In the morning we drove to downtown Santa Fe and had our "steeds" serviced at a Jiffy Lube. Out in less than an hour total for the two of us and on to the Old Town District of Santa Fe. Nicely the city has a public parking lot designated for Busses & RV's right in the district. Our first destination was the State Visitor Center, but on the way we passed The San Miguel Mission (billed as the Country's oldest church)
and the Oldest House in the US? built around 1612.
We then moved on across the street to The State Capital, known as the Round House, due to its shape. It was designed to resemble the State's Zia symbol when viewed from the sky.
There are 3 floors of contemporary masterworks of art by artists who live and work in NewMexico.
We then toured about 4 or 5 blocks of shops of all kinds, including jewelry, clothing, leatherwork and other SW products. Our walk also took us by the 134 year old Loretta Chapel (known for its miraculous staircase) and the stately Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assissi built between 1869 & 1887.
With our parking permit running out @ 2:30 we returned to the campground to drop off Dave's motorhome and head to Pecos NHP. The pueblo ruins date back to 800 A.D. for its earliest inhabitants.
As we arrived at the Park it began to shower and thunder was heard in the distance. Jan was firm, she wanted to take the 1.3 mile hike through the ruins, (Pecos pueblo and Mission Church) so we exited the visitor center quickly and started our walk. (No one had rain gear). It was an enjoyable walk, with narration by Jan from a prepared set of cards we were given at the visitor center.
The walk was slightly uphill and we soon found ourselves atop the old ruins with more thunder and raindrops in the air. We continued and returned to the visitor center, crossing a segment of the Old Santa Fe Trail on the way, for a short film and brief tour of the museum on site. We luckily exited the Park with only a few drops of rain in the air but the wind was stiff and the sky was very threatening. We drove the 5 miles back to I25 with only a slight increase in the rain, but we were no sooner up to speed on the highway when Mother Nature let loose. Driving rain with intermixed hail came down in sheets and I quickly slowed to 40 despite the 75 MPH speed limit. After 10-15 minutes of 3-4 showers of this nature, the road was so covered with hail that most drivers were pulling to the side of the road and stopping. It looked like a typical NE snowstorm with about an inch or so of snow(but it was ice balls about 1-1.5 inches) covering the surface except where the tires of the vehicles had crushed the hail. Being a seasoned New Englander, I proceeded gingerly and didn't stop until we got on our exit ramp so we could take some pictures of the ground.
By the time we reached the campground about 3 miles further on, the hail was gone except under the bushes here and there. The evening continued with wind & rain and we solemnly listened to the TV weather reports of potential tornados in the area. The warnings expired and we went to sleep with only a mild nervousness. We did ask ourselves though, where would you go if there was a sighted cloud in an area with no underground structures of any kind and our only transportation was tethered to the ground with electrical and water connections?
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