This is the Rio San Jose Bridge between McCarty's and Grants.
It's a pony type girder bridge, with a decorative guard rail.
And the lava goes on....
....and on....
....and on.
There were interesting rock formations in the hills besides just lava.
And there was still plenty of open country. There were at least bushes, now, though, instead of just desert grasses.
We were trying to make it to the Pueblo of Laguna in time to take pictures.
We made it just before sunset, as you can see in this photo taken on normal setting.
It looks much better with lighting adjustments.
There are scenic overlooks on both sides of I-40 where you can stop to look and take pictures. The sign says that Laguna was established by refugees just after 1692. It's still in the same place today.
This is a zoom of the mission church that sits at the very top of the hill.
It's called San Jose de la Laguna. It was established in 1706. That makes it over 300 years old.
The walls are whitewashed mud, the floor is packed earth, and the ceiling is herringbone wood. I'd love to see the inside.
Although it's a little difficult to see, this distance shot shows the Laguna covering the hill, and spilling down the right side into the valley. It's a lovely spot.
On the way to Albuquerque, I took a few more landscape shots.
There were more rocks.
And mesas.
And buttes.
But mostly,
there was just miles...
and miles.
Lots of open country. And just when you think you can't take anymore...
there's more. How people traveled this territory in the 1930s is beyond me.
This is Rio Puerco Bridge, built in 1933. It's 250 feet long.
The roadbed leading to the bridge has the original concrete curbing.
It's a Parker through truss steel bridge. Repairs were done to it in 1957.
It's a very elegant bridge.
Great detail work.
The bridge is maintained now by the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department.
We got to Albuquerque just after dusk.
I tried to get a picture of the lights. I'd have needed a wide angle lens to get the whole scene in one shot. Albuquerque spreads over the bottom of a bowl-shaped depression, sort of. That means if you are at the edges where there's just a little elevation, you can see the lights of the whole city. It's marvelous. (But, then, I love lights.)
Here's the other half of the picture. It's a little blurry partly because of the long shutter setting, but mostly because the inescapable wind was gusting at about 27 mph. It's hard to hold the camera steady when you're being buffeted like that.
We went back out later Thursday evening to see if we could find some neon signs in good shape in Albuquerque. We found a few.
The first one we found was a new sign that the city has erected to celebrate historic Route 66. We were still trying to get the settings on the camera right for shooting neon signs at this point, so this isn't the clearest picture. Sorry about that.
Animal statuary seems to be big out west. There are birds, cows, horses and the like all over the place. I haven't figured out what a cow has to do with a coffee shop, though.
Another slightly fuzzy shot, this time of the Hacienda Motel. That green 'E' is supposed to look like a cactus, I think.
This is supposed to read Americana Motel. Americana should be red and blue, but some of the lights are out.
This is a beautiful sign. The state of the sign is indicative of how well the motel itself is maintained. We got pictures of the Monterey on Friday that I'll put up in the next post.
This sign is great.
The star on this sign flashes on...
...and off.
And to wrap it up, this is another of the neons that Albuquerque has erected, this one at the end of the Rio Grande Bridge.
That's it for Thursday. I'll start Friday in the next post.
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