 1930s so that the movie stars (John Wayne, Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan...) would have somewhere swanky to stay while they were in the desert shooting westerns. It was pretty cool and had all their photos up. Went onwards heading for Albuquerque but alas, stopped in our tracks. A wobbly feelin...

Strange day... Got up early to head the 60 miles north to the Grand Canyon. Got about 30 miles up the road and thought I had returned to Scotland - grey skies, torrential rain, high winds! Stopped at a gas station for a serious confab. Decided that GC in the rain might be a major disappointment, what with zero visibility and all. It will be for another time. Was quite surprised by the weather as most of Arizona looks like it's never seen rain. So we went of...