Well, the ice-covered landscape that I could see out the RV window this morning at 6:30 a.m. didn't portend well for our planned photo shoot with Lucas later this morning. And sure enough, Lucas popped around just before we were scheduled to leave and begged off. I didn't blame him. It probably seemed to him, as he stood shivering on our front steps, that a day of college homework was going to be much more productive after all.
But hey, that didn't mean Concetta and I would wimp out and spend a nice gray day playing Scrabble. The thermometer I keep down in the forward locker underneath read 37 degrees when I got up, but by the time we were ready to seek out the nearest bus stop for our trip to Santa Fe's old town, I think it had zoomed up to 45 degrees. That's just a perfect temperature for visiting museums.
Thanks to explicit instructions given to us by our RV park hosts, we knew exactly where to board the bus for the trip to Old Town, and where to exit on the return trip. Just to be safe I told the driver where we hoped to go and he confirmed that we had, indeed, boarded the correct bus. He even gave us the cheap round-trip fair since we were obviously senior citizens. I bit my tongue after that declaration, but since it saved us two whole bucks, I decided not to complain about being profiled.
True to the bus driver's promise we were deposited about 30 minutes later just off the main square and in two minutes we were ready to tackle the nearby New Mexico History Museum. I was a tad put off just inside the front door as the very first thing that met my eye was a chopped '50 Merc in phosphorescent blue to the right of the entrance, which was set off by a hot-rodded 1931 Model A Ford on the left. "Jeeze," I found myself thinking. "I certainly hope that our much anticipated visit didn't involve viewing a couple of hours of popular culture instead of the old stuff that we love."
we had arrived at the museum about 10 minutes before the official opening time so had to cool our heels a bit. But once the official hour arrived we presented ourselves at the front desk. "Anybody here a veteran?" The clerk asked.
As I have become so used to doing, I rattled off "Three years Naval Air Corp, 1969 to 1972," expecting that she'd tell me she would need a letter from the Secretary of the Navy or at least my DD214 separation document if I didn't have an official ID on me.
But NO! She smiled, handed me two tickets, and said, "That will be no charge and thank you for your service. Please enjoy the museum."
We thanked the clerk kindly and walked away sporting big happy smiles. Now that's more like it. Despite the vandalized antique iron in the entrance, things were looking up. And then for the next two hours we were just in New Mexican history heaven. We learned about the Spanish conquest of the southwest in the 1600s, the Indian revolts under Spanish rule, the Old Spanish Trail, Mexican independence, the American Conquest in 1846, the little-known American Civil War battles fought in New Mexico, the coming of the railroad, the advent of the tourist industry, and just oodles of other things from the Navajo code talkers to the nuclear tests.
After two hours we beat a retreat from the History Museum and went in search of some authentic Mexican food for lunch. Now I have to tell you that I am no big fan of Mexican food. Other then a meal we had in Albuquerque in 1977 that came complete with sopapillas to die for, I can't ever remember having a Mexican meal that I would be tempted to rave about. But TODAY! Today we found the Thunderbird Bar and Grill, upstairs on the plaza, and those folks definitely knocked our socks off. I had the mole chicken enchiladas and Concetta had the fish tacos. Both dishes came with vegetables, rice, and beans, but nothing like I had ever seen before. The rice was extremely fresh, the vegetables were crispy and hadn't been cooking since Memorial Day, and the beans were not the refried variety that tends to settle in my stomach and complain for a week, but were pinto beans and were yummy.
After lunch we headed back to the History Museum for a lecture on the history of the Harvey restaurants that were once a fixture along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad in the 19th century. These restaurants were the idea of Fred Harvey who was the very first person to conceive the idea of a chain of restaurants, not just in the U.S., but world-wide. Since it took days and days to travel across the country in the late 1800s, and because it was always difficult to find fresh food on such long trips, Harvey conceived the idea of a chain of eating establishments that would eventually be located about every 100 miles along the rail line. Trains would make a forty-five minute stop and the passengers would have to rush in and get served as quickly as possible.
In time the Harvey restaurants became famous for their great food, their great coffee, and, perhaps most notably, their cute, young "Harvey Girls" to serve you at the counters. There were strict codes of conduct for the Harvey Girls which forbade them getting pregnant or married while an employee. The girls were paid $17.50 a month (approximately $444 in 2016 dollars) to start, plus room, board, and gratuity, a generous income by the standards of the time.
Of course there is lots more history to the Harvey operation and I encourage you to look at least the short version on Wiki. Fred and his heirs eventually owned 84 facilities which included both restaurants and hotels. They branched into dinning car service on the railroads and even into non rail-related restaurants. Our guide told us that the Harvey company still exists today.
Concetta said that the Docent who told us about the Harvey Company liked to talk even more then me. So it wasn't until a quarter to four that we left the History Museum. But since we still had well over an hour before our bus ride back to the RV park, we decided to tour the local Harvey Company (restored) Hotel (photo right) that was located just off the square. I wish I had enough space to show you a few photos of the place. It was really impressive.
As it approached four o'clock we decided with our last hour that we would visit the local art museum, also located just off the square. I thought the art was pretty neat until we got to the display on the history of stringed instruments. OH MY GOD! They had some really, really fine instruments on display, from the earliest primitive lutes and parlor guitars, to the most "splang-de-dang" Fender Strat and "to-die-for" Martin acoustic. AND, though our time was short and the detailed story-board connected with each and every instrument was long, we tried to at least look at all of them.
But to make the visit complete, I wandered over to a corner of the massive room full of guitars and such and found a guitar, just sitting on a guitar stand out in the open, which had a sign that said, "play me." WELL!!! That did it. I spent the time we had left before we had to go find the bus stop just a strumming away, making my un-practiced fingers sore, but making the artistic side of my brain very happy. Concetta snapped a photo just to show.
Once back at the bus stop we had a somewhat longer wait in the cold then we had anticipated using the incorrect information provided to us by the morning driver. But no matter, eventually the bus came and picked up what turned out to be a capacity load of humans for the ride "home."
And now, we're back in the cozy confines of our traveling domicile, the heat's cranked up to seventy, the showers are out of the way, and tomorrow we'll be headed.....well, somewhere. I'd like to go someplace warm, but I'm not really sure where that might be. So until we meet again, I wish you Happy Travels.
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