Day 5 Friday May 10:  Tucumcari NM – Santa Fe NM

We have now come from the Indiana farmland through the Missouri rolling hills and Oklahoma/Texas plains to the northern New Mexico sage brush high desert: quite a variety over 1400 miles.

West Texas Panhandle ranchland

I-40 Eastern New Mexico Highway

There is, however, modern visual pollution. Tucumcari Mountain is a wonderful natural landmark that you can see for miles. When you get closer, all you notice are the myriad cellular towers that cover the top of this magnificent rock structure. While I certainly understand the need for modern infrastructure and communication, surely these towers could have been placed on another nearby high butte and not the town namesake.

 

Tucumcari Mountain with towers

 Photo from myweb.cebridge.net

I was so upset I couldn't even take a photo;

does this bother any else?

There was a very interesting abandoned town around mile marker 288:   another future great photo-op trip?! We crossed the Pecos River in this stretch of highway; remember Judge Roy Bean and the Law West of the  Pecos? Thomas is reliving all his childhood cowboy movies (which he still watches on a regular basis!). We could not resist stopping at the Flying C Ranch, a most notable tourist trap with advertising signs from miles out. I did buy (of course) some lovely southwest jewelry and got an education in Native American jewelry from store manager Cheryl. Older pieces are called pawn, not because they are pawned at a shop, but handed down in the family. The silver content can also be less if hammered down to a thinner layer and one needs to be sure items are authentically made – buyer beware on several levels. New Mexico highly regulates the sales of native jewelry which must be kept in separate cases. This was a licensed sales area so hopefully I chose wisely!

We arrived in Santa Fe, around noon and got ready for the first round of exploration in a new place!