Denver, CO to Springer, NM… November 8th

Interstate 25

It really feels good to be back on the road again. Even with a dirty windshield, the view from a motorhome never disappoints. I have no trouble switching into my photo-journalist role.

We spend the first night just off the Interstate at the Old Santa Fe Trail RV Park in Springer, NM.

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Springer, NM to Magdalena, NM… November 9th

Back on I-25 we pass through the outskirts of Santa Fe.

In Socorro, we take Route 60 West to Magdalena…

…where we spend the night at the Western Motel and RV Park.

According to en.m.wikipedia.org, Magdalena is a small ranching community that grew up in 1884. The mining boom of 1913 changed the status of Magdalena from Village into Incorporated Town. In 2012 the U.S. Census Bureau recorded 926 people living here.

It is also known as “Trails End” for the 1885 railroad spur line that ran 26 miles from Socorro to Magdalena. Cowboys drove herds of cattle and sheep into town via the Old Magdalena Trail. The original stockyards are still intact.

The Public Library and Boxcar Museum are housed in the old railroad depot.

As I snoop around taking pictures, I meet 3 local gentlemen and a dog who jumped out of the backseat of the white truck above. The owner of the dog verifies the Wikipedia information about the stockyard driveway. Between 1885 through 1916, cowboys from the west drove thousands of cattle and sheep to Magdalena to board the train. Besides these grazers, timber, wool, and ore were also transported. In 1971 the trains stopped running. 

The Santa Fe boxcar above is being gutted for remodeling as an addition to the Boxcar Museum. I walk up to the man working on this project. As we talk we became instant friends. First he shows me the gutted boxcar. It reminds me of a blank canvas for an RV or Tiny House. And being next to the library, I recall the children’s book series, The Boxcar Children. He proceeds to tell me how he settled in Magdalena from Southern California and now lives off the grid on land purchased in the surrounding hills.

A younger man, overhearing our conversation, joins us to share how he also lives off the grid. He and his wife purchased some land up in the hills. Solar panels, a well, and I don’t know what their toilet situation is… Property tax is $1 a year! The only drawback is the wear and tear on the truck going to and fro from their homestead. 

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60 West into Arizona… November 10th

The desert dominates the landscape as we continue due West on 60. Within 24 miles we see large objects spread across the desert.

These objects are the immense dishes of the Very Large Array (VLA) spread across more than a hundred square miles of desert. They gather invisible light— radio waves— naturally emitted in space. The VLA is the most famous and powerful telescope of its kind. Precious information from space travels for billions of years to reach the Array. We learn about the birth of stars, the growth of galaxies, the power of black holes, and clouds of molecules that may be the building blocks of life. (Travel Brochure)

Next time we’ll stop and visit…

After another 10 minutes, we approach the Cibola National Forest.

By 9:50 AM we enter Pie Town, NM.

Unfortunately, we arrive too early to buy a pie!

Pie Town, NM is named for a bakery making dried-apple pies. Clyde Norman established the town in the early 1920s. On the 2nd Saturday of each September, the annual “Pie Festival” takes place. (newmexico.org)

According to en.m.wikipedia.org, as of the 2010 census, Pie Town had a population of 186.

So we continue on 60 West toward Globe, AZ, crossing the border some 30 minutes later.