Help us New Mexico!

by Donaji on April 3, 2009

AMARILLO TO SOCORRO, NM (378 miles)

Socorro means Help…in Spanish and I felt like we needed it…at least a little push. The wind has been ridiculous since we hit Texas? I think, it has been very frustrating, it’s taking longer than it should. You’d think traveling with a turtle would be no problem but she has been quite difficult and I feel really bad for her, she’s been struggling to adapt to this tub she’s been in, the water’s not still so it’s making her either mad or scared but she’s been trying to get out this whole entire time, she doesn’t give up even though she’s not even close to getting out.

Directions to NM To help her sun bathe, I added some rocks she can use to climb so she can stay somewhat dry but she uses them to put herself up and get out…she hasn’t…yet but she’s pretty close. We had a scare, after putting stuff back in the car, we were getting ready to leave the hotel, I buckled her and everything, and closed the door, but I came back and she was flipped upside down, I freaked out thinking she was dead and Ryan came and flipped her. Ugh…..! So, then I took some rocks out so she won’t try to do that again….didn’t help.

The trip was nice though, the landscape was pretty, red rocks, very flat, not too much green, but still pretty. I think after a while I got a little tired of it. I was ready for some green and some hills or something. I forgot to add music to my ipod at the beginning of the trip so I’ve been tired of that too, don’t know if you’ve noticed but the ipod shuffle mode is not a very good one. I need to find some time to add music but it seems like all we do is get to the hotel, unload, shower, set the turtle stuff up…get online, go to bed. We really don’t have time to do much :( Luckly at least the rooms have been pretty nice and the beds have been very comfy so thank goodness.

Another frustration has been the dropped calls…we keep loosing signal and can’t communicate when we need to. So we’ve missed each other in a couple of exits, not fun.

We passed by the old Route 66, I wanted to get off on some parts but we were pressed for time. Saw some interesting billboards, some old, some very old, some new…some of too many. And the trucks…uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, these people. I wish they had their own truck highways…seriously. They are rude, jerks! these people will cut you off no matter what, they don’t care if you have to suddenly brake….idiots.

San Miguel Church We stopped by this town called “Truth or Consequences” (weird eh?) well, it was named after the radio show. Apparently, the host of the show, Ralph Edwards, “announced that he would do the program from the first town that renamed itself after the show”. The real name of the town was Hot Springs. So we stopped by thinking it was some type of attraction, when we discovered the little town. We were going to go see what it was all about and ended up stopping at the Geronimo Springs Museum, very tiny but full of history, cool stuff in there. The lady behind the counter was pretty hilarious, reminded of me of a more mellow type of Phoebe from Friends, very odd but funny lady. I kinda wanted to talk to her more, but we had to keep going. She showed us the way to a nice observation area where you can see the town from, this was the Elephant Butte Reservoir, filled in 1915, the largest in New Mexico on the Rio Grande. Pretty huge. Went to the top and it was EXTREMELY windy, so it was kinda fun to take some pictures, we even felt the breeze from the water.

Got back on the road after some little desert hiking and got to Socorro. I really enjoyed the adobe homes on the way…I want one! We visited one of the oldest churches still running, an adobe church, so beautiful, very tiny in the inside, they have a little upstairs section you have to walk through spirals squeaky stairs to get up, Ryan tried, I was too embarrassed cause they were way too squeaky…he got some bad looks, so I just took a few shots and left. Beautiful.

Hopefully we make it to Tucson quickly.