First thing this morning we called about a train ride up into the mountains that Mike had spotted online. According to their website, the trains ran every Saturday and sounded quite fun and scenic. However, a phone call revealed that at they haven’t run since 2014! Too bad, but we decided to go ahead and check out of our hotel and get on down the road. We gathered up a pile of accumulated stuff and took it to UPS to ship it home. It’s nice to send that stuff on home and not worry about carting it around and fitting it into our luggage later on.
Last night we found that Truth or Consequences hotels were quite booked so we altered our initial plan and found a place in Socorro, which is a little closer but not a place we’d ever heard of. Guess we’ll find out!
Before leaving Santa Fe, we had to make a stop at the farmers market, back at the Railyard district where we had dinner last night. There were lots of stalls with great local produce, including many types of peppers, of course. Mike would have loved to bring a whole selection home. There were also many inviting stalls with food to eat and we settled on a homemade green chile sausage for Mike, a kielbasa for Tami, and a shared slice of mushroom and onion flatbread. There were many other yummy looking items, but we couldn’t try them all (not even us). We walked by several booths roasting barrels of green chiles, too, as we wandered through some art booths. The smell got better and better as we walked around. It was probably good that we left before we got hungry again.
Santa Fe farmer’s market
Tami liked this car at the farmer’s market
Roasting chilies!
While at the market, we spotted a woman expressing her thoughts on the impending election (see picture!). It reminds us of how refreshing it is to be in New Mexico after Utah and Arizona. In general it is far more liberal here and while we see very few presidential campaign signs, they have been exclusively for Hillary.
We got a pin from her too
Back in the car again and headed south past Albuquerque and on to Socorro. There was really not a lot to see on the drive. Rolling brown hills leading to distant brown mountains, all covered with sage, and clear blue skies. The freeway paralleled the path of the Rio Grande and we could see the wide green swath of trees marking the course of the river. Along the river it seemed to be a continuous series of farming communities. We saw some vineyards and orchards and overall it was reminiscent of the Yakima valley.
Kind of sums up Socorro, at least the tourist main drag
Sunset in Sucorro
We understand they empty the pool at our hotel once the temperatures get down to 85
Socorro was once a large and bustling mining town that even had its own opera house, which is still standing. It is also the home of the New Mexico mining college, but it is a very sleepy town now. The town plaza was nearly empty except for a small group of Hispanic men strumming guitars and singing, and the Capitol Bar had a BBQ grill emitting wonderful smells that wafted across the square. One footnote to the political comment above: here we’ve seen two Trump signs! Egads! But it is very rural here.
Park in the plaza
Capitol Bar
The story of the Baca House
Baca House today
Interesting local lawman
We stopped in a gallery of local artists and the shopkeeper asked if we were there for the 49ers and Mike, being the smartass he is, said he didn’t know they played in Socorro. Either she didn’t get it or pretended she didn’t hear and explained that it was a big reunion of the mining college, the 49er Miners. That’s what the big BBQ at the Capitol Bar was all about, but that was winding down now. We said we were just passing through from Santa Fe to Silver City, and she did seem to think we were actually from Santa Fe. Oh well, no matter. Then another local wandered into the shop and asked if we were there for the trains. Or that’s what Mike and Tami heard, and we were both wondering where they were keeping trains in this little town, and what were they doing with the trains? But then we realized she said ‘cranes’ because she went on to talk about birds and show us pictures of cranes. Aaah! That makes more sense. Apparently at this time of year they are migrating through and many birders show up to enjoy them.
Before arriving in town, Mike had done his research and had spotted a brewpub in town, Socorro Springs Brewery. After our initial drive through town we realized that this was probably the best choice and after our brief wander around the small town square we found our way to the pub and some baby back ribs accompanied by some good brews, of course. Oops! We ate them before pictures again, but tomorrow we’ll do better!
Now we are back in our room watching college football (alas, no Huskies this week, but the Cougs are on) and just finished checking in with Keenan to make sure the house is still standing and he is not being blown out to sea. Sounds like he has it all completely under control, which is great to hear!