Mother Daughter Road Trip 2021 Last Few Days

 On day 4 (June 4), we were in Santa Fe and did a scavenger hunt.  It took us around to various sights and we had to solve clues to earn points.  We had a great time and got to see many of the things I was hoping to see in Santa Fe.  

San Miguel Church

Inside the oldest house

altar in Loretto Chapel

Loretto staircase

Loretto Chapel

Basilica of St Francis of Assisi

After the scavenger hunt we drove out to El Rancho de Las Golondrinas.  They have been working to restore this old ranch compound.

The next day we drove from Santa Fe to Eagles Nest to get Lauren to the wedding she needed to attend that evening.

On Sunday, June 6 we drove from Eagles Nest to Chama to board the Cumbres Toltec Railway.  It takes you on the old railroad from Chama to Osier Colorado station, where they then feed you lunch and then bring you back to Chama. This railway is the longest and highest narrow gauge railroad. It was so beautiful.

Adding water at Cumbres Station, half way to Osier.

Chama station

Cumbres station

After we returned to Chama, we drove to Taos for the night.  The next morning we drove home to LB's house in Ft Worth.

What a great way to spend a week...exploring new places and adventure with your favorite girl!

Mother Daughter Road Trip 2021 Day 3

 Today we started our adventure by riding the Sandia Peak Tramway. The tramway was built in 1964 and the lower terminal where you board sits at 6559 ft above sea level , where as the top terminal where you exit sits at 10378.  It climbs/descends at a speed of about 13mph.

This rock formation is called Three Story Dory.  Once the tram reaches this area, we are three stories high.

The rock balancing on the top of this cliff is relatively the same size as the tram car.

In the last picture you see a small cabin at the top of the cliff.  This cabin was originally built of wood for the men who were building the tramway in the 1960's to stay in.  However the first cabin caught fire and burned down.  They rebuilt it out of wood again.  The second cabin blew off the ridge.  The winds up there are crazy. So the third time they built it out of rock and it has sat there on the cliff ever since.  It is no longer used for lodging but you can hike over along the ridgeline to it.

After the tramway, we visited the small New Mexico Holocaust and Intolerance Museum in downtown ABQ.

This book contains only one word-Jew.  40 columns, 120 lines  625 sheets, 1250 pages

The last picture shows a tube with approximately 11,000,000 seeds, each representing the life of one of the 11,000,000 people killed by Hitler and his Nazi followers.  Look closely and you can see the at the bottom there are 1,500,000 Jewish children.  In the middle it says 4,500,000 Jewish adults but if you look at the top section it says 5,000,000 Non-Jews.  I know I often forget that it wasn't just the Jewish people who were persecuted and killed.  I thought this was a great way to remind us of that fact.

After the Holocaust Museum, we drove the Turquoise Trail from ABQ to Santa Fe with a quick stop in Madrid to see Maggie's Diner from the movie Wild Hogs.

Wait for Day 4--scavenger hunt in Santa Fe.  Should be fun!

Mother Daughter Road Trip 2021 Day 2

Day 2 found us stopping at Cadillac Ranch just outside Amarillo with spray paint in hand. But due to all the rain recently there was no way I was going all the way out to the Cadillacs.  One guy wearing rubber rain boots was getting stuck in the mud as he was trying to spray paint the different cars.  We will check it on our way back by as we head home next week.

We made our final Texas stop at Midpoint Cafe and Sunflower Station in Adrian.  This cafe and shop are on historic Rte 66 and sit exactly half way between Chicago and LA. 1139 miles in both directions

Arriving in New Mexico, our first stop was in Tucumcari at Tee Pee Curios.  This shop also sits along historic Rte 66.

Once we arrived in Albuquerque, we found Boca Negra Canyon, part of the Petroglyph National Monument.  We walked and climbed some of the trails to see the petroglyphs and the view of ABQ. The majority of these petroglyphs were made by ancestors of modern day Pueblo people. They used hand held stone tools to remove the desert varnish  to expose the lighter color of the basalt rock. Petroglyphs differ from pictographs which are paintings on rock. There are over 21,000 images in this national monument. It is believed that the majority of the images were carved between 1300-1700 AD.   The placement of each image is not a casual or random decision.

After settling into our hotel, we had dinner at Cocina Azul and are ready to rest up for day 4.

Mother Daughter Road Trip 2021 Day 1

LB has a friend getting married in Springer New Mexico on June 5.  So that means....

                                MOTHER DAUGHTER ROAD TRIP!!

I picked LB up on June 1 and after lunch at Chuys, we headed out on our adventure.  Our first stop was in Decatur to see the Petrified Wood Gas Station.  Built in 1927 with the motor court built in 1931,  the cafe built in 1929, this became known as the Texas Tourist Camp Complex.  The owner covered the gas station in petrified wood in 1935 and it was in operation until 1988.

The Texas Lunchroom was renamed the Texas Cafe in 1935 and eventually closed in the 1960's when traffic was diverted but reopened in 1993.

A couple of interesting facts:

The gas station, motor court and cafe are located on the old Meridian Highway.  The Meridian Highway is a north south highway running from southernmost Texas to the Canadian border.  In this particular area it is also part of the old Chisholm Trail.  In the 1920's it was renamed US Hwy 81.

Every evening the neon lights, the lights in the pumps and the Texaco sign are activated to help bring back memories of the past.

It is believed that Bonnie and Clyde stayed in one of the cabins and the community was happy when they left without a shoot out happening.

Our next stop was in downtown Decatur to see this sign and large dice. The saying "Eighter from Decatur" was actually "Ada from Decatur" when Will Cooper used the name of his sweetheart.  Later it changed when a hard roll of 8 was needed.

We happened upon these wood carvings made from the remnants of a Bois D'Arc hedge planted in 1861 by Stephen M Gose, an early justice of peace, blacksmith and leader of the Methodist Church.  He had come from Missouri to Texas in 1859.  He planted these spiny trees around his log cabin to serve as a  barrier to the Indians.  I love the carving of the cardinal.

We made a quick side trip to Bowie to see the worlds largest Bowie knife as officially named by Guinness Records.  The knife is 20 ft 6 in from tip to handle.

Next we found the Tower Service Station and Diner in Shamrock.  This station is on Historic Rte 66 and was built in 1936. It was the inspiration for Ramone's Body Shop in the movie Cars.  One of the gas pumps was stopped at $4.81, 12 gallons, 34 cents/gallon.  Boy how I wish that was still the cost of gas.  I just filled my truck-about 23 gallons, $3.19 a gallon, for a total of almost $74!

We also found this Phillips 66 gas station that has been restored on Rte 66.

In Groom we saw the Leaning Tower of Texas.  Two of its feet were off the ground!

We had dinner at another Rte 66 icon, the Golden Light Cafe in Amarillo.  Awesome burger!

Tomorrow holds more fun!  Stay tuned!!