caravanman
Engineer
Roswell , New Mexico.
Unfortunately, I checked into a motel in Roswell which had good reviews, but must have changed owners... not good, the worst room so far! I will make a point of inspecting the room before I pay, next time. No matter. For some reason, probably to do with the UFO myth, I thought Roswell was a small place... wrong! Big place, and rather uninteresting. My feelings coloured by being over tired, methinks...
Was a little unsure of my next destination, but decided to head for Santa Fe. A nice drive, although no green dots on my map this time. Road had many caterpillars moving about on it, large, up to about the size of a little finger. Some must survive, but what a daft place to wander about!
Arrived in Santa Fe early afternoon and checked in. Pleased to find that there was a bus stop outside the motel, so dumped my gear and took the bus downtown. $1 for an all day pass for old folk, $2 for the rest... Brilliant price and frequent service, so nice not to have to drive again.
Very impressed with Santa Fe, such different architecture here. Many buildings are quite recent, but thankfully retain that earlier style. No high rise at all.
Just near the bus dropping off point in town was a massive community centre, showing a collection of mixed artworks by local people, some famous, some unknown. So good!
A quick walk around to get a flavour of the place, felt very nice indeed.
I pretty much hate souvenir shops, tourist traps, but the quality and variety of arty items on sale here in town was impressive. Could not afford to go inside, but enjoyed looking in the shop windows, almost a first for me!
I liked it so much, and with the easy bus service I decided to stay a second night. Next day I headed back into town, this time to the art gallery. Love the murals painted back in the 1930’s, financed by a Federal emergency relief fund, part of Roosevelt’s New Deal which employed people to do artistic as well as manual construction work.
The artwork inside is very strong too, with some early paintings that must depict real local scenes, before the rise of Disney!
The afternoon was taken up by a ride to Albuquerque, on the local “rail runner” train. Once again, a good value public transport service at just $7 return.
Things do seem to be orientated a lot more to meet human scale needs here, most roads even have pedestrian footpaths!
A quick visit to Albuquerque, a few photo’s and back on the train again. Downtown, the area seems to be undergoing a lot of road works and building alterations... I spoke to one resident who said something to the effect that government money was being wasted on some projects. Dunno, but the place was kind of quiet, many businesses seemed hard to access by the ongoing “improvements”.
Very nice theatre, KiMo, has been preserved, a mix of Native and Deco styles!
some more pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152733593734120.1073741840.682004119&type=1&l=24793e7a64
To be continued.
Unfortunately, I checked into a motel in Roswell which had good reviews, but must have changed owners... not good, the worst room so far! I will make a point of inspecting the room before I pay, next time. No matter. For some reason, probably to do with the UFO myth, I thought Roswell was a small place... wrong! Big place, and rather uninteresting. My feelings coloured by being over tired, methinks...
Was a little unsure of my next destination, but decided to head for Santa Fe. A nice drive, although no green dots on my map this time. Road had many caterpillars moving about on it, large, up to about the size of a little finger. Some must survive, but what a daft place to wander about!
Arrived in Santa Fe early afternoon and checked in. Pleased to find that there was a bus stop outside the motel, so dumped my gear and took the bus downtown. $1 for an all day pass for old folk, $2 for the rest... Brilliant price and frequent service, so nice not to have to drive again.
Very impressed with Santa Fe, such different architecture here. Many buildings are quite recent, but thankfully retain that earlier style. No high rise at all.
Just near the bus dropping off point in town was a massive community centre, showing a collection of mixed artworks by local people, some famous, some unknown. So good!
A quick walk around to get a flavour of the place, felt very nice indeed.
I pretty much hate souvenir shops, tourist traps, but the quality and variety of arty items on sale here in town was impressive. Could not afford to go inside, but enjoyed looking in the shop windows, almost a first for me!
I liked it so much, and with the easy bus service I decided to stay a second night. Next day I headed back into town, this time to the art gallery. Love the murals painted back in the 1930’s, financed by a Federal emergency relief fund, part of Roosevelt’s New Deal which employed people to do artistic as well as manual construction work.
The artwork inside is very strong too, with some early paintings that must depict real local scenes, before the rise of Disney!
The afternoon was taken up by a ride to Albuquerque, on the local “rail runner” train. Once again, a good value public transport service at just $7 return.
Things do seem to be orientated a lot more to meet human scale needs here, most roads even have pedestrian footpaths!
A quick visit to Albuquerque, a few photo’s and back on the train again. Downtown, the area seems to be undergoing a lot of road works and building alterations... I spoke to one resident who said something to the effect that government money was being wasted on some projects. Dunno, but the place was kind of quiet, many businesses seemed hard to access by the ongoing “improvements”.
Very nice theatre, KiMo, has been preserved, a mix of Native and Deco styles!
some more pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152733593734120.1073741840.682004119&type=1&l=24793e7a64
To be continued.
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