Southwestern Tour, Wednesday

Guymon is an area that announces we are really in western areas. It is meat packing center much like Dodge City or Wichita was in the old days. Trucks are coming and going. It is around this area that we first see pronghorns usually. However, this time almost none  seen for the whole trip. That was sad…we love to see, count and appreciate those animals.

                                                          Museum in Springer

We went through Boise City and were in Springer by noon. Springer is a tiny berg with an old courthouse and jail now turned into a museum. We had never been inside although we had passed by several times. This time we stopped and meet two darling ladies who were hosting. The building is amazing…the old jail is inside. Black Jack Ketchum was housed there once. Lots of stuff in the building to see.

 

This is a spinning wheel carried over the Santa Fe trail in a covered wagon that someone made into a rocking chair.

 

                                            Counter at Brown Hotel Dining Area  

 

 

 

 

Then we went to lunch at the Brown Hotel, a quaint building that is old but still operates as a hotel. Loved the dusty old hats hanging around! Loved the blue paint and pristine walls. Here was my first “real” New Mexico food. Wonderful chips but hot sauce and then a burrito lunch. We asked the waitress where all the pronghorns were and she looked at us like we had horns. Finally, we learned she had never heard them called that…she knew them only as antelope. A man eating there told us the prongs were around. It was hunting season, and he told us to go eight miles out of town and go  on to a lake to see them.

 

                                                      Pronghorn

So after lunch we headed that way. Hum. His 8 miles was actually 15 miles and it was all gravel. Once we had gone 8, we pushed on. Desolate looking land…a few ranches and farms sat way back from the road. Then we began to climb…and climb. It was beautiful once you got up high and so quiet! You can’t believe how beautiful absolute silence is. Once we were at the very top and saw the small lake, we also saw one tent camp but no one in sight. No other sign of life. We enjoyed it, saw a gull land on the water, and then headed back to I-25.

 

                   View halfway up the mountain to see lakes, looking for prongs

By late afternoon we were very tired and getting grumpy. I wanted to stay in Santa Rosa which took us out of the way. But it is a known Route 66 town and small. We had nice room, lovely stay before heading into the bustle of Albuquerque