Cuervo Ghost Town

 

 Sunny: It was a dark and stormy night when we rolled into Cuervo...

Rosy: SUNNY! It was actually a nice bright afternoon. Mama just did spooky things to the pictures to make them

look a little more menacing.

Have a seat around our campfire and let's learn a bit more about Cuervo, NM

Unlike many ghost towns located off the beaten path, Cuervo is easy to find.  The small abandoned town is located along Interstate 40 between Santa Rosa and Tucumcari. 

 

Cuervo(CUHR-voh) means Raven in Spanish. We should have known this because this scary Raven met us at the stop sign entering the town. *shudder*

 

 

The town was founded in 1901 when the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf railroad was expanding from the panhandle of Texas to central and eastern New Mexico.

 

 

 

 Unfortunately, the railway decided to change plans and used both Tucumcari and Santa Rosa for their

main delivery routes. 

The town had the chance to grow when Route 66 was built through their town, but before it had a chance to really prosper...

 

 

 

Interstate 40 was built and Cuervo never established itself as a tourist destination. 

 

 

It was then most residents fled the area for better prospects.  

 

 

Believe it or not, although the town is now un-incorporated(it's post office closed in 2011), there are still 58 residents that call Cuervo home. We saw one auto repair shop/junkyard that looked like someone might have lived in,  but that was about it.  We didn't meander through the dirt roads though, because Cuervo is known for some pretty creepy "non-ghost" related incidents.

 

 

This is the former Catholic Church of  Cuervo. You might notice it has a new roof, which we thought was very interesting. After some research we fund out it was most likely built to keep people out. We aren't going to get into particulars, but if you search Cuervo, NM church incident, you will find some pretty disturbing "non-ghost" information that we didn't know about until researching this post.  

 

 As most of you know, most humans are much scarier than their ghosts.

Here is a video Mama made, showing all of the houses we saw.

 

You can also watch it HERE, on YouTube

 

 

 

 We hope you enjoyed our little Campfire Story today. Cuervo sure is an interesting Ghost Town and just one of many here in New Mexico! 

We bet Mama and Daddy will find another one for us to visit soon!!

  

We are joining Sandee at  Comedy Plus for the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop this week!

 

 

 

The Murals of Tucumcari

Bonjour!! Today we are back in Tucumcari, NM to take a look

at some tres jolie mural artwork! Tucumcari has over 30 murals. They can be found on Route 66, along Main Street, and also hidden on the side streets. We(ok, maybe Mama and Daddy) had a blast looking for them!

The murals highlight the different things Tucumcari is known for, like Route 66 

Tourism

Railway traffic

and Ranching!

Former resident of  Tucumcari Doug Quarles, and his wife Mary, painted most of the murals in town. The Quarles' have since moved to Benson, Arizona to do a series of murals depicting that town's railroad history.

You may be asking why we aren't in any of the mural pictures. Well, first of all, the temps were in the 30s and it was chilly~burr~freezy~cold. But mostly, there were sooooooo many good smells and our attention span was a bit shorter than a fly near a garbage dump. Needless to say, Mama let us stay in the car with Daddy most of the time.

Mama says we would have looked great sitting in front of this mural.

She also mentioned she might send us off to The GBGV College of Mural posing. Madison and her pack always look so regal in front of the murals they find!

Mama  took SOOOOO many pictures and put together a little slide show

You can also watch it HERE on YouTube

Thanks so much for tagging along during our mural tour of Tucumcari today!

This wraps up the Tucumcari portion of our travels. We do have one more road trip tail to tell next week around the campfire. Be prepared to be spooked when we tell you about our visit to a real life 

GHOST TOWN!

  

We are joining Sandee at  Comedy Plus for the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop this week!

FFF/NF Camping Sunrise

Welcome to that wonderful Friday each month where Nature Friday comes together with YAM Aunty's FFF!!  Make sure to visit YAM Aunty HERE to get the Rulez and join the FFF fun!!

Camping Sunrise

by Rosy

 

While we are camping,

much to the pawrents dismay,

I can't wait to get up 

and start my day.

 

Watching the sunrise

while Mama drinks her latte,

there is nothing better

to begin my day!

 

Yellows and oranges,

purples and pinks 

There is nothing prettier,

That's what I think.

So if you ever have the chance to 

rise early and watch the sun rise

I say, go for it, even if

it makes your human sigh!

Tucumcari Sunrise

Show us your nature! It can be flowers, your current weather, a scene out of your window, or maybe a picture from a vacation, walk or other journey! Any kind of nature picture will do! If you don't see a link below, click HERE  to go to our Hoppity Page.

Getting Our Kicks in Tucumcari

Howdy! Today we are going to take a look at some of the interesting places we saw in Tucumcari!

As you can see, Mama decided to get artsy fartsy, and do this post in sepia tones to make it seem like more like the olden times. Les sigh, Mamas...gotta love 'em (mostly cause they're the ones that give out the cookies).

But I digress.....

Old hotels, restaurants and gas stations, both abandoned and still open, line Route 66 in Tucumcari. 

Originally the State Motor Lodge, built in 1935, the Americana Lodge 

is still open for visitors.

The Magnolia Station is an old closed down gas station, and a frequently photographed building

in Tucumcari.

The Ranch House opened in 1952 to feed hungry travelers of Route 66. Unfortunately, it closed as traffic diverted off of Route 66 when Interstate 40 was built. 

The Buckaroo Motel is another classic 1950s Motel.

Wait a minute....Does Sepia make my nose look big?? 

This is the Odeon Theater. It opened in 1936 and, after some major renovations, it recently reopened and is showing first run movies!

Mama and Daddy visited Tee Pee Curios and said they had a great selection of Route 66 knick knacks!

The Blue Swallow Hotel is the most famous hotel in Tucumcari. Known for its retro decor, you need to make reservations sometimes up to a year in advance!

Thanks for joining us for this Sepia Route 66 tour.

Mama made a slide show with even MORE pictures....but this time she left them in color!

You can also watch it HERE, on YouTube

Join us next week, when we show you the murals of Tucumcari!

  

We are joining Sandee at  Comedy Plus for the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop this week!

Nature Friday at Blazing Saddles RV Park

Hi everybody! Today Sunny and I are going to show you some of the fun sights we saw around the RV Park where we stayed last weekend!

The Blaze-In-Saddle RV Park is right off of Interstate 40 on Route 66! (Los coches en llamas son opcionales, Java)

It was about a 3 hour ride East on I-40/Route 66 (it took a little longer on the way there because of the snow). As on most of the trips we will be taking this summer, we, with Mama driving, will be following Daddy in Julie the Jeep. We're hoping next year we'll be able to tow Julie behind CeCe.

 It's always nice to get an early start to the day, and what better way than with a beautiful sunrise! We made sure Mama and Daddy were up to see them every morning we were there!

See that mountain in the distance?

Mama says, if you look closely, you'll see the flat top of the mountain, meaning it's actually a mesa, not a mountain. 

Whatever Mama!

We had a view of it everyday from CeCe.

It's Tucumcari Mountain. On the sign it's hard to make out, but it was first mentioned in 1793!

Nobody is sure where exactly where the name Tucumcari (too-cum-caw-ree) came from. Some say it came from the Comanche word "tukamukaru", which means "to lay in wait for". Others think it is named after a battle site where a Comanche women and her child were killed called Cuchuncari.

 

Whatever it's named after, it sure is pretty!

One day while I was looking out the window, you'll never guess what I saw....

A COW...or Maybe a bull....I didn't look, BOL!

The RV Park had a big ranch next to it, and every evening we 

would get a visit from a cow!

We ended our days at the RV Park....

 

....enjoying the beautiful sunsets.

Talk about a wonderful way to end the day!

We hope you enjoyed the sights around the Blaze In Saddle and we hope you get out to enjoy some nature this weekend!

Show us your nature! It can be flowers, your current weather, a scene out of your window, or maybe a picture from a vacation, walk or other journey! Any kind of nature picture will do! If you don't see a link below, click HERE  to go to our Hoppity Page.