Being nomads of sorts, we seldom get "company", so when we do, it's a real treat! This past week, some dear friends of ours that still live in a sticks & bricks house in Denver, but have the same model RV as ours and venture out camping from time to time, joined us in Albuquerque for a few days.
We had spent some time there this past April, and Rich used to come here quite a bit for work about ten years ago, and Deb had been, but not the surrounding area so much. We all like this area, was familiar with most of it, but still had some areas that some of us hadn't seen yet, so it would be fun to show each other our "finds".
The first day's adventure was to Socorro to show Deb the Very Large Array. Rich used to come out this way for work quite often, so he was quite fond of the area. In our last visit, we had found a great restaurant that we wanted to share with them as well. When we got to the small town of Socorro, we had one hit and one miss...our restaurant, the Socorro Springs Brewing Co, the lunch didn't disappoint, it still was great, but a (great) nut & jerky place that Rich used to love going to, wasn't there any longer (and no one in town knew what happened to it), so he was greatly disappointed.
We did get to see one new thing in town though, which was fun for us, and that was the inside of the San Miguel Mission. It was closed when we were here last time, so it was nice to see how beautiful the inside is.
Rich, knowing the area, drove us on into Magdalena and all around it, giving me the opportunity to get some really fun pictures! We even drove out to their old cemetery! We tried getting to "Riley" which, per their posted sign, is now a ghost town 30 miles away, but the road pretty much just petered out, oh well, we gave it a good try!
As we drove over to the VLA, range cows and antelope came out to greet us. Deb had never been out there, so it was fun to show her just how big those things really are!
The following day our goal was to head to the tiny town of Cerrillos! Deb's son-in-law had a relative who had come from there and still had someone who was living there! It's one of the town's along the "Turquoise Trail". We had been to Madrid, which is also along this trail and a really fun town, so would be fun to show them and stop there for lunch.
Cerrillos was a hoot! "Tiny" it is! It's true"claim to fame" is it's beautiful and unusual turquoise. It's a really pretty greenish color that's mined here, and at one time it and gold & silver were heavily mined in these hills. Now, it's pretty much just this pretty turquoise. The other thing the town's been used for is several movies have been filmed here including Young Guns. It also had a pretty interesting Turquoise Mining Museum that had all sorts of things! While we were there, a group of YPO (Young Presidents Association) folks were having a scavenger hunt, and showed up. It brought back some fun memories, as I used to handle those groups in my "old event coordinator days"!
Deb & Rich did indeed catch up with "relatives" at Mary's Bar, took lots of pictures, and then we were off to Madrid! As usual, we had a great lunch at The Hollar while we listened to the band Cactus Slim play for us!
As usual, we found some "goodies" we couldn't pass up, as there is always something really special in this art-filled town!
It is so much fun, seeing places you've been before, through the eyes of friends! To soon our friends were on their way back home...and we are off on yet another unknown adventure!
...On the road to Washington, Marie
If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/
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