Jornada trail From Mexico to El Paso

North to El Paso
The overnight visit to El Paso on this whirlwind vacation trip would be a welcome stop for all three travelers. The little blue car seemed to Lynae to be more of a prison than anything by the end of the day.

It wouldn’t have been such a long trip if Mom hadn’t insisted on stopping at every historical marker and museum.
At the State Park, Brent and Lynae ran ahead into the visitors’ center. Lynae ran directly into the lady’s restroom. Brent was already enthusiastically admiring the ancient coins, which had been found in the nearby excavation, and Lynae had been attracted naturally, to the wedding dresses displayed in a glass case.
Mom stopped to drool over the books on New Mexico History by Chaves and other New Mexico experts. “You know there’s a two dollar entrance fee?” the park attendant suggested politely.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Mom apologized without any embarrassment, as was her usual style. “I left my purse in the car -- I’ll have to run out and get it. Be right back. You kids go ahead and look around. Is that OK?“ She asked the attendant as an afterthought, not waiting for his answer. Brent and Lynae headed out the other door to the excavation site.


“Brent, look at the covered wagon. Climb up here and we can be pioneers. The wagon was firmly planted in concrete slab and had no animals attached.
Suddenly as they were seated on the wagon seat, the wagon lurched forward and living animals appeared, straining forward along with many other wagons.
“Where do you think we’re going, Lynae? This desert landscape looks familiar. And look the sun is setting on the left! We’re not headed west. We’re traveling north!
Friar Francisco Farfàn rode up beside the wagon with his soldier escort. “We’ll be reaching El Paso del Norte by sunset,” the Friar announced. The settlers who stayed behind last fall will be ready to greet us there and help us recover from this trip north from Mexico City.


“Padre,” Lynae called. What year is this, again?”
“1694. It’s June. Are you all right hijita?”
“Oh, yes, I’m fine. I guess I was just dreaming or dozing off.
Sorry. Padre, grácias”

Brent was holding his mouth with both hands to suppress an excited giggle of delighted surprise mixed with anticipation.

“Lynae, we’re on our way to El Paso from the south. This is one of the yearly wagon trains from Mexico to Santa Fe. We must be among the Reconquest settlers and colonists one hundred fifty years before the Mormon pioneers and settlers crossed from Illinois to Utah. Let’s see if we can find some of our old friends when we get to the camp tonight.”

“I think we’ll have to wait ‘til morning to go visiting. There will be plenty to do to help out when we first arrive. Besides, I‘ve got to find a restroom.”

“You should have gone before we left!” Brent imitated the adults.

“I did, Brent, I went at the museum.”
Brent and Lynae energetically took their place among the colonists as they pulled the wagons into El Paso del Norte, where they were each assigned to a family for the night. Lynae quickly fell in with a group of girls headed out into the desert away from the wagon train. She had heard the wagon master, or myordomo, shout, “Women to the right, men to the left.”

THIS IS A CHAPTER FROM "TURN THE HEARTS OF THE CHILDREN VOLUME I" WHICH IS POSTED ON ANOTHER BLOG IN THIS SAME BLOGSPOT BY LOLYN. TURN THERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS EXCITING ADVENTURE OF BRENT AND LYNAE AND MANY MORE AS THEY TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE AND TIME TO GET ACQUAINTED WITH THEIR ANCESTORS THAT FOUNDED AND SETTLED THE BEAUTIFUL STAE OF NEW MEXICO OVER THE PAST 400 YEARS.



They continued their journey on past the Río Grande, through what is now Española, and on into the new town of Santa Fé -- "Holy Faith".
Arriving in Santa Fe, volunteers were recruited to take a census. Brent and Lynae eagerly volunteered to record the names of family members and other colonists entering Santa Fé for the resettlement. They were aware that these very important folks would be the ancestral foundation upon which at least the next two centuries of New Mexico genealogy would be built.
Posted by LoLyn at 10:38 AM
1 comments:




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Robert Baca said...
LoLyn:

Recently, I came across this post about the Jornada del Muerto. I really like it. I decided to profile this blog, and six others that you have produced, on the New Mexico Genealogical Society Blog. To read about it, click on this link: http://nmgsblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-mexico-genealogical-connections.html

April 26, 2009 10:05 PM