It's the journey.......: Bo's Journal #22 More New Mexico

When we left Alamogordo we took a little back way - Hiway 55 so that we could visit some of the pueblo ruins in the Salinas Valley area tucked between the salt lakes (Las Salinas) in the east and the Manzano Mountains on the west. Two ancient southwestern cultural traditions – the Anasazi and the Mogollon –overlapped in the Salinas Valley producing highly adaptive, trade centered societies. The pueblos at Abo, Gran Quivira and Quarai are all that remain of a people who were hunters, farmers, potters, weavers, basket makers and jewelry makers; the Salinas people borrowed what was useful from the more advanced groups they encountered. The Salinas Valley became a major trade center and one of the most populous parts of the pueblo world. However strong influences from the Zuni and Spanish cultures, raids from the Apaches, drought, famine and introduced diseases decimated the population and led to the abandonment of the pueblos by the 1670’s. We visited Gran Quivira, largest of the three pueblos, where there is evidence of hundreds of rooms as well as two Franciscan churches – one built in the 1620’s and a larger one begun around 1659 but never finished. Every time we visit these magnificent stone and adobe structures we are impressed but also saddened by the loss they represent.

Gran Quivira

Then we arrived in Albuquerque and found a really great Roadtrek Dealer/Service Center called Vantastic Vans. They only deal in Class B Motor homes or van conversions and you just felt from the git-go that they knew what they were talking about and when it comes to my Pod I want people who will take good competent care of my special home! Well, the confession is that the Ladies simply did not check all of the switches and fuses and found out that there was one switch they didn’t check or turn back on –oops! Still no explanation of what caused the switch to trip in the first place but grateful that it was so simple and inexpensive to fix. While we were there we decided to have these good guys help with a few other irritating problems our home had developed and to go to Camping World for the installation of a fancy water filter system so we don’t have to keep carrying bottled water and so that I can have decent tasting agua for a change. I am most grateful when my Gals take such careful care of little old me! We then trooped around old town Albuquerque taking loads of photos and taking in the sites, sounds and smells. I met a cool little gal dog named Jorga in the otherwise kinda boring RV Park we were at. Her buddy Murtis was a retired Iraq veteran and a great joke teller. It was all good.

Albuquerque

Jorga

After all of the repair and service stuff (although I must say the waiting around in customer service areas is so fun because everyone just loves to give me all kinds of treats and hugs) we headed up Scenic Hiway 158 north toward Taos to meet up with two gals who are sisters and also sorority sisters of Cokie’s. Karen is from California and was visiting her sister Beth in Denver, CO but Beth has a second home in Taos and they were coming down for a few days. We passed through some awesomely beautiful areas on this drive north toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains along Interstate 40, then north on NM 3. We stayed a bit at Villanueva State Park on the Pecos River; then we moved on to Storrie Lake State Park to sit out a storm, dig up a few things and then spend a few days just resting. We moved along Highways 518 and 3 passing through many little towns and pueblos with names like Sena, San Miguel, San Jose and Ribera. It made us feel like we were in the heart of old Mexico. We stopped for pictures and peepee many times, thank goodness.

San Miguel