A visit to Lamy, NM

This is work?

"Keep it simple" Instructions to a guy who loves to talk.

G and I have moment... and someone takes our picture.

 Over the three weeks in Chama I rode the train 7 times, twice in training and five times for OJT.  After one of the OJT trips G and I decided to take care of some future business so we took a trip in Old Blue.

Amtrak Chief somewhere in the Southwest - It isn't the C&TS.

G visits her sister in Las Vegas – What plays here stays here – where she has retired from teaching.  Annually G takes the trek by Amtrak to spend several weeks in March or April to visit before the temperature in Las Vegas becomes intolerable.  In transportation expense alone the rail journey costs well in excess of $1,400 for the round trip from Alton,IL to Chicago and on to Kingman, AZ where she picks up a van to either the airport in Las Vegas or Flagstaff, AZ where her sister picks her up.  The trip takes a couple days and involves three layovers from several to many hours depending on whether the train is on time – it is regularly side tracked for BNSF freight traffic thus, it is rarely on-time.

Next year G will again travel by Amtrak on the Southwest Chief but this time she will depart from Lamy, NM for an 8 hour trip to Kingman – this trip will cost around $200.    However, a four hour round-trip journey from Chama to Lamy is required to meet the train in Lamy and then return.  Two weeks ago we drove the round trip to check it out for next year.

Rio Grande Bridge

It turned out to be a fascinating trip as we went out of our way to visit the “Rio Grande Bridge” just outside Taos, NM.  This bridge crosses the River which flows in the Rio Grande Rift which I discussed in a blog post some months ago.  The rift is where the land was torn apart by the continuing geological uplift resulting from tectonic plate subduction.  It was a wild and oddly beautiful sight.

We then journeyed on through the outskirts of Santa Fe and on south to Lamy.

Lamy Junction in better days

There is not much to lamy, a few rundown buildings, some aging railroad cars and a small badly worn depot that was once beautiful but is now a near ruin.  Still in use the years have taken a tough toll.

Then it was on back to Santa Fe.  This city was originally occupied in 1598 on the site of a yet older Puebloan villages dating from before 900CE.  Santa Fe has been continually occupied by European “settlers” since 1610. 

"Thomas the Train Wannabe" hiding in the Narthex

We took many pictures there and to add to them I checked the Internet and found, as expected, virtually no difference in the much older Internet photos and those we took – The city is timeless.  We toured the Cathedral and stopped by the five star LaFonda Hotel – dating from the 1600’s – for personal relief.  Then we stopped at a little restaurant on Governor’s Square for lunch.  

 

After picking up some t-shirts and caps we again travelled north to Chama.  What beautiful country, so different than the high Rockies to the north in Colorado.  G and I kept the t-shirts and I gave my Santa Fe ball cap to Curt when we came home.

All in all a wonderful trip until the battery in Big Blue died.  But, that is another story.