Not such a “Big See” day. You have 2 choices on how to get to Albuquerque – The modern highway or a route on the cleverly marketed name of ‘The Turquoise Trail’. Ain’t no way i was going to go by the highway if a byway existed. I returned to Santa Fe to see the nations’s oldest house (1610) and oldest church (San Miguel).
This ‘oldest house’ stuff is tricky. I used to live near the oldest house in New England (1639) and prior to 1639 there just was not a whole lot of the New World, much less America. But given that the oldest church is across the street and the Hall of Governors is nearby, why couldn’t it be located there?
It certainly looks habitable though nobody is currently home.
San Miguel was as large as you would expect an outpost church to be but it had its bona fides in place with a retablo.
The morning’s short walk concluded with a peek at the State Capital and i left with the conclusion that Santa Fe was a comfortable place to live and visit even with its challenging parking.
From Santa Fe it was over to Pecos Nat’l Monument only to discover the gosh darn place was closed due to the government shutdown. This was a disappointment but like many things in life, you snap a pic and carry on. From there i lucked upon an abandoned (i think?) church in Lamy and buried my sorrows in what was my first legit vegetable in the form of a lunch special of ‘stew and salad’ in Pecos.
As i paid my bill, i asked what the story was about a painting behind the cashier. She said the building used to be a bar and a bar patron at the time painted a scene that included caricatures of all the regulars. It looked very WPA-ish and sure enough she located a date of 1942 on the lower right corner. The building, she continued, also served in its day since it was built in 1910, as general store, convenience store, pool hall, dance hall, courthouse, jail, and brothel. The brothel part i was a little dubious about, but who am i to say?
The turquoise trail passes through a town called madrid which is invariably coupled with the word ‘quaint’. It was a place filled with funky stores and was parked up to the gills. I would have stopped if i could have parked. Instead i parked along the road to take landscape pics as i continued down to the Big City of ABQ.
And, of course, there had to be another church with its sanctuary to Mary who they said was the mediatrix of all graces. New Mexico will make a catholic out of me yet, if this keeps up.
And from there it was a few short miles to my hotel in ABQ which abuts a busy highway and is behind a fence which locks at night. It sits behind an mall which is dying and i think has transmogrified itself by looking for new tenants. One tenant is a place called Citizens Church which has branches here in ABQ and Maui. Pictures of the church feature a stage in what looks like a concert setting. And sure enough, when you look at ‘The Team‘ page of the church’s website, you find 48 very engaged people including a Lighting Team Lead. It is down the street from a dialysis center which has a matching Walmart.
But when i made the reservation for this place, ABQ was filling up for the main event of the year…The Balloon Fiesta! and so beggers cannot be choosers.
The Big World 