After a good night sleep due to our hot springs relaxation day we had a long talk with a gentleman from Britain who helped us to delay our departure from New Mexico yet again. He suggested we visit Chloride, a former Ghost Town turned open air museum through the initiative of Dana and Don who fell in love with this old silver mining town when they first saw it on a vacation trip. They began buying up the buildings and began the renovations of each and every one without the financial help of the government or any other organization. The greatest find was the old general store which was locked up and closed for ca. 50 years with all the merchandise, equipment, furniture, safe and ledgers still in it. Going into this store is like entering a time capsule.

From there we visited the small town of Winston which was buzzing with cowboys and cowgirls because it was fiesta time with country and western music, pulled beef and beans, belt buckles, Stetsons, cowboy boots and the occasional horse.
Now it was time to finally return to Albuquerque. We returned to Robert’s Neon Shop and started a great evening program. First we drove up to the Sandia Peak, 10,678 feet high and enjoyed the spectacular view and the cool breeze, a nice change after a long day in the heat of up to 38 degrees celsius.

Afterwards there was no time for beautification, we set out to go to Ned’s Bar and Grill to see and hear Robert’s friend Raven and her band singing the Blues (and a bit if Jimi Hendrix, thank you Robert!). After some Mexican Food and Jack Daniels we made it out of this place at 1:30am! Time to sleep at Walmart again.