New Mexico Photos 11

Geez, how many photos of the road did I take? And why am I putting them here?
It's like these cows think they own the road.
Got to the ghost town of Chloride at around 8:30 on Wednesday morning.
I was the first visitor of the day.
After I parked, there was an older gentleman who went to the Pioneer Store, which is a museum. It was not supposed to be open for a couple of hours, but he was kind enough to open it up.
The guy was Don Edmund, a retired IBM manager, who bought up much of the neglected property in the town and with his family has restored many of the buildings. He told me a bit about the town and how he came to embark on this endeavor. He's a really nice guy.
The Grafton cabin was not originally located in Chloride. It was built in the mining town of (duh) Grafton in the late 1870's. That town was virtually abandoned by 1890 because of Indian raids, Over the years, many of the buildings in Grafton were lost to floods or fires, while others were dismantled for the building materials. By the 1970's, this cabin was the only remaining building still standing. It was first moved to Las Cruces and in 2006 relocated here.
It's one big room and a loft.
Don mentioned something about the Chloride National Forest. I asked about it and he told me it was a joke. This tree is the forest.
I don't know what this building once was.
The old bank is now a cafe. They don't get a lot of business though. Chloride is kind of out of the way.
Pye Cabin on the right was home to a succession of miners throughout the silver boom period, then was home to ranch hands and their families up into the 1940's. Chloride began as a tent city in 1880 when silver was found in the canyons and mountains to the west that later grew to a population of three thousand miners. During its boom period the town had nine saloons, two general stores, butcher shops, boarding houses, an assay office, hotel, blacksmith shop, drug store, law office, livery stable, Chinese laundry, ladies millinery store, photography studio and of course a red light district. There was no church.
Now it's chickens in the road. I saw a variety of other animals while driving, including jackrabbits, quail, vultures and roadrunners.
I realize many people would consider this landscape to be wasteland because of all of the nothingness, but I think it is beautiful.
This isn't the actual Trinity Site. That is part of the larger White Sands Missile Range. This is not too far away from the site though and near the road leading to it. The site is only open to the public on two days a year.
But if you were standing here at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time on July 16, 1945, you would have seen quite a show.
This was one of my shorter days of driving, so I thought I might get off of the interstate and stop off in Socorro for a few minutes. This is the old San Miguel Mission, founded in 1598. The building was built between 1615 and 1626. It is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the United States.
Juan Jose Baca was an influential person in Socorro. He served in the territorial legislature and also as mayor, as well as running a mercantile in this building which was also his private residence. At the time, the two-story building made the surrounding one-story adobe structures seem diminutive.
Several buildings in Socorro remain from the Spanish colonial period, like this Juan Nepomuenco Garcia House, which still bears a flat roof and a courtyard.
And now we are back in Albuquerque, on their stretch of Route 66. I booked a room in the Monterey Motel because it was well reviewed and also has a guest laundry. As I always try to pack light, sometimes doing a load of laundry is required.
When it opened in 1937, El Vado was on of New Mexico's first motels on Route 66. Once abandoned, it has recently been renovated with shops, eating and drinking establishments and a small boutique motel.
While the El Vaco has gone through a renovation, the El Don is certainly in need of one.
I crossed the Rio Grande many times on my trip. It's much easier to cross in New Mexico than it is from old Mexico.
More rocks with pictures. The Petroglyph National Monument is on the outskirts of Albuquerque.
The brochure from the U.S. National Parks System did not indicate what any of these pictures were like the one I got at Three Rivers, so I guess I'll have to make some things up.
I see a man riding on a flying horse with a large storage container on its back.
A woman wearing a crown of hot dogs.
Conjoined twin fish next to a big drum and a star.
Okay, I am going to assume this is a macaw because nearby there was a sign indicating the Macaw Trail.
Oh look, The ancient people were trying to draw the spear from a Florida State football helmet.
Sometimes I wonder if the people who did these petroglyphs were really just aliens.
Very nearby are the western suburbs of Albuquerque.
Another reason for staying at the Monterey Motel was because it is within walking distance to the Old Town. This is the plaza.
On the north side of the plaza is the San Felipe de Nari Church. It is one of the oldest buildings in Albuquerque and the only one that dates to the Spanish colonial period. There is a priest in white robes going in the front door. He had a long beard and was wearing sunglasses. Do they have hipster priests?
I was very thirsty (did I mention it was very hot?) so I bought a Mexican Coke here.
I didn't know what I was going to do for dinner, so I checked on my phone for something good and not too far away. I opted for La Placita Dining Rooms, which has been open since 1935. It is located in the Casa de Armijo, built in 1706 and occupied for many generations by the Armijo family and has been used over the years as a fort, refuge and trading post.
I had the La Placita burger, which was topped with green chiles of course.
There are lots of shops in old buildings surrounding the plaza selling jewelry, art, clothing and touristy stuff.
This is the historic site of Our Lady of Angels, the first public school in Albuquerque run by the Sisters of Charity in 1881. It's now a shop called Trader Barb's. That seems considerably less historic.
On the walk back to the motel to do my laundry I passed the Bottger Mansion, which is currently a B&B. Built in 1912, it was the first residence in Old Town Albuquerque to have gas lighting. There have been some well-known guests at the Bottger Mansion, including Machine Gun Kelly and his gang, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.