Day 21 Sunday Oct. 5, 2008

From Mountainair to Socorro. 66 miles. The rain fell last night and continued on during most of the morning. My first rising occurred at 4:30 am. Peering through the window, a steady drip continued. I went back to bed. We anticipated the rainfall. We had seen the storm coming, dark clouds had been coming in from the south and circled above us yesterday afternoon.

It gave me time to reflect on our experience in the town of Mountainair. I wrote about the old, refurbished hotel yesterday, but there is more. The Schaffer Hotel includes a restaurant and curio shop in addition to the hotel. I was told it is a cowboy and cowgirl hotel. Most of the rooms have a number of single beds and the bathroom facilities are communal. They also have a game room with pool tables and pinball machines. It was very nice and I wish we had time to read all the articles and pictures on the walls about the hotel’s history.

Pam visited a Visitors Center yesterday and returned with a Southwestern Indian Tribes book and a brochure about the Salinas Pueblo Missions. We had breakfast today at the Ancient Cities Café. We returned to the motel, gathered our belongings, handed over the keys and headed out to see the ruins of one of the ancient missions. At the Visitors Center we first watched a video about the Indians, the Franciscan Monks and the Conquistadors. Then on to the ruins. We drove to the Salinas Pueblo Mission site know as Quarai. It is a difficult and enlightening story about the Spanish conquest of the west, the powerful influences of the church and its desire to convert the natives and the greed of those individuals who were given authority to govern in the name of Spain.

We spent a long time walking through the ruins and being amazed at the architectural development of a mostly unknown tribe, a people who had lived over a thousand years in the adverse conditions of New Mexico. And had, within a period of 300 years succumbed to diseases and hunger under the rule of foreign governments.

We drove west on Hwy. 60, arriving at Socorro in the early afternoon, where we found lodging at a Super 8. Along the way we noticed on either side of Hwy 60, out in the fields, junked cars and RVs. Most of them appeared to be deserted as they were rusty and dilapidated. I can only draw a parallel with the Pueblo Indian ruins which I had just visited a few hours ago.

Weather permitting, I shall continue my ride tomorrow.