This week we are starting our journey back to the east so we will be ready to work in Conway Arkansas by next Monday.
On Monday we headed south to New Mexico.
On the way to our campground we stopped at Aztec Ruins National Monument.
This National Monument was different than the other ruins we had been in. You were able to go inside the actual ruins & they were set up just as it would have been in the past.
After leaving there we noticed that the mountains in New Mexico were layered with several colors of stone.
After settling in at our campground we headed to Pecos National Historical Park.
The park visitor center had carved wood all throughout because it had been built and donated to the National Park Service for use as a visitor center by Greer Garson.
We took the ruins trail around Pecos' Pueblo.
On the trail was the last church completed in 1717 the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels of Porciuncula. The friars taught the Pecos Indians woodworking & they used decorative carving to decorate the church.
We also walked the 2 1/2 mile Glorieta Battlefield Trail. The battle took place March 26-28, 1862 during the Civil War.
The battle was over mineral wealth & blockade-free international trade as the plan was to take over the west coast for the confederates.
Next we went to downtown Santa Fe & visited the oldest church in the United States. The church had cut outs on the floor in front of the alter which showed the original historical parts of the church.
We also went to Loretto church. This church has been a mystery.
On a tree outside the entrance are rosaries hung on the branches.
The mystery of the church is the spiral staircase. It leads to the choir loft. The story goes that the church needed a staircase & they prayed about it. One day a man showed up & offered to build it. He built the staircase. They went to pay him & he had disappeared. There are no supports on the staircase. It is a continuous spiral.
On our walk around Santa Fe we saw several metal art structures.
The central Plaza was filled with people selling Indian items & food.
We headed back through Texas.
On the way we saw the cars buried in the sand. They are one of the must see sights along Route 66.
After settling into our campground we went to the Big Texan Steak Ranch.
They offer a free 72 ounce steak if you can eat it including sides within an hour. We decided not to even try. We got much smaller steaks which were enough to have 3 meals out of.
The Big Texan also has a hotel mocked up as an old western town.
Even Big Tex-Rex hangs around the Big Texan.
Tex-rex is another must see along Route 66.
Our campground had the perfect truck for Dennis but he didn't think he could put all his tools in it.
With the storms moving through Oklahoma we stayed in Amarillo for 2 days. While there we went to Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. It is where flint was found & used for making tools.
We also saw the first spring flowers starting to bloom.
Next stop was Oklahoma.
At Walmart the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile was parked.
Then it was on to Arkansas.
We will be working for the next 2 weeks near Conway, Arkansas helping to rebuild from the tornado that struck here last spring. The tornado left a 41 mile trail of destruction. It was classified with an EF4 rating, meaning it had winds that were between 166-200 miles per hour. .
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