Busy Last Couple Of Days

Yesterday we decided to take a drive on the Turquoise Trail a U.S. Scenic Byway that runs along Route 66 to New Mexico Highway 14 running north south to Santa Fe.  There are three "Ghost Towns" along the route or so we were told at the outset.  We drove up the highway to the first ghost town.  It was called Golden and it wasn't much of a town.  More like a settlement during the silver mining days and much like the ruins of the ancients there isn't much left.

We drove on up the highway to Madrid.  Lead, coal and silver were the reasons this town was founded as early as the 17th century.  Today it is filled with quirky artist shops, a couple of hotels, restaurants and some really run down buildings.  I don't think This Old House could help a couple of them.  Artists have interesting ways of repairing stuff as well.

Neat shop with a pretty worn Chevy

This Old House????

One way to repair a rotting column

Keeps the wood underneath from rotting

She sells boots

We never did find the third ghost town, Cerrillos, but it could be that we were both sleeping as we drove through.  We did find the state penitentiary just outside Santa Fe and the local BLM office where I was able to obtain some really good info on their properties.  We drove around Santa Fe stopping at a pottery shop for Mia to browse and of course I found a Quilt shop for her as well.  We headed home to the trailer.

After getting to the trailer the winds started to howl and we starting getting gusts of 20 - 30 mph.  Tumble weeds really do tumble, right past you on the way to some immovable object.  The clouds came in and there was talk of nasty weather overnight with a little rain over the metro area of Albuquerque. 

Before

After

Not to be hindered I decided to go into town to take some pictures of the area along Route 66 that is said to be revitalized with installation of new LED Neon signage.  As is normally the case with a lot of the tourist hype, it wasn't all that impressive.  I kind of expected more.

It was fun taking night time pictures for the first time.  I spent sometime in Old Town prior to shooting the lights.  Old Town kind of remained me of Leavenworth back in Washington.  Neat old buildings but now they are mostly filled with curio shops for tourists.  The church was stunning.

Today we are home doing wash and getting a couple of more things done.  We have some high winds in the early afternoon and expect some thundershowers later this evening.  Tomorrow we pull out and head north to Raton, NM for the night before crossing over into Colorado the next day.  Not sure what there is in Colorado and we aren't sure, we may just cross it and not stop.

I have another blog to do that I will post in the morning.  Hope all is well and thanks for stopping by.