Just hanging around

Roses are red, violets are blue, clicking the pics improves your view.

Mission San Miguel de Socorro was built right beside El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro "Royal Road of the Interior" which shows its importance to the early Spanish colonials. A Mission was started here and named Socorro because the local Indians in 1598 helped Spanish explorers survive El Jornada de Muerte,  "The Dead Man's Journey" into what is now New Mexico.

But in 1680 the Indians, who lived perfectly happy lives until the Spanish showed up, grew tired of being abused and taxed to death by the Spanish and ran the Spanish out of town burning their buildings behind them. [ I think we taxpaying Americans should take note of that ] The Spanish army finally got control of the place again in 1692 and started building back the Missions.

This Mission has changed a lot since it was rebuilt on the destroyed foundations of the original mission. But it still maintains the character and style of the old Spanish missions.

I am so enjoying warm weather again. Yes, it's a little chilly in the morning, requiring a long sleeve shirt, but by 9 a.m., I'm comfortable in a T-shirt.

I haven't been doing much of anything, mostly just relaxing and resting up from my travel days getting from Denver to here. At this point, I'm deep enough in Arizona to see a Saguaro now and then, so my traveling is officially over, and my winter of roaming begins in earnest.

Well, not exactly. My roaming will begin after I fulfill my reservation commitments at the Lost Dutchman State Park. I know I sometimes must sound like I've been forced against my will to visit the Lost Dutchman State Park, but such is not the case. I am so looking forward to going there that I can hardly wait. And when I checked and saw that cloudy weather is expected for part of my stay, I was even more thrilled because clouds might mean beautiful sunsets over the Superstition Mountains. The sunsets there are often pretty impressive, even without clouds.

I complain a lot about reservations, and I think it's because I'm old enough to remember when I didn't have to make reservations for any place I went. I camped in Smoky Mountain National Park during the Fall without reservations. I've camped at Yellowstone during the summer without reservations, and I've camped at the Lost Dutchman State Park in the winter without reservations. So now, having to make reservations for things not just bothers me, it's getting in the way of how I want to live.

Like most old geezers, I liked it the way it was. Maybe because everything seems better looking back in the hazy mists of time, or perhaps it was better. Either way, now it's gone, and me complaining won't bring it back again. But that has never stopped old folks from whining about it since the beginning of time.

                                  theboondork

I liked this old sign in Socorro. For some inexplicable reason, I like old signs.

This old Socorro New Mexico bar was built in 1896 which makes it one of the newer "old" buildings in town.  Any leftover Scotch should be thoroughly aged by now.

the Garcia Opera House. Started in 1884 was used as a place where plays and dances could be held, I guess they had a different idea of what "Opera" meant back in the old days.

I don't know why but I've always liked old doors, the older and more damaged the better.

I think this is the old train station in San Antonio New Mexico, the town next to the Bosque Del Apache but I'm not sure. A lot of train stations  in the old days were built from something solid like brick or stone.

This building is also in San Antonio. Driving past it I thought it was a garage. But after getting the picture in the computer I could see it's an old storefront with a door and boarded up windows. I wonder what it was? Maybe a bar. But that's a rather grandiose name for such a tiny building.