Saturday morning we decided to do a little sightseeing since I had to unhook my pickup to get into the site. We drove into the small town of Manzano and bought water at the little store there. Saw this old church nearby which was surrounded by an old cemetery.
Sign at church
The church - notice the reinforcements on the walls.
Tombstone at one of the graves
One of the stained glass windows. Bet it's pretty from the inside with the sun shining through.
We saw a sign for a couple of campgrounds, so decided to check them out by driving up a rather steep road into the Manzano Forest. Why is it that everywhere I go lately, I run into either wildfires or the remnants of them? This man-made one occurred in May of this year. We couldn't get to the campgrounds because the road was closed.
Part of the burned area
Another view of the trees
On the way to the campground, I'd seen this sign along the side of the road. Steve had been there before and enjoyed it, so we next explored the Quarai Ruins for a while. The first thing I noticed was the difference in construction methods compared to the Casa Grande Ruins in Arizona the day before. Of course, those were much older.
Sign for the ruins
The large main building/mission.
Inside, with Steve's height to compare the size of the building
There are many, many different sized rooms attached to the church. This view is from the gardens looking back.
Village of Quarai sign
How about this sign? A little sobering, perhaps.
We walked along this path into the gardens.
It was a very windy day.
I took a a lot more pictures at the ruins, but this is probably enough to get an idea of the size of the place.
We were getting hungry, so drove into the town of Mountainair to find some lunch. Stopped at the historic Shaffer Hotel and Restaurant. Here's part of the ceiling in the restaurant. Although I know it's an ancient native symbol, I still can't get used to seeing the swastikas used as decoration.
While waiting for our food, we explored the lobby of the hotel.
Old menu - wish they still had these prices.
After eating my delicious green chile enchiladas and Steve his turkey pastrami sandwich, we headed back to the campground. It was a fun day--lots to see and do. Time for a nap and/or read a book.
Today, Sunday, we finished watching the movie "Remains of the Day," with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, an English film about a butler (man-servant) whose focus and expertise at his job didn't allow him to show normal emotions or interests. Quite an interesting movie, a rather sad ending.
I hooked up and took off, intending to get as far as Amarillo, Texas today. However, after driving Hwy 40 east through many miles of road construction in which they'd narrowed the usual four lanes down to two, one each direction, I was ready to call it quits in Tucumcari, NM for the night. Found a decent RV park on Route 66 with full hookups for a very good price and settled in.
Tomorrow, Amarillo, Texas, then north through the tiny western panhandle of Oklahoma and into Kansas. Will be able to color in three new states on the map.
