Installment #7 - Retirement Trip

3/12/06
Santa Fe – Spent two nights at a Wal-Mart with a security guard riding around the parking lot in a pickup with yellow light flashing all day and night.

Thanks for all the birthday calls and emails to Sharon.

Santa Fe is at 7000 feet, nights were in mid-30s F. When we left this morning the radio said wind gusts of 65. We decided to stay off interstates for a change – unfortunately there wasn’t much to see on the route we picked (Highway 285 south, heading for Lubbock TX.
Santa Fe was worth the stop – We began yesterday morning by catching the City bus to the Loretto Chappel and much more. People on bus were very friendly (one lady - w/her husband, looked as if they were bums?? - had lived in Moscow 3 years, husband had lived in Seattle for many, many years). These two marked our map and told us where to go to see the best sights.
When we first got off the bus we walked past the Santa Fe Palace of Governors where lines of New Mexicans were sitting all bundled up with there hand-made wares on the sidewalk ready to sell to tourists. Saw lots of bronze statutes.
The Loretto Chappel (picture) with the winding staircase was well worth the visit. We walked to Burro Alley, once a bawdy saloon and gambling district, this street is named for the burros that carried firewood to be sold here. Then on to Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi which had a 380 year old statue of the Virgin Mary inside.
We walked on around town by the Santa Fe river to the oldest house in USA, and then into the San Miguel Mission Church (said to be the oldest church in USA). Saw paintings on buffalo hides done in the 1600s.

On down to Forth Sumner to see Billy the Kid museum (the guy just named it Billy the Kid so tourists would stop). He had a lot of information and memorabilia about Billy the Kid, but mainly it was a collection of everything old – what a place: cameras, typewriters, dishes, farm equipment, old cars, and on and on.

Next to Clovis (they have a brick main street just like Alliance NE – my hometown). Over 100 trains go through Clovis each day. USA’s largest pawn shop was there – covered one city block – we spent over an hour in there – and yes, spent some money too. Tony found a large vice – something he has been looking for for a long time.
Travelled on down highway to Waylon Jennings birthplace and stopped for lunch on Waylon Jennings Boulevard (Littlefield TX).