August 11, 2009, Tuesday TO SANTA FE, NEW MEXICOToday started off very sad because our good 'ole travel buddies Ralph and Betty took off for home. It's nice to have such good friends that are relatives too! They are heading home and it's a different direction from the way we're going. We had our final prayer meeting and there were tears. We wish them well and hope they travel safe. We drove on to Santa Fe. Always wanted to go there 'cause it's an artsy town. We got there safe and sound. We set up camp and it was still early so we drove into town to see the church with the mysterious staircase. There is this Catholic Church, it's called the Chapel of Lorreto, and they had a ladder that the priests would climb to get to the choir loft. When the sisters came to this area they were afraid to climb the ladder (rightly so), so they wanted to put in stairs, but it would take up a lot of space and they would have to remove pews, which of course they didn't want to do. So the sisters prayed that they could somehow find an answer to this problem. Low and behold, a man showed up who offered to build a spiral staircase. It's beautiful! He built it and then disappeared, so they call it the mysterious staircase. When the man finished the staircase it didn't have a railing, so that was added years later. It's a very pretty chapel and staircase.