Today track log.
We started fairly early today – for a vacation it was damn early but oh well. We were still in hot country and I am not sure unless we get above 10000 ft. that it is going to stay hot during the day time anyway.
Had some oatmeal for breakfast – that should help a little with the overload last night? Got the outside stuff all done then tried to put what I had for Freon in the driving air unit. Guess we have a big leak now as it took all three 12 oz. cans and still didn’t get it up into the “OK” range. That will cost to have it fixed when we get back… it will have to wait until August for that repair, just hope it doesn’t cost thousands? I still have the insurance I both with the unit and it is good for about 1 more year so I will use it if they will cover parts.
We headed out from Raton toward Cimarron. We had not been there for a long time and had never stopped there to take in the tourist things. Actually there is plenty to see for a short trip through. Things like the St James Hotel, which was famous for serving people off the Santa Fe trail and beyond that for the big ranchers in the area. There is also a Museum in the old Mill;
OLD MILL MUSEUM
New Mexico’s Most Unusual Museum! Built in 1864 by Lucien B. Maxwell. The Aztec Grist Mill is in the southwest corner of Cimarron, It was built to provide ground grains for the Maxwell Ranch and the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation, as well as Santa Fe Trail travelers. Today it is operated as a museum and houses working mill parts, life-size figures of local history.
Open Summer Only. Schedule varies. Please call the Visitor Center for more information: (575) 376-2417.
The museum was interesting and had a lot of different items. The drive wheel was moved inside and the ditch that ran water by has been filled in. But the majority of the items that made it work are still in the basement. The other floors have articles from the period, some Kit Carson things and a lot of Lucien Maxwell’s items, since it was his mill anyway. Interesting to see and it was free or by donation.
After the Museum time we headed on out to the Philmont Scout Ranch. Strange there are a lot of Oklahoma connections here. The ranch was donated by Waite Philips. of Philips oil. It had started as his summer home and the main house is now the offices and was really big. The other part is that the scout ranch is now real big, attracting scouts from all over the world. We drove around the main areas and probably should have gone on to Rayado as there is another museum there that the scout ranch has that covers more of Kit Carson and the development of the area by the Santa Fe trail. Unfortunately we did not go on, but turned back to Cimarron and made a short tour of the St James Hotel. I said that there are a lot of Oklahoma ties here. Another one is that the hotel is now owned by Robert Funk of OKC.
The hotel has been restored and has a very nice restaurant and most of the rooms in the original hotel are named after famous characters that stayed there. Below is one of the wall plaques that names many of them. The website gives more info and pictures of a lot of the patrons and facilities.
We were able to see the first floor rooms and the end one is the Jesse James room – interesting:
We next toured the other side of the highway and the main building there were all artist studios… we didn’t stop.
From there we hooked up and headed on west through Eagle Nest and on down into Red River… It was busy there as usual but it was lunch time so we stopped at the Sundance Mexican. We had eaten there several years ago and it was pretty good but after this second try I would say, for Mexican, it is a little better than average. It is still a nice place and we had a decent meal of rellanos and sopapilla’s (we split the plate so we only ate half a meal. Since it was early and we had ideas of getting on to South Fork or Del Norte or ? we went on from there. As we passed the RV parks on the west end of town they were pretty full up so a one night stay there would not have been worth the hassle.
We didn’t stop for anything just drove it on to Alamosa and I filled up with fuel again – I like to drive on the top half out here and the I had a 3cent off card for the City market so the price was not real bad for out here. Only about 10 cents higher than at home.
We then moved on up to Del Norte and checked out the Wood and River park. It is a nice place but no trees for the RV section and since I had not gotten into Passport America membership we could not get the half off price… if I had it would have been fine to get a full hook up at the price of a Forest Service no service site? Although it was warm and the wind was really blowing through the valley. We decided to move on up to South Fork as we had stayed in one several years ago that has trees and is right on the river and the price is about the same. We got a site there in the trees, but it was still pretty warm. We just chilled out and did nothing more for the evening other than a walk around the park twice and a sandwich for supper. And was the end of this day. We will probably stay here a couple of days so I can try to get over to Pagosa and see an old friend, if he is in? – WD0AJG