After Ted returned on Thursday we drove Central Avenue east from our campground into Old Town Albuquerque. They say this is the best 18 miles remaining of The Mother Road. It would be neat to take pictures of all the remaining court-style motels with neon signs to do a slideshow of Motels of Route 66.
Old Town is the original part of town that is being maintained for posterity. It has lots of shops, galleries and restaurants. We visited the church of San Felipe de Neri, a church that has been in operation for 300 years. It is in surprisingly good shape.
We had a great conversation with a couple manning the visitor's center before taking a stroll to see some of the sights. This Indian was having his picture taken for a tip. Ted put $1 in his can. I told him to buy low and sell high. I think he liked Ted's dollar better.
We ventured into this plaza where a well was still in use. We eventually went to La Placita for lunch. We sat in what originally had been the courtyard. They have a covering over it now but lots of light filters through. There were many old windows and openings still in place in the walls that were used when it was an open courtyard.
It was a nice afternoon in a lovely, old city.
On Friday we decided to drive the Jemez Scenic Byway. This was an area I visited with Eileen, Marilyn and Rita back in the late 90s on a girls' trip.
We visited the Welcome Center to the Jemez Pueblo. We have determined that a pueblo is like a village. The whole area is the pueblo, not a specific building. I took a picture of the wall in the courtyard. An elderly Native American gentleman was enjoying his lunch and told me what the objects mean. The middle "circle" is the sun and the seven feathers represent the days of the week. The circle to the left is the moon and to the right the stars. The feathers on top are prayers going to heaven. The corn, chilis and melon plants represent what they grow. The hummingbirds and butterflies show the pollination of their crops.
I took pictures of an orno (oven), a mud field house that would have been built as shelter in the fields and the red rocks of the area. We were surprised to see ornos in most every yard in the pueblo.
Our next stop was at the Gilman Tunnels that were blasted from the red rock in the 1920s to allow logging trains access along the rushing Guadalupe River gorge.
We continued on to the Soda Dam. This is a natural dam forming from a calcium carbonate spring. It has been building for centuries but the water keeps making a path through the deposits.
Our next stop was Battleship Rock, a sheer cliff that rises suddenly above the river like the front of a ship.
If we had continued on we would have eventually come to Bandelier National Monument but we had visited that from the east entrance during our stay in Santa Fe. So we turned around and headed back. We stopped to take a picture of the Dragonfly Cottage that the girls and I stayed in during our trip. It looks the same.
We took a turn off and went to Ponderosa to a winery. They advertised award winning Rieslings and that's my favorite wine. We were greeted by a slew of hummingbirds. After a few tastes we bought a bottle of New Mexico Riesling and a bottle of Jemez Blush.
As we approached the city Ted decided to check out the Sandia Resort and Casino. It sits high on a hill and has beautiful buildings, grounds, golf course and a huge casino. We really liked signing up at this place. They gave us cards with $20 credit on each one, two T-shirts and two nice pens. We played for a little over an hour. Ted won $36 and I won $10. I think that keeps us in the black.
It was after 6:00 when we got home so Ted grilled a couple of filets for us for dinner.
1 comment:
You should have eaten at the Casino - their food is excellent. The sunset there is awesome - I sat out by the pool and watched it a few years ago. Unlike you, I lost money there. Oh well, I had fun.
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