Destination: Las Vegas, NM

We spent an enjoyable morning at the Blue Swallow…I did a load of laundry and Carl cabitzed with the owners and other travelers in the lobby.  

On the road we saw the temperature drop from 83 degrees in Tucumcari to 50 degrees in Santa Rosa.  Luckily we were in a nice warm car most of the way.

Curiosity drove us to go see The Blue Hole outside of Santa Rosa.  The Blue Hole is a spring where a deep cave spring spews 3000 gallons of fresh clear spring water a minute.  Many a scuba diver comes here to get certified for deep diving since it goes down 81 feet before it is sealed off from the deep caves.  The temperature of the water is 61 degrees so actually it was warmer in the water than the outside air.  But neither of us swam except for the photo.

At the end of the day we made it to La  Castaneda in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  This is an old renovated Harvey House.  A Harvey House is a large hotel where Fred Harvey would set up guest rooms for those traveling the intercontinental trains.  Carl’s maternal grandmother was a Harvey girl after she left the orphanage where she grew up.  The Harvey girls were like today’s flight attendants on our airlines but for train travelers.  They had a clean, unsoiled reputation in the early years of the 20th century because of the high standards demanded by Fred Harvey.  We don’t have any more details about his grandmother but she did eventually marry a very nice businessman, Carl Wagner, Carl’s grandfather, for whom he is named.  Here is our room at La Castaneda.

Here is the lobby, one of the restaurants (closed today) and some old photos of La Castaneda’s golden era.  

This is Judy Garland as she appeared in the movie, The Harvey Girls.