Monday, September 07, 2015
Craig and I drove east on I-10 towards Las Cruces.
On Friday we headed east to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I was last there in 1989. Craig has never been there. We took the elevator 750 feet down. It was a cool 65 degrees. The old restaurant that was once there was gone.
Stalactites.
Cute little lamb.
Afterward we drove north to Santa Fe. The sunset was beautiful. It rained a few times.
Road trip.
We spent the night in Las Cruces.
Silhouette.
The cave formations were huge, interesting, and unexpected.
Enormous column.
As we were leaving the park we saw a car stopped and looked over the edge of the road and saw a large number of bighorn sheep. I'm not sure whether I have ever seen bighorn sheep before.
Afterward we drove north to Santa Fe. The sunset was beautiful. It rained a few times.
New Mexico sunset.
The next morning we headed east to Pecos National Historical Park. My friend Jeremy is the archaeologist there. We stopped at the museum first.
Lots of interesting things to learn.
Craig and I headed up to see the pueblo and the cathedral. As we went along I showed Craig how to spot pottery.
Pecos church.
That afternoon we went to downtown Santa Fe. Escaping rain under an overhang. Later we had supper at the Plaza Cafe with Jeremy. They managed to charge my debit card for a meal we paid cash for. Not cool. The chili was delicious and burned throughout my digestive tract.
We drove down to Albuquerque and spent the night, watching silly fancy tv. The next day we drove south through back roads to see the Spanish Mission of Quarai, built in 1625 and abandoned in 1677.
Quarai.
Craig enjoyed seeing the well-preserved ruins.
Inside the church.
Outside the church.
The trail led through a wild area where we ate chokecherries and some other berries. It was fun to sample them.
We then drove to Mountainair. I lived there in 1986 on my first dig, and lived at Gran Qivira in 1989 while teaching field school. I hadn't been back since.
Mountainair.
I was kind of surprised at how poorly I remember the town. I spent 10 weeks there in 1986, but little had stuck in my mind. One of the things I recalled was the Rosebud Saloon, where I learned to love Patsy Cline, who was popular on the jukebox, as well as the Cattle Call song.
Rosebud Saloon.
We had lunch at the Ancient Cities Cafe. Church was getting out and the town elders arrived to have the buffet, which Craig enjoyed. I had the red chili cheese enchiladas and then an order of super delicious onion rings.
Jerry's Ancient Cities Cafe.
We went back to Tucson, and Craig headed home to Phoenix. It was a lovely time with a good friend.
