Snowy Santa Fe

This Sunday I am not in Cincinnati, but in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about 7200 feet above sea level. We flew from Cincinnati to Albuquerque yesterday, starting the day at 2:30 in the morning to get to CVG for a 5:30 flight to Dallas and then on to Albuquerque. We were lucky with the weather if not the early-morning schedule. I had read in the Santa Fe newspaper that they had gotten 3 1/2 inches of snow on Wednesday and that they were due for an additional 5 inches on Friday. They got it, and there were no arriving flights on Friday.

When we arrived at 10:30 in the morning Saturday and picked up our rental car, we upgraded to a more weather-worthy SUV with all-wheel drive from our usual basic compact. At first we were not sure that we had made a good choice, as I-25 in Albuquerque had perfectly dry pavement. But north of the city there were patches of snow on the pavement, and 20 or so temporarily abandoned cars along the interstate from the blizzard the day before. Still it was not as bad as some of the driving I had to do years ago between New Hampshire and Connecticut, but that may also be because a glorious sun was shining and the tall mountains were covered with a white dusting.

The streets in Santa Fe seem not to have been cleared completely, and the sidewalks hardly at all. Presumably Santa Fe subscribes to the snow removal theory that someone told me Cambridge, Massachusetts did years ago: God put it there and God will take it away. God hasn’t completed the job yet, but there are lots of visitors in Santa Fe, this last weekend of the year, and they have tramped the streets to view the art galleries and clothing shops and partake of the tempting restaurants, so much of the snow is beaten down. I have my least fashionable, warmest boots with me, and they are keeping me warm and dry, and also upright.

We’ve already done some good viewing and good eating, though the only non-edible I have purchased so far is a Desigual blouse in the Dallas airport (Terminal A, near Gate 16, and I must remember to plan future DFW trips accordingly). We have four more days in Santa Fe before a leisurely drive back to Albuquerque, we are perfectly situated in the heart of the city, at Otra Vez en Santa Fe, which is a fine locale for mi primera vez en Santa Fe.