Sleeping with the Stars (sort of)

We stopped at the famous El Rancho Hotel for lunch when we passed Gallup through recently. The hotel was built in 1937 by the brother of movie magnate, D.W. Griffith. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and protected by the National Historic Preservation Society, it is now owned by the family of the respected Indian trader, Armand Ortega.

The Hotel is located on the old Route 66. When I stepped through the door, I was reminded of some other fine old lodges in other parts of the country, built sometimes as public works projects and often during the Great Depression. The ambiance was similar, although on a smaller scale, to that of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon, Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone , and the Quinault Lodge on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula. The El Rancho lobby was built with polished brick floors, massive ceiling beams, and a stone fireplace that is flanked by two handmade wooden staircases that lead to the second floor gallery. It’s furnished in that kitschy and beloved rustic Old West style. There are Navajo rugs, and mounted animal trophy heads, and longhorn cowboy furniture everywhere you look.

Because of all the movies that have been filmed in the area, a great many movie stars have stayed at the hotel and there are great old black and white autographed photos hanging on the walls of the upstairs gallery. You’ll see pictures of Burt Lancaster, Paulette Goddard, William Bendix, Jane Wyman, John Wayne, and lots more. The rooms are named for them; as are the New Mexican and American style dishes available in the restaurant, where a friendly and attentive staff welcomed us in.

Next time we go to Gallup, we plan to stay at this historic and picturesque Hotel. The Ronald Reagan Room sleeps six, and is a bargain at $128, considering the wonderful ambiance, décor, and sense of tradition. Where else in New Mexico can you sleep where the stars have slept?

Well, that would have been a nice line for an ending, but I’m sure you can think of other New Mexico places where the stars have slept—Santa Fe's Silver Saddle Motel and La Fonda are a couple that I know about. So here is today’s challenge—what other hotels do you know of in New Mexico that have a star-studded past? Please leave a comment, you know I love them!

Welcome to San Jon

We drove up to Ute Lake yesterday to check it out in preparation for next weekend's maiden voyage of the new Zee RV. It's just a little tent trailer, but it will be absolute luxury to us after years of camping in a tent. Sleeping on the ground has become a lot less attractive as our various arthritic joints act up and, say what you will, I'm just not interested in being down on the ground in the dark along with our friendly nocturnal snakes. So it's a tent trailer for us, the tiniest we could find--not so easy in these days of recreational vehicles so huge that they are being hauled by giant-sized big rigs. I was anxious, once we finally found the perfect little trailer, that someone else would rush in and buy it before we could. As it turned out, the lot owner hardly had the time to take our money, surrounded as he was by customers looking at behemoths costing more than I care to imagine.

On the way to the lake, I had promised a fellow New Mexico fan that I would check out the tiny town of San Jon (pop. 306, 2000 census) as a possible place for her family to move to. I took pictures until my camera batteries ran out--too bad, because there were lots more buildings that I would have liked to have recorded. Luckily, some of them are shown on this web site: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/NM-SanJon.html.

As we came to the edge of the high plains just after passing through Grady we saw a huge windfarm, situated near the dropoff to take advantage of rising wind currents.

We drove right through the windmills, then the road dropped away and we were in a low valley. In addition to the usual grazing cattle, we saw a small herd of antelope along the way.

We spotten San Jon (pronounced "San Hone") off in the distance.

I read somewhere that when the town was named, both English and Spanish speakers were mystified, as "San Jon" makes no sense in either language. However, my friend Tanya, who is a native Spanish speaker, tells me that “sanjón” (San Jon) in Spanish means “deep gully”.

We were greeted by the official sign

and by the town's own more welcoming one.

Driving down the side streets, we located the school complex, a group of buildings that included a nice looking gym. Unfortunately, that's when my camera batteries died. There were many fascinating old buildings, some still in use and some not. Since the I-40 bypassed the town and Route 66, the old Mother Road, is no longer used, San Jon seems to be struggling for survival. There looked to be more buildings sitting empty than being used.

There is, however, a brand new New Mexico Visitor Center, built right off I-40 exit for San Jon. We were surprised to find it open on a Sunday morning, but there it was, surrounded by cars from California, Texas, Arkansas, and New Hampshire (ours, for we haven't gotten the license plate changed yet). The lady inside was kind and welcoming and loaded me up with maps and brochures about the area and the whole state. A couple of local folks inside were talking about a rattler that one of them had just killed and were swapping recipes for cooking the fellow, glancing over their shoulders at the Californians. Just goes to show how lucky I am that I will be sleeping up off the ground next week at Ute Lake.