2018-10
New Mexico, art on an open plain |
Bernardo NM
Albuquerque NM
Campground: Kiva Rv
Park and Horse Motel. $15.00 30 amp, full hookups. 50 amp
available. This is a PPA half price park, 2 day limit. Basic
former owners of this Rv park, on an exit with no facilities except the Rv park apparently got tired of "helping" stranded motorists |
Campground:
Enchanted Trails, Alb. NM. PPA half price park, 2 day limit. 30
amp, full hookups. $18.00. Swimming pool, cheap laundromat. Close
to Camping World and a few other Rv sales stores.
Enchanted Trails has a number of vintage campers, some are available to renting overnight |
the smaller units are for looks only as they are privately owned |
a classic Spartan |
Distance Traveled:
97 miles
Distance Traveled:
54 miles
Kathy, always up for a good adventure |
Abo Mission and Pueblo |
Obviously taking my
time getting to my next big destination near Santa Fe NM. The winds
are really picking up here in Albuquerque (Thursday and Friday)
possibly up to 70 miles an hour. Before getting here, I drove over
to the Salinas Pueblo Missions east of my first stop, Kiva Rv Park.
Kathy came down from Albuquerque for the day trip. The three
missions were all built next to existing Pueblo Indian settlements,
the Salinas Valley having at one time 10,000+ villagers. The three
settlements are called Abo, Gran Quivira and Quarai. We went to the
first two. Along the way, the main National Monument Visitor Center
is in Mountainair. The little town has an Rv park and would make a
great location to spend a couple of days in the area exploring each
of the Pueblo’s and Missions.
Gran Quivira, pueblo and mission |
one of the pueblo complexes along the top of a hill |
The area is a vast
sprawling valley of prairie grasses, cattle ranches with mesa's and
buttes boardering the region. A few tired mobile homes are along hwy
60 and I do mean “tired” as some have tires either holding down
the metal roofs or being used as boarder fencing around their
property. Including one mobile home painted with psychedelic colors,
forms and text “truth,light,heals”.
Interesting to get
another layer of information on the lifestyle of the Pueblo Indian as
farmers and pottery makers, selling their wares along the established
trade routes with other tribes in the west as well as the Aztec
Indians of Mexico. The difficult transition with the Spanish and
Franciscan missionaries. Though the native tribes here did quickly
integrate many of the tools, farming techniques and way of life.
Even among the various tribes, they moved from brown and red clay
pottery to making beautiful black and white designed pottery. To
their credit the missionaries did permit at least in the beginning,
the use of the Indian Kiva’s along with the construction and
instruction in Christianity.
this second mission church was never completed |
Many of the pueblo
mounds have not been excavated, other partially. What ever the
state, it is easy to see that these were large communities even
within a fairly harsh environment. Kathy and I even stopped at one
of the very few places to get a bit to eat in the town of
Mountainair. First for an iced coffee and later for lunch. Overall
a fun day of exploring.
Finally onto
Albuquerque where I had planned to meet up with some friends who live
in the area and as luck would have it, meeting up with Kathy and
Randy and Ron and Ronda, both fellow Rv-ers I met a number of years
ago in Tucson at Desert Trails Rv park.
Rhonda is so creative, redecorating their (summer) travel camper |
With heavy winds
(sustained in the 45-50 mph range) and icy cold, we spent time
indoors for the most part catching up on our summer plans, breakfast
at the Owl Restaurant and attempted tour of Tinker Town, a favorite
museum created by a couple with art, passion and a zest for life.
Distance Traveled:
38 miles
The Owl Restaurant |
Tinker Town, something to see around every corner |
my Rv friends, braving a very cool day |
awesome tourist poster |
traveled around the world, 80,000 miles |
traveled 80,000 miles around the world, wife left at one point, never to return. your dreams might not be the others |
clowns, sad or happy? |
many miniature hand made circus and western themed displays |
Tinker Town, the most unique museum art experiance |
Distance Traveled: 38 miles
I then headed on up the road for a lay over at the San Felipe Reservation Casino which will make my next stop at Cochiti Lake (Army Corp campground) just a short hop. Sure hope I'm able to get back to Albuquerque to visit friends who live in the area...
next to the casino is this race track, abandonded but still is really good condition |
While traveling
between all these destinations, I’ve been communicating with future
renters of my Rv lot, phone/txt etc, not always an easy task while
on the road. But it looks like I’ll have both of my Rv lots rented
out for the next year or so. Quite an accomplishment to say the
least. Thanks to my sister Dorothy for helping with some of the
paperwork, transfer of keys and funds. You’ve been a big help and
I really appreciate it.
That’s about it
for this week, hoping the weather improves where ever you are, it
will surely be a sunny day if not already….
More photos:
Salinas pueblo missions (173)
1 comment:
Your travels are amazing. Thanks for the great photos. Due to the higher elevation, NM can be a tad frigid.
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