Gallup, New Mexico

We had a change of plans this morning. We were going to move the motorhome north to a town, Espanola, that is situated north of Santa Fe. When we got up the ground was covered with snow and the snow was still falling. The worse part was that high winds were predicted for today so we decided to stay put for one more day. Driving the motorhome in windy conditions can be difficult. We ate lunch at a local restaurant, Don Diego's. In many restaurants as you are eating people will come by your table selling Indian jewelry. I find this to be annoying and wonder why isn't stopped by the restaurant owners.
After lunch we stopped at some of the shops along Route 66 that runs through town. Most are selling Indian jewelry, pottery, Kachina dolls and blankets. Quite a few of these establishments are also pawn shops. Richardson's is a big store and pawn shop that we went into. The store was filled with jewelry, blankets, Kachina dolls, pottery, saddles and other stuff but the pawn shop area was indeed the busiest. We talked with the clerk. He said that Gallup was the last place he thought he would ever want to live but circumstances caused him to live here. Years ago the town had numerous bars and numerous drunken Indians hanging out on the streets. Since that time the big stores WalMart, Safeway and Applebys, among others, came in and bought the liquor liscenses from the bars at a real hefty price. This caused the bars to close, liquor is sold in these stores but not like the bars and the drunken Indians are not as commonly seen today.