Surprise Stop

Heading north on I 25 from Elephant Butte, we only made it about 30 miles before a brown sign caught our attention.  We exited at 115 and followed signs to the El Camino Real International Heritage Center.  El Camino Real was used by settlers and traders for 300 years and the Native Americans for who knows how many hundreds of years before that.  It stretched from Mexico City to current Santa Fe, New Mexico and the heritage center does a fabulous job of chronicling its history.

The center was magnificent - there's just no other way to describe it.  I can't imagine how much money was spent on it and we were the only visitors.

I tend to skim over things while Ron reads everything, but I got a kick out of one particular sign.  See if you do too.

Although I expected to be finished long before Ron, this place had something I just couldn't leave.  Near the end of the designated route through the center, there was a giant topographic map.  Well, I love topo maps and this one had buttons to push to hear about various things along the road.  I stayed so long that Ron actually caught up to me.  So I think it's fair to say that this place has something for everybody.  And at $5, it's also a real bargain.