On the Porch
Onisha Ellis
September 11, 2017 Day 5
I awoke early, tired from a restless night and anxious to hear from our daughter who had decided to ride out Hurricane Irma alone. She sent a video text of her back yard around 7:30 am and I was relieved that she was safe and her property as well. It was with a thankful heart that we began the next leg of our trip.
You can read her story of Hurricane Irma on her blog, Rebekah Lyn’s Kitchen
Leaving Amarillo we passed fields with beautiful yellow flowers. Unfortunately, the flowers were not the scent we were smelling. Amarillo is home to of a number of Cattle and Livestock companies. If you would like to know more about livestock auctions, I found an auction house online.
I hadn’t noticed when I was in the planning stages of this trip, how close Amarillo is to New Mexico. In no time we were crossing the border!
Judy Wills, a blogger here on Old Things R New wrote an extensive series about her life in New Mexico and I was anxious to visit some of the places she wrote of. You may enjoy reading her posts, Memories of New Mexico .
Once we entered New Mexico, the cattle ranches fell away replaced by arid landscapes. One of the most fascinating features of New Mexico was the variety or rocks in their mountains. More about that next week.
We arrived at our hotel in Albuquerque around 3pm and after carting up our ridiculous amount of luggage, we set off to explore. I had asked Judy which restaurants in the Old Town she would recommend. I wanted to experience real Mexican flavor. We decided on El Pinto. What a beautiful restaurant. It has extensive garden seating with more fountains than I could count and the landscaping was lush. Our server was a delightful young man. He asked where we were from and he was surprised to learn with both grew up in Orlando! Even more coincidental, he lived in a subdivision our where our daughter once lived and his grandparents were still there. Small world! We asked how they fared during Hurricane Irma and were happy to know they were safe. I asked him why he decided to move to New Mexico and he said school and the weather. He hated Florida’s humidity. We could certainly agree with his feelings!
After supper we decided to visit Old Town to walk off some of the delicious meal. There was a lot of road construction in the area, so it took a couple of tries before we made it into the entrance. It is a beautiful and quaint area and we enjoyed exploring it.
San Felipe de Neri Church, the oldest building in the city, which was built in 1793.
We managed to get turned around leaving Old Town. We went down a couple of alleys that seemed a bit dodgy but eventually found an on ramp to the interstate.
Only one more day of driving was left until we would reach Denver where our daughter and a friend were flying into the international airport to meet us. Rebekah had spent the day assessing a leak in her kitchen due to the storm and trying to find someone to go up on the roof to find the source.
Old Things R New 
Don’t you just love the way children’s minds work? The church really is beautiful.
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I’ve made that exact drive countless times and am very familiar with the road! The restaurant looks charming! Thanks for sharing the trip.
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Thanks for stopping by! I look forward to another one of your teas.
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Now I definitely want to visit Albuquerque. That restaurant looks lovely.
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Memorable!
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Lovely story and I was pleased to hear about Rebekah.
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I am enjoying sharing it, Danny. It was unsettling knowing our daughter was in danger and we were driving further away from her.
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The last time we were in that old church a group of children went up to the bell tower. The bell rope hung down and we heard a child say, “Has anyone been hanged in here lately?” They have certainly kept the building in fine shape.
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