Day 3
Land of Enchanment 06/27/2022
Our journey across the United States continues. The kids are great and we are all enjoying the trip. We left the hotel this morning and headed to Albuquerque with an intermediate stop at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. I know everyone is familiar with Billy the Kid. Just to refresh your memory, he was shot and killed here by Pat Garrett. He was buried in the Fort Sumner cemetery in 1881. There is more history to Fort Sumner than Billy the Kid. Fort Sumner was established in 1862 as a place to hold members of the Navajo and Apache tribes. In excess of 10,000 Navajos and 2,000 Apaches were forced to walk here from their homes. It was called the Long Walk and covered 300 miles. Many members of both tribes died from starvation and disease. They were finally released and allowed to return to their homes. Fort Sumner closed in 1869. A very dark period in the history of the United States.
Albuquerque was founded in 1706 by the Governor of Nuevo Mexico. It was an outpost of the El Camino Real, linking Mexico to the northernmost territories of ” New Spain”. It became a part of the United States in 1846. A tremendous amount of history. The food is good and the scenery is spectacular and for those back in Alabama, the temperature was 64 degrees while driving in today. This the kids blog, so I will turn it over to them.
Samuel….in his words..
We went to a prairie dog town and took pictures. The prairie dogs were cute. We drove to New Mexico and ate lunch in a park. We played on the playground. Then we went to Fort Sumner and saw Billy the Kid’s grave. At our hotel we could see mountains in the distance.
Riley…. in her words
We woke up this morning and headed to a place called Prairie Dog Town. There were so many prairie dogs inside of the fence and there were a good bit outside of the fence. Once we left there we drove for about 3 hours to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. There we went to the “Billy the Kid” museum and the The Long Walk. Both were closed, but we got to read about “Billy the Kid” and The Long Walk. We also went to see Henry McCarthy’s grave. Henry McCarthy was nicknamed “Billy the Kid” because when he was only 15 he robbed many stores and when he got older he started to kill people that got in his way. His grave was gated up because people would keep stealing his tombstone. When we left there we went to a playground area and ate lunch. Ethan and Samuel played on the playground. We left there and we started to the hotel. We passed the Sandia Mountain Range. Before that there was nothing but flat land. Once we got to the hotel there was an amazing view of the mountains and small trees. We could see downtown too. When we got up into our hotel room, we had a little bit of free time. I took a little under an hour nap. When I woke up we headed to a Mexican restaurant called Perico’s. That restaurant was AMAZING. I usually don’t like anything spicy but their red sauce was so good. When we finished eating, I noticed that there was an Insomnia Cookies right next the the restaurant. We went there and we all got ice cream in between 2 cookies. We left there, completely stuffed, to go back to the hotel. When we got in the room Ethan, Samuel, and I started to watch a show called Forensic Files. We all went to bed so we can be ready for the long drive to Williams, Arizona.
Ethan….in his words..
This morning we took a visit to Prairie Dog Town. The prairie dogs were so cute. They had holes and mounds everywhere. When we left Prairie Dog Town, we drove to New Mexico to see Henry McCarty’s (Billy the Kid’s) grave, and the Navajo Long Walk Memorial Center in Fort Sumner. When we got there we found out that the Memorial Center was closed, but we were still able to see the grave of Billy the Kid and two of his friends. We drove directly to the hotel from there, and on the way to the hotel we saw mesas, mountains, and vast prairies.
Comments
Post a Comment