Kate Nelson, a columnist for the Albuquerque Tribune, weighed in a few days ago about the condition of El Vado Motel:
Thick adobe walls and lovely old vigas can’t counteract the lunch-gagging stench of the El Vado Motel – a place where the ghosts of meth addicts, prostitutes and worse seem to wander even now, weeks after the rooms were cleared of residents and a new fence was chained shut and bolted tight.
Tree roots claw into the foundation. Jerry-rigged wiring laces in and out of windows. An open sewer features . . . well, what you’d expect.
Strange. Albuquerque Tribune reporter Maggie Shepard paints a much-different view of the motel’s condition on Oct. 19:
The rooms, none larger than 20-by-15, seem sleepy. But they are neat and don’t smell 68 years old.
The carpet is vacuumed, the teal and mauve bedspreads crisply tucked beneath thin mattresses. The bathrooms are clean, although the original black and white mini-tiles have dulled.
Most of the beds rise two feet off the ground, some tipping at slight – or not so slight – angles. The 19-inch televisions are cable-equipped and every phone works.
Kathryn Sloan of Sydney, Australia, stayed at El Vado this year, and had plenty of good things to say about it:
There was no ‘gagging stench’, there was no ‘prostitutes’ hanging around, an open sewer … not that I saw.
When we stayed – our room was clean – it smelled fresh … it had all we needed for a place to stay … the manager was friendly and helpful and was tending the gardens and clearing the courtyard while we were there.
Emily Priddy, who was in Albuquerque last month to testify in front of the Planning Commission about the motel’s proposed rezoning, saw a motel that was well-kept and clean.
I know of another Route 66 fan who stayed at El Vado the final night of its operation as a motel, and he said it was fine.
So what happened? Is someone lying, or is the new owner of El Vado not maintaining his property as he should?