USA – Mick and Liesel's Antics

Time to go Home

It’s not often I watch Doc Martin on TV while eating breakfast and chatting with Liesel’s Uncle Neil, but it happened today for the first time. Neil has one of the shortest email addresses in the known universe, just ten characters in total, which is great, except that some modern sites don’t accept it as a legitimate address.

As well as being a scientist and a mathematician, he’s a bit of a philosopher and has spent the last several decades researching and writing a now 80-page long document about his theory of, well, everything. Having exchanged email addresses, he sent me a copy which I look forward to reading.

While online, I came across a ‘Truth’ or whatever it’scalled by the President:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonald Trump

After visiting the beautiful city of Albuquerque earlier this month, I decided that it is disrespectful to America to have a state called New Mexico. It is surrounded by America so it should be called America. I plan to sign an Executive Order renaming the Land of Enchantment New America!

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Actually, I suspect it’s a fake, but who knows? It’s so believable these days.

As I was packing for my departure, I thought about some things that I’d observed here in Albuquerque, and beyond.

Piñons are very small nuts and the trees are prolific. The nuts are so small, that some of us just find it easier to eat them whole, shells included, rather than trying to peel them.

Indoors is very dry too, very low humidity. So, often I would touch the light switch, or the fridge door handle, or Liesel, and I would experience a static shock. Every time was a surprise.

When out and about, almost everything is covered in a thin layer of dust. It’s a dry, dusty old state. It is being modernised though: we passed by a few solar arrays on our various trips.

Also, while out and about, I was greatly entertained by the many adverts for lawyers on billboards by the highways.

• Do your research: the husband and wife law team.
• $1 billion recovered for clients
• Hurt? Call Bert
• Injured? Get more. Dial 4…
• Semi truck collision? Call…
• Dead? Call Fred

No, alright, I made the last one up.

There’s one infamous sign that I was hoping to see out on the road, but, disappointingly, it never materialised.

• Eat here and get gas

We didn’t have a barbecue at all here in New Mexico. No Abq bbq, so to speak. Yes, all this time, I could have been using Abq as an abbreviation for ‘Albuquerque’ instead of writing the word ‘Albuquerque’ in full every time I mentioned ‘Albuquerque’.

I know Americans don’t have the monopoly on mangling the English language, but there were a few times on this visit when my ears wanted to pack up and go home. Just a couple of examples:

• When we were in Europe forever ago…
• Hope you guys enjoy you guys’s lunch

This sort of thing is very common too: you see a discount on an item but no actual price. So this conversation was very common:

• That’s 50% off
• So, how much is it?
• Ummm…

Meanwhile, outside the weather was not conducive to a return visit to the Bosque, the Rio Grande River Loop Trail. It rained, again with huge raindrops. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the rumbling thunder was accompanied by a hailstorm. Hailstones as big as peas. There have been larger though. On one occasion, Buzz returned from Phoenix in a car that resembled a golfball. Someone may have been exaggerating, of course!

Helen and Brent called from Australia and Liesel and I had a very nice chat with them. Helen is very happy with her new car, a Toyota.

Liesel and I did get out briefly, though, Gabe drove us to see the storm drains after today’s extensive precipitation. The water was indeed flowing fast.

What a boring picture, I know what you’re thinking, so here’s a nearby, colourful, mural.

And so it was timefor me to say goodbye to our fantastic hosts, Buzz, Neil and Gabe. Liesel drove me to the airport. Now, usually, Liesel drops me off and I’m left to check in by myself. But on the way to the airport today, I received an email telling me that my second leg flight, from Atlanta to Manchester, had been cancelled. I always feel anxious about this aspect of travel, dealing with airlines and airports, because something will always go wrong, right? Well, not always. But this is the first time I’ve had to deal with a cancelled flight.

It was a short queue to check in, because, guess what, Manchester Airport, there were several members of staff working on the counters, all at the same time. Revolutionary.

Tiffany, my Delta agent was great, though. She fought through Virgin Atlantic and Air France’s BS and rearranged my trip back to the UK. I could have postponed the whole thing until the next day, but there’s no guarantee that Virgin Atlantic wouldn’t cancel again, for ‘technical reasons’.

So, rather than Abq to Atlanta to Manchester, I now have three flights: Abq to Atl to Orlando to Manchester. And I would arrive just two hours later than originally planned.

So after all the excitement and fun and places of interest in New Mexico, my fear and anxiety of travelling through airports was, today, fully justified.

In Security, I was patted down, because the poppers on my shorts lit up on their very fussy scanner. As someone else joked, rather riskily I thought: usually I’d get dinner and a drink for that.

At the gate, we learnt that our plane was arriving late so we’d be departing late. So of course, I am now more worried about not making the connections. Whereas my original schedule had a 3-hour layover in Atlanta, it was now 1½ hours. Even less with this late departure. Tiffany was at the gate so again I thanked her profusely.

My window seat was OK, but I couldn’t see anything other than the wing. After an uneventful flight, people with connections were allowed off first. Everyone had a connecting flight.

In Atlanta I walked and took the train to my departure gate, arriving with less than an hour to spare. I took more slow, deep breaths before going for a quick wander to find something to eat. A very nice, tasty tomato, cheese and basil crêpe was the best option.

I don’t know why I worry about the size of my carry-on bag when people seem to get away with bulging backpacks and antique Victorian trunks. Well, very nearly.

This flight was late taking off too, for which they apologised but offered no explanation. I had an aisle seat this time, sitting next to a very rude Italian man. He was upset because he’d been made to check his oversize bag but I didn’t laugh out loud: never mess with the Mafia.

And of course, I was now worried about making my connecting flight in Orlando.

My English accent did me no favours on this flight: I failed to get any milk for my welcome cup of tea. While in New Mexico, only one person had accused me of being Australian, but I still can’t recall the circumstances.

The plane landed in Orlando, and we taxied for ages and ages before the pilot announced that there was currently no gate available. Apparently, after a big storm yesterday, they were still catching up on a backlog of delayed flights.

After about half an hour, we were able to disembark. I’d not been to Orlando Airport since 1992 and couldn’t remember it at all and it’s probably changed anyway since then so I really hoped it would be easy to find my next, and final, departure gate. It was, and again I plonked myself down with much less than an hour to go.

I looked around, but there were no ads for Disneyworld, so I failed in my mission to take a selfie with Mickey or Minnie. There were no food outlets either nearby so I was very glad of the cheese sandwich Liesel had made for me.

Annoyingly, I wasn’t able to order a vegetarian meal for this flight. I’d asked at every opportunity, but no, because the flight is within 24 hours. But it was your airline, Virgin Atlantic, that cancelled my original flight. Oh well, never mind was the official response.

My seat was in the back row, right in front of the toilet and I sat next to a nice lady with an English accent. Well, it turns out she lives in New York state, moved there when she was about 2 years old, and was now visiting her cousin in Chester.

I couldn’t sleep, as usual, so I watched two movies: Paddington in Peru, and Heretic, both of which I can recommend, especially if you’re a Hugh Grant fan.

There was just one thing left for me to worry about. Given my flights were late and the connection times were tight, would my checked in bag make it home on the same flight as me?

After landing, disembarking, walking a long way to Passport Control in Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2, the moment of truth. Along with hundreds of other dazed passengers, I watched the baggage carousel with a mix of excitement at being back on home turf and dread at the thought of the bureaucracy I’d have to go through again if my case didn’t turn up. But, no, look, is that it? Yes, is that the right label? Yes, yes and yes.

The taxi driver took me home the long way, but that meant he just got a smaller tip than otherwise.

Arriving home is always a bit of anticlimax. A quick walk to get some milk then I had a cup of tea and, despite my best efforts, a nap.

I managed to stay awake for the duration of the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who before going to bed properly. Good night.

Oasis v Blur

I woke up early, soon after sunrise, and was so glad I’d risen in the middle of the night to take some photos of the night sky, and yes, alright, just to gaze at the night sky with zero light pollution.

Neil hoovered the place, well, until the circuit breaker broke because the batteries had lost too much charge. The solar panels will charge them back up during the day.

First breakfast was cinnamon and apple flavoured oatmeal and a cup of tea.

We drove out from the cabin once again via Zuni Canyon. And again, I marvelled at the extent of the lava flows. A squirrel wasted no time in running across the road in front of us, phew. A family of ground hogs (same as prairie dogs?) standing in the middle of the road quickly dispersed in all directions. All except one who defiantly stood up on his hind legs until the very last moment, realising that a heavy American car is not to be messed with

‘Do something scary every day’ is one motto I try to live by, although there’s not always the opportunity to do so. Well, I admit, I did forego the opportunity to climb a ladder yesterday. But today, my challenge was, for the first time since about 1979, to eat an Egg McMuffin. We’d arranged to meet Buzz, Liesel, Gabe and Leslie at McDonalds in Grants at 11 o’clock. On arrival, I gave my order, being sure to enunciate to the best of my ability and to emphasise that I didn’t want any bacon on my Egg McMuffin. Loudly tapping the desk, the server who most definitely was not channeling Ronald McDonald’s jolly demeanour, told me that they don’t serve breakfast after 10.30, like everyone knows that, right?Scary Mary was so scary, I was too scared to order anything else to eat, so I just had a cup of tea.

Liesel and co arrived shortly afterwards and after a bit of a chat over tea or coffee or in Neil’s case, a small McFlurry, we all set off again. Neil returned to Albuquerque. The rest of us, almost in a convoy, set off westwards towards Window Rock.

We ate lunch at the famous Earls Family Restaurant in Gallup. It first opened in 1947 . This date reminded me that I would miss out on visiting Roswell on this visit to New Mexico. My huevos rancheros was accompanied by more green chili, which was just borderline acceptable to my taste buds: a few more Scoville points and my ears would have blown off again. Even so, Liesel did ask whether I was red because of the chili or was I sunburnt?

Window Rock is just over the border in the next state. So I was looking out for a big, brightly coloured sign saying ‘Welcome to Arizona’, maybe with flags flying, accompanied by a troupe of dancing girls and a big brass band. But no. A small, insgnificant, almost apologetic sign coyly saying ‘Arizona State Line’. That’s it? Well, what an anticlimax.

In Ganado, we visited the Hubbell Trading Post, established in 1878, now the oldest continually operated trading post on the Navajo reservation. J. L. Hubbell, whose family operated the trading post for nearly 90 years, was known among the Navajo as trustworthy and honest. His trading post became a pillar of the community, playing a large role in helping Navajo families rebuild their lives after the Long Walk.

The place was full of rug dealers, many beautifully woven rugs that would look good anywhere. Lots of jewellery too, they all seem very talented, the earrings were made by the maintenance supervisor.

Arizona and the Navajo nation have a love/hate relationship with Daylight Savings. For a while, the times on my phone and Liesel’s phone were an hour different, even though we were in the same room. Another quirk in this place: no sales tax.

The Navajo Nation Museum was interesting, and quite moving. But the first thing you notice on arriving and parking up are the large rocks on an otherwise flat terrain.

The next thing we noticed was the big, black cloud that appeared almost from nowhere. And indeed, when we were inside, it did rain for a while.

Between 1863 and 1866, more than ten thousand Diné prisoners of the U.S. were marched to the Bosque Redondo reservation, known in Navajo as Hweéldi, in present day southeastem New Mexico. The Long Walk is actually a series of forced marches, no less than fifty-three, during which captives walked anywhere from 250 to 450 miles, depending on the route taken.

Many of them (Navajos) died from starvation. The kind of food they had, they died from that. Also, I think a larger percent of deaths was caused by homesickness. They wept from day-to-day, many of them, “I wish I was on my own land bark at Chinle or Kayente.” — Dághá Chíí Bik’is, son-in-law of Manuelito and one of the first Navajo Council members (1951).

The Long Walk, then a Treaty between the Navajo Reservation and the United States that is, literally, not watertight. Disputes about the Treaty are still taking place, resulting in ongoing court cases. One current issue is the water supply. The Navajo nation depends upon just three rivers, and they’re being affected by climate change, like everything else.

Diné Cosmic Order by Donovan Snyder, 2018

At the time of the White Land (Ni’halgai), First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin), First Woman (Áłtsé Asdząą), and other Divinities were choosing rock-star mica chips that were laid out on a buckskin robe to place in the sky. They were forming our constellations to light up the dark night.

Mischievous Coyote (Mą’ii) came along and wanted to help, but after witnessing the slow and methodical placement of the constellations, he became impatient. He grabbed the buckskin and scattered the remaining stars into the sky, which is why some stars today are not seen within in the orderly constellations.

After the rain, it was only a quick downpour, we drove to our final destination of the day, Window Rock. At the first sighting of this natural phenomenon, I took this picture:

Window Rock is over there at the back, but, a flying saucer? How cool! Yes, I know it’s a raindrop on the windscreen, but still…

The rock with a big hole in it is well protected, fenced off, we really aren’t invited to go up for a closer look. It’s a great venue for graduation photos, as enjoyed by one new graduate today, having a good celebration with his family.

Here is a fascinating story, we learned a lot about it at the Museum, and there’s a monument here.

The Legendary Navajo Code Talkers:

During World War II, in the South Pacific Theater, the Japanese were extremely proficient at breaking into military radio communications and transmissions. Thus they were able to decipher U.S. Military codes. The U.S. Armed forces needed to find a secure method of communication if they were to have any chance of defeating a clever and intelligent foe. To counter the cleverness of the Japanese cryptographers, 29 Navajo Marines were recruited to devise a secret military code using their native language. By war’s end, there were over 400 Navajo Marines serving as code talkers and the code vocabulary had doubled. So successful was this innovative code that the Marine Corps commanders credited it with saving the lives of countless American Marines and soldiers. It enabled their successful engagements throughout the Pacific Theater which included the battles for Guadalcanal, Wake Island, Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, Midway, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The code paved the way to early victory for the allied forces in the South Pacific. Major Howard M. Conner, 5th Marine Division Signal Officer stationed on Iwo Jima, commented on the gallantry of the Navajo Code Talkers: “Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would not have taken Iwo Jima.”

Far from their homes, these brave young Navajo Marines served our nation with honor and dignity. The tale of their exploits remained a closely guarded secret for decades in the event that the Navajo Code Talkers unique talents would be needed again. In 1968 the Navajo code was finally declassified. In July 2001, at the National Capital Rotunda, United States President, the honorable George W. Bush, awarded the Congressional Gold Medals to the first 29 Navajo Code Talkers, their surviving spouses or children. In November of 2001 at the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock, Arizona, the Congressional Silver Medals were awarded to the rest of the Navajo Code Talkers, their surviving spouses or children. Sadly, many of the Navajo Code Talkers have passed on never knowing of the honor a grateful nation has bestowed upon them. The Navajo Code Talkers will never be forgotten.

Diné Bizaad Yee Atah Naayee’ Yik’eh Deesdlii.

We checked in at our Holiday Inn before wandering over the road to Navajo Westerners Ace Hardware. Some of the fabrics on sale here are very pretty.

Another shop in this Navajo Nation Shopping Center was the supermarket from where we bought a snack: still full from a big lunch, we didn’t need a big evening meal.

We were followed back to the hotel by a stray dog, but I think it didn’t speak English, since it ignored all my stern commands. Another reason to learn Spanish, I suppose. Or maybe even Navajo.

Going down for breakfast in the morning provided the first chortle of the day. Shouldn’t laugh, really, but… There was a poster outside the hotel shop with a mugshot of a young lady. The caption: Anyone know who this is? They stole our security device.

Buzz and Gabe are here at this time for a weekend of fun with the Girl Scouts.They were at the breakast table along with Liesel and Leslie, plus three other Girl Scout leaders, by the time I arrived.

Liesel looked at a very pretty necklace in the shop, but decided not to buy it in the end. ‘It’s only stuff’ and ‘I’ll probably only wear it once’.

Over the road, the famous Flea Market was being set up. We wandered around, admiring all the jewellery (of course), ignoring the car tyres and electronics up for sale, and just passed some time until the Navajo Arts and Craft Enterprise opened. More locally made jewellery, and this time, Liesel did buy something, an unusual pair of earrings.

Leslie chose to stay with Buzz today, with the Girl Scouts, so that left Liesel and me to drive back to Albuquerque. Having plenty of time, we paid a visit to El Morro, for more local culture and a walk. Thanks to some roadworks, we found ourselves driving along the rumblestrips at the side of the road, and that’s a very uncomfortable feeling after a while. You’re doing nothing wrong, but we’ve been programmed to think that that noise means we’re too near the edge. Weird.

We listened to Classic Rock 93X: Putting the rock into Window Rock! Well, classic rock? Over half of the songs they played were new to me. They may have been big hits and very popular in the USA, but it was reassuring when the odd, genuine classic, came on.

On to El Morro, then. This cuesta has long been an oasis to the travelers who left their mark upon it. A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a sandstone bluff made El Morro (the headland) a popular refuge for hundreds of years. Native Americans, Spanish explorers and missionaries, and American soldiers and pioneers carved over 2,000 signatures, dates, messages, and petroglyphs. Atop the cuesta are the remains of the fourteenth-century pueblos of Atsinna and North Atsinna where the ancestors of today’s Puebloan communities once lived.

A most enjoyable and interesting walk. The guide lent us a book, and we followed the route more or less as suggested.

These artefacts won’t last forever, being carved into sandstone and where they’ve tried to hide post-1906 markings, the surface looks unnaturally smooth.

As we walked back to the Visitor Centre, we felt a few spots of rain. Big spots. But, just as quickly, we stepped over a crack in the concrete path, and it wasn’t raining any more.

We heard the thunder in the distance, relieved that we weren’t caught in a major storm.

Our journey back to Albuquerque continued. We saw sheep and horses close to the highway, mostly behind a fence, but not always. Not ideal when the traffic is moving at 60mph or more.

We can sort of understand why people might choose to live out here in the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest town. But, then, why would you build your house so close to the noisy highway?

We drove over the Continental Divide, elevation 7200 feet. This was a much more interesting sign than ‘Arizona State Line’. And if there was such a sign, we missed ‘New Mexico State Line’.

But we couldn’t miss the thunderstorm ahead of us, so of course I had to try and get a picture of the lightning. Liesel wasn’t keen on me almost leaning out of the with with my phone. But it was worth it!

Back at home, we took Neil out for a meal at Monroe’s, a return visit for us. I enjoyed my final New Mexico meal: #6 Veggie Tostadas (Gluten free) 2 bluecorn tostada shells stuffed with avocado, whole beans, pico de gallo, mozzarella, lettuce and tomato. Served with calavacitas and salsa. Hey, I remembered what I ate! But only because I screenshot the menu.

Final NM meal? Yes, my time here was nearly up and I had to do some packing. I have more to take home that I came with, especially the Seestar S50. Four weeks here, and it’s all a bit of a blur right now. I need a holiday, as they say.

Oh, and WordPress has just told me that this is the 600th post on this blog. What a lot of antics!

Seeing Stars

There was no point in revelling in our success at the pub quiz last night, since we didn’t have any! We came joint last, but it was all good fun. In the morning, we left Tammy and Aaron in peace and drove into Santa Fe city centre for breakfast in Clafoutis, the French bakers. No, we didn’t mind sitting at a ‘communal table’. But our ‘companions’ left as soon as we sat down. We had the table to ourselves until a couple of ladies joined us. One from Colorado, the other from Pennsylvania.

Liesel and Tammy had had a great massage last week, so Liesel took me to the same place and we were pummelled and poked for an hour. I think it was a good massage. To recover, we spent a little time in the book shop next door. So many books to catch up on, both new and old.

The drive back to Albuquerque was quick, I think I nodded off for a bit and missed a lot of the stunning New Mexico scenery.

As a prelude to a visit to the zoo, I spotted some wildlife in the courtyard.

There was nothing special about these millions of ants apart from their speed: they were very busy, or at least, running around, looking busy. Fudgelling, I think, is the word.

Liesel drove Leslie and me to Albuquerque Zoo , or more accurately, ABQ BioPark Zoo. We had a nice wander around the place, which wasn’t as crowded as we’d expected, having seen how packed the car park was.

It wasn’t only the animals we were here to see: some of the plantlife was fascinating too. There were some bigger animals, as well, don’t worry. The polar bear here seemed to have a lot more room than that poor old thing in Chessington World of Adventures a few years ago. This one appeared to be having fun too, climbing rocks, diving and swimming.

The kookaburras responded to my recording of their cousin, made in Australia some years ago. It was mean, really, they probably think they have a new friend. Sorry. That’s nearly as bad as little boys chasing ducks.

In the café, the man had to show me how to order food on the touchscreen because it was too hard for him to listen to my order with his own ears. Having placed the order electronically, he then read it out to me from his own screen, just to confirm what I wanted. Anyway, my bowl of fries was very nice, just what I needed. Liesel and Leslie had an ice cream instead.

The sign on the fence told us there were zebras in this enclosure. Well, that small rodent with a fluffy tail looked more like a squirrel to me, it didn’t even have any stripes.

One of these characters is preparing to add some charcters to the mural, the other is playing hide and seek with his troop.

The hippos were very active, although Liesel was disappointed that none of them did the thing with their tail, spinning it round and round to spread the love from their bottoms.

The cutest thing was undoubtedly the Mum gorilla carrying her baby around.

Time for a return visit to the cabin. Neil and I left quite early and spent the day and night there, seemingly out in the middle of nowhere.

I helped Neil with a few odd jobs. Fixing a light fitting was OK. Attaching the fan was OK, I just let Neil climb the ladder. Fitting the fan blades was a bit of a let-down, because the wrong size screws had been supplied.

Another job was plumbing related, definitely not my favourite thing. But we succeeded without losing too much water from the system.

The most interesting job though was to affix a Moultrie Edge cellular trail camera to a tree, facing the cabin, so that from home in Albuquerque, Neil can keep an eye on the cabin and monitor the weather.

It can be set up with a motion sensor so that any passing wildlife will be captured on film too. Well, not literally film, but you know what I mean. The first animal it took a picture of was, er, me, posing by a tree.

Walking around the area surrounding the cabin cannot be done stealthily. There’s always something crunching under foot, leaves, wood, pine cones.

Later in the evening, I prepared my new Seestar S50. The Moon was easy to spot, but the sky was pretty much obscured by clouds, which was disappointing.

I also found Jupiter and its four brightest moons, but I couldn’t discern the coloured bands on Jupiter itself. As it got darker, more clouds moved in, so I went back inside, and very soon, it was time for bed.

At about 1.30, I woke up for the usual reason, and while outside, I couldn’t believe how clear the sky was, how many stars I could see. No clouds at all. Well, even though it was cold, I decided I would take the Seestar out on the balcony again and do some stargazing.

I was very impressed with these pictures, but I wasn’t so impressed with the how cold it was outside, brrr, apparently it was about 40°F, that’s so different to the daytime temperature. So I went back to bed.

Quirky places

Buzz drove me, Liesel and Leslie to Tinkertown Museum, one of Albuquerque’s more quirky attractions. On arrival, I couldn’t help but notice that they’re still celebrating the fact that in June, 1997, they were visited by the top TV show Good Morning America.

The next thing I noticed was that most of the walls are made from bottles stuck together with some kind of mortar. There must be a name for this innovative construction method.

Inside the museum, you see a wonderfully eclectic collection of objects: for example, we found ourselves treading on horsehoes embedded in the floor. There are hundreds of old vehicle registrartion number plates, some of which are just a small amount of rust held together by pure luck.

As one homemade sign says: Tinker Town was started as a hobby in 1962. It was not intended as a public display until your interest helped build our museum.

It was a fascinating character called Ross Ward who started the museum. Many of his wood carvings are on display, featured in displays of fairgrounds, wagon trains and other exhibits. Some are animated, and some have buttons to press. It’s all great fun.

The smallest wedding couple are fleas (I hope I’m not giving too much away). There’s a one-man band named Otto, who’ll play something for a quarter. Yes, Sarah, who greeted us, made sure to give us some quarters when we paid to enter.

I had my fortune told, and it looks like everything’s coming up roses. For another 25 cents, I shook hands with Uncle Sam and his conclusion was that I am a romantic. On the other hand, in the next room, the Career Pilot told me I was destined to be a fish seller.

There’s a 35-foot long wooden sailboat that Fritz Damler spent ten years sailing around the world, losing one wife, finding another.

We thought we’d finished wandering around the museum, but no, there was plenty more to look at outside.

It was a fun place to visit, but we both thought it needed a bit of TLC: many of the displays were dusty, but I suppose that can’t be helped in a desert.

Lunch was taken at The Cheesecake Factory but my Impossible® Burger didn’t leave enough room for some actual cheesecake. Also, we weren’t served by Penny from The Big Bang Theory.

Buzz drove us up the hill to give us a nice all-round view. I say ‘hill’ but that’s an understatement. We drove up and up a long and winding road, with plenty of nearly hairpin bends, to reach the top, Sandia Crest, the highest peak in the Sandia mountains. Albuquerque is about a mile above sea level and Sandia Crest is another mile above Albuquerque. On a clear day, you can apparently see 100 miles in each direction. Today wasn’t that clear. But it did feel a bit ooky looking down on what might have been a model of the city of Albuquerque, a mile below.

Another really noticeable difference was the temperature. At the top, it was 56°F (13°C) and back at the bottom, on the way back, the mercury reached a massive 81°F (27°C).

Liesel and I had arranged to meet up with Tammy and Aaron one more time in Santa Fe. So after packing, we set off in a northerly direction.

Highlights of the drive up the I-25? Seeing some horses by the side of the road. And we saw a few small dust devils, which would be called ‘willy-willys’ in Australia.

We stopped briefly at a rest stop: such a place wouldn’t normally be of interest to anyone, but here there was a sign for the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative, founded in 2005 by the New Mexico Women’s Forum. The 2006 Legislature funded the project to recognize women’s contributions to New Mexico history with official historic markers.

This is one of nearly 100 markers erected across the state, recognising women’s contributions in various fields, including arts, business, education, government, healthcare, and science.

Both Albuquerque and Santa Fe are rightly proud of their murals. This very colourful one celebrates Adelitas, women who supported the Mexican Revolution. It’s outside a Mexican restaurant in Santa Fe, and we passed it on our way to Meow Wolf: House of Eternal Return. This is a large-scale interactive and immersive art installation, a 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m²) facility, including a concert venue.

‘Quirky’ is the word you’re looking for. As you walk through the different rooms, you’re supposed to be able to piece together a story. It’s probably easier with the app, but I was unable to download the app because, it said, I was in the wrong region. Probably it meant that my phone was UK-based.

There were many strange noises and effects, lots of user interaction, though I don’t think everything worked as it should. There were aliens, strange creatures, and it was very colourful.

You can crawl through fireplaces, climb into fridges, enter a wardrobe and come out through a bookcase.

It felt a bit like an escape room, but with no specific puzzle to solve. We’d still be there if we’d tried to read all the printed material lying around, newspapers, books, journals, video displays.

Some of the video games required tokens, which we didn’t purchase for our human dollars. And there were some obvious nods to science fiction characters such as those from Star Wars.

A couple of rooms were designed to look like cartoon strips, just black and white imagery.

You need to visit to see and enjoy the whole experience, of course: no more spoilers here.

We found a place for a delicious ice cream. Two scoops for me: green chili and vanilla flavour, a perfect combination. While sitting inside the parlour to enjoy our treats, a group of young people were outside decorating the pavement. There was no political message, just a lot of squiggles in blue paint.

We arrived at Tammy’s house bang on 6 o’clock, our agreed time, after driving via the local supermarket.

Almost immediately, Tammy whisked us away to El Dorado Fusion Tacos. We ordered our meals, said we were going to the pub next door, Santa Fe Brewing Company Eldorado, and the guy said they’d bring our food over.

No, I don’t know why sometimes it’s one word and sometimes two words: Eldorado or El Dorado? Anyway, it is the title of one of my favourite ELO records.

Aaron joined us straight from work and we ate, drank and prepared ourselves for a gruelling pub quiz.

In the end, there were only 16 questions, with a points system based on the TV quiz show Jeopardy, so 200, 300, 400 or 500 points for a correct answer. There were four categories.

After the main quiz, our team, Autopilots, was tied in the lead with Rolling Stones, both of us having a score of 3200 points. The quiz is decided though, again in a twist from Jeopardy, in which the teams wager a certain number of points on one final question. We bet all 3200, of course. But we got the answer wrong and ended up with zero. No wooden spoon for losers here, though!

Great fun, but all over by about 9pm. On the drive home, we observed a very thin crescent Moon just about to follow the Sun and set. I should have brought my telescope, but I’d decided not to because I thought the quiz would finish much later and we wouldn’t have time to use it. So what’s the best my phone could do?

PS I would have taken a picture of a slighly fatter crescent the following night if only there hadn’t been 100% cloud cover over Albuquerque, but that’s all to come…

Powwow

Smile, you’re on Candid Camera, said the world to the Moon. As a thin crescent, with Saturn and Venus both in the right place, we should have seen a big smiley face in the sky just a bit before sunrise. Not me. I got up in time, the sky was clear but I couldn’t see through the Sandia mountains to the east. So I crawled back into my pit.

Liesel, me, Gabe, Elizabeth (Gabe’s daughter who I met for the first time today), Buzz, Lisa, Hannah and Leslie: we all visited Frontier for breakfast, a very popular eating spot here in Albuquerque. It’s a big place too, it was quite a challenge carrying the meals from where they were served up to where we were sitting.

There were far too many interesting things to take pictures of in here, even though the main point of our visit was to eat breakfast. Which was very good, actually.

Horns and a Springfield model 1884 ‘trapdoor’ rifle

I assume the weapon is real and I was glad to see it glued to the wall so well.

The rest of the day, we spent at The Gathering of Nations, north America’s biggest Powwow. It was a beautiful day, and even apart from the performances, it was fun to watch people changing into their various tribal outfits, whether in the car park, or in the queue to get into the venue, or later on, on-site. It was a very colourful display.

Buzz, Leslie and Lisa went into the indoor arena and reserved seats for the rest of us while we wandered around, admiring the various food offerings and watching people.

In a couple of the buildings, more jewellery and artwork was on display and for sale. Again, we wanted to buy more than we could afford, or store. The different Indian nations each have their own style, and I think, slowly, we’re beginning to pick them out.

Liesel did buy some earrings, made by an Alaskan Athabascan. I bought a print of a painting that caught my eye from across the room.

We found our family inside the Tingley Coliseum in good time for the Drum Roll Call and the Grand Entry of Dancers. The auditorium seats over 11,000 people and it was pretty full. A number of drum groups were located around the outside of the floor, they woke us up with their very loud rhythms.

We witnessed Elders, Chiefs and other Dignitaries lead the parade, with dancers from the many tribes joining the throng in the arena, dancing round until the whole floor was covered. It was a very colourful sight, exuberant and quite loud. I went as far as tapping a foot and trying to drum out the rhythms on my leg.

I took several picture like this during the day. You can see how busy the place was, but it’s hard to focus on any one individual, so here are a few of those:

Liesel and I went outside for a quick walk and found lunch, an Indian taco in my case, and very tasty it was, too. When Liesel returned to her seat indoors, I found some shade to sit in and eat while I listened to a band, Sandia Sons, performing a couple of songs.

One of the main events at the Powwow is to select Miss Indian Nation 2025-26. The incumbent for 2024-25, Kassie John, performed a dance for us, very nimble footwork.

There were of course a few speeches, all uplifting and positive, apart from one lady who went on and on losing everyone’s attention: this event wasn’t supposed to be about her and her personal religious beliefs.

Some of the performers had cool names: Sharpshoort Singers, from Saskatchewan; Iron Bear; Albert Nicotine; Dark Canyon, although didn’t he used to be a Musketeer?

Outside again, and Liesel commented that she’d forgotten to bring her hat. Let’s buy a new one, then, I suggested. So she did.

I get the impression that Liesel’s not as fond of it as I am, but at least it will keep the Sun off, to a certain extent.

By now, Liesel and I were on our own. Everyone else in our group had gone home. They don’t know what they were missing.

Near to the place where we found this hat, we saw badger with feet, grey fox, Arctic fox, coyote with feet, river otter, dyed black coyote and silver fox. No, not a display of local, wild animals, but a selection of fur coats up for sale. Well, I hope they’ve all still got fleas.

Back outside, we lined up with thousands of other people for the next event, The Traditional Horse and Rider Parade. Here are some of the runners and riders:

Nope, look more closely, it’s not a unicorn – and sorry about the decapitation

Back inside for one more session, I realised that at least one of the MCs reminded me of the DJ who appears at the beginning of The Carpenters’ song Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft, just a bit over-excited.

One of them got the audience to perform what can only now be referred to as a New Mexican Wave. When the folks to your right stand up, arms in the air, woohooing, it’s your turn to do the same. And so this wave goes round and round forever, well, four times on this occasion.

The Sacred Eagle staff was carried by an important representative from the Pawnee nation, but he couldn’t get far without being closely pursued by the paparazzi.

To our ears, many of the songs sounded the same but the rhythms of the drums kept up the overall sense of excitement.

At one point, relations of the performers were invited to join them on the dance floor, and then, so were we, the rest of the audience. I thought there was no need for me to be stomping on other people’s feet, so I stayed seated. There came a time when Liesel and I both felt we were fully saturated in Indian culture, and it was time to go back home.

The event has been run continously, apart from a couple of years for Covid, and this was the 42nd Annual World Celebration. When invited, a few people in the audience claimed to have been to every one, so far. Well, this was our first and what a fun, educational and entertaining day it was too. Not so say,exhausting. Thanks to Buzz for sorting out the tickets for us.

The next day was a day of rest, of writing, reading and relaxation, the alternative three Rs. I caught up a bit with emails, Liesel caught up on a bit of TV.

Go west

Problems with plumbing always cause me more grief than is strictly necessary, even when it’s nothing to do with me. The fact that my shower leaked ino the bathroom below while I was using it was just pure bad luck. The shower hasn’t been used regularly for a long time and the seal around the drain had dried out over the years. Neil fixed the problem with the help of a friend.

By way of escape, Gabe drove Liesel and me to the Three Guns Spring Trail, a hike postponed from a few days ago.

I thought this was a good place to balance a large boulder, just above the car park.

From here, the trail was up and up. In places, the gravelly path was quite steep. Gabe was a good guide, both as a geologist and a cactus-specialising horticulturalist.

It was very quiet. I could hear the silence even above my tinnitus. Strangely, no birds and very few insects.

This pair seemed to be having a good time though, we look forward to seeing the next generation in due course. There were a few other beetles, including stink bugs. And later on, a couple of bees did buzz around.

I think this was the longest, continuous climb I’d done for several months, and of course my old issue, shortness of breath, affected my performance. We reached a point where reluctantly, I had to stop. I parked myself on a rock, in the shade, and listened to the silence. A gentle breeze cooled me down. Liesel carried on, reaching our erstwhile goal, The Post, and a bit beyond.

The Post (not much to write home about, is it!)

Sadly, neither of us saw the spring that gives the trail its name. Nor three guns, come to that.

Surely, there was other wildlife? Liesel saw a single lizard but most/least exciting was seeing less than 25% of a deer on the trail on our return to the car park.

At least my chest no longer felt like it would explode. But other things happened too. Dear body of mine, if I’m so dehydrated, why do you keep producing so much snot? Just stop it.

There’s a house on the road leading to this trail’s car park that is very well decorated. I for one didn’t expect to see this famous statue here.

This guy (I assume it’s a guy, a gal would have better things to do with their time) has built a bird house in the style of an old pueblo dwelling.

Lisa arrived tonight. She is Buzz and Neil’s daughter, Leslie’s niece, Liesel’s cousin. I really should draw up a family tree.

The following day, I went on a road trip with Neil. Neil and Buzz have a cabin near the Zuni Mountains about 80 miles west of their home in Albuquerque. On the drive, Neil and I had a good conversation about philosophy, even if I didn’t recognise many of the names that Neil dropped.

We saw a few long trains on the way too, including a couple passing by each other. Another great photo opportunity missed.

Once we turned off the main road, the bumpy road was a roller-coaster ride. Luckily, we’d come in a vehicle with plenty of clearance underneath.

The cabin is at an altitude of 8200 feet, significantly higher than the house, so lower air pressure and more chance of a nose bleed, grrr.

The second building will be Buzz’s design studio in the fullness of time. It’s definitely a remote location, and Neil should be very proud of having constructed the cabins pretty much by himself.

After enjoying the packed lunches carefully put together by our spouses, we went for a short walk towards Cinder Cone, through the woods, more of a forest really.

Lisa and her sister Andrea (Andi, who now lives in Richmond, England) used to play on this tree when they were younger, according to Neil. No wonder it’s bent.

There is quartz all over the place here in the woods, plus fir cones and all sorts of things that our grandchildren would love to pick up and collect such as…

We drove back along the old Route 66 as much as possible, through Grants. At least Route 66 is paved, not like this road through the Zuni Canyon as we left, which has been newly gravelled (if that’s the right word), so we left a cloud of dust behind us.

The canyon itself was stunning, more stratified rock structures than you could imagine.

By the time we arrived home, Hannah was there too, she’s Lisa’s daughter and you can work out the rest of the relationships yourself.

Valles Caldera

After last night’s Seder feast, today we celebrated Easter with a big breakfast. Gabe had retrieved a crate of Easter paraphernalia from the garage and the house is now suitably decorated.

And so, it came to pass that it was time for Jyoti and Rupert to leave this place and return to Charlotte, North Carolina. After saying goodbye to them at the airport, Liesel and I failed in our next mission, to find vegetarian gravy. Oh well. One thing I’ve realised recently was that you don’t see cows with cabbages on their heads these days.

The nearby mountains were patchily covered with snow, probably not enough for a decent skier. Plenty for me, though, to observe, from a distance.

If you mention Red Arrows at home, you’re probably talking about the aerial display team. Here, it is a popular landmark in the city centre. The Giant Red Arrow was constructed in 1961, is 20-feet tall and stands opposite the Whole Foods Market, very convenient.

It is now iconic, a landmark, and most people like it being there. Not so much the guy that would like to rip it up to make room for a few more parking spaces.

It can literally be seen from space, look!

The rest of the day was quite relaxed. Some TV, a spot of reading, a bit of writing.

Liesel had some work to do, and after writing for a while, I went for a walk, locally, with Neil. We didn’t go far, but it was nice to get some exercise.

Even this close to home, cactuses can be seen to grow wild. They’ll take over, one day. This stormwater storage area was home to a couple of deer until the rotten authorities cut the vegetation back.

In the park, a group of young people were having fun sliding down a homemade water slide.

I hope they remembered to take all their buckets home afterwards. There was one hosepipe leading to someone’s house over the road. I suspect their water bill will be higher than usual next time.

In an alleyway next to the tennis courts, we collected 23 tennis balls that had been hit out of bounds. Neil, Buzz and Gabe take them to the local dog park where the dogs have a great time. I can’t work out how the dogs hold the rackets, though.

Liesel prepared dinner tonight, a festoon of vegetables, thank you very much: very nice, very tasty.

We did get out and about next day, we weren’t confined to barracks. It was a hot drive to Jemez pueblo and we passed through some more stunning landscapes.

Again, the photo doesn’t show the scale of this place (which, incidentally, Google thinks is in Namibia, but even using Google Maps, we rarely get that lost).

The red rocks really showed up against the normal sandy colour.

In places, yes, it did remind me of the Australian desert, but not everywhere: the red here doesn’t appear to ‘glow’ as much, maybe it does when it becomes much hotter. Today was a very pleasant temperature. There were even little pockets of snow still present on the ground, not enough to make a whole snowman, but I think we were both surprised to see so much of it, so long after it fell.

But surely, we saw some wildlife? A cow and a man on a horse. Not the actual things, of course, just the yellow signs warning us of their presence.

There are many geological formations in the Jemez Mountains, and we were spending some time here in Jemez National Recreation Area just looking and going ‘wow’.

On a more human scale, I’m still surprised at how strong the Roman Catholic church is in New Mexico.

Jemez Springs is a very small town, so it feels like this church is in the middle of nowhere.

Further along the road, we came across Soda Dam, so we screeched to a halt to investigate it. (We didn’t really screech, Liesel was in the driving seat, and we came to a well controlled stop just off the road.) Not my words, but:
This spectacular formation has built up over the centuries by deposits of calcium carbonate from a spring that bubbles to the surface at this point. The river flows under a dome that is still building. The dam is 300 feet long, 50 feet high and 50 feet wide at the bottom.

I clamboured over the crash barrier for a closer look, but I was reluctant to walk over what looked like a very slimy, damp area, the result of water running in from under the highway.

We’d noticed that many of the cottonwood trees were a much brighter green now, whereas even a few days ago, we were commenting on how dead they seemed to be.

My ears knew we were on a road trip that involved changing altitude quite a lot. They kept popping, the left one more than the right, and feeling asymmetrical is a sensation I’m not that fond of.

More geology now: Valle Grande is a large caldera. There’s no sign of the volcano erupting again any time soon, but it’s strange to imagine what might be gurgling away beneath the surface.

We decided not to go for a hike on this occasion: it’s been here for millions of years, it won’t change much before our next visit. As we were driving away, Liesel thought she saw a wolf by the watering hole. I missed it, and on reflection, it was probably a coyote.

We passed a couple of places where the trees showed signs of having been burnt

Lunch was taken in Los Alamos, at a place called ‘Beef and Leaf’. I wondered whether it was related to the ‘Pig and Fig’ where we’d been the other day. Two things of note in this emporium. The coffee cup and saucer were fun to play with. You could spin the cup around, and it would rotate almost frictionlessly for quite a while before stopping.

The other thing fulfilled a nearly lifelong ambition.

Yes, we saw a cow with a cabbage on her head. Wonderful!

Being in Los Alamos, we thought we’d visit the Historical Museum. Yes, the place is most famous now for the Manhattan Project, but there was plenty of history before the second world war.

Ancestral Pueblo People started arriving on the plateau in the 1150s, about the time St Mary’s Church in Chessington was being built.

John “Mike” Michnovicz, born in 1923, documented the people and activities in Los Alamos, and there were plenty of his pictures on display here. Such a big project, with such devastating results, yet all the participants look like normal people. And no, I don’t know what kind of being I was expecting to see.

A highlight for me was seeing Richard Feynmann’s drum: just a bit sad it’s behind glass and I couldn’t have a bash.

The History is Here campaign was a major fundraising effort conducted by the Los Alamos Historical Society during 2012-2016 Our motivation was to enable the preservation and communication of the remarkable history and inspiring stories of Los Alamos. Through the generosity of these donors the Society bas been able to protect its archives and collections, expand the museum, preserve historic buildings, create new educational programs, sustain its publishing capability and collaborate with the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

I always look at such things, but very rarely do I actually find a long-lost relation memorialised. Thank you Uncle Arthur and Auntie Nancy.

Dr J Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves

We explored Hans Bethe’s House too and a gallery of local artwork.

On the way home, the end of the world as we know it. For some reason, Google Maps decided to speak to us in Spanish. I have no idea why it did this. Random emissions from a secret laboratory in Los Alamos? Punishment because we’d decided not to go and pester Tammy and Aaron? The text all appears in English still, but my Aussie Sheila has been replaced by a Spanish lady. All the internet could offer was to check the settings. I did. Nothing appears to be changed. The only way I could resolve this ridiculous problem was to uninstall and reinstall the app. As they say: to err is human, to really mess things up, get a computer.

We ate pizza at a place called Farina in Albuquerque and when we arrived home, nobody else was in. Where were they? The cars were still here. Phones on the table. Another mystery.

But still, a cow with a cabbage on its head, how exciting.

Surveys the Prairie

Bandelier National Park is about an hour’s drive from Tammy’s house and that was the destination for our hike today. Google Maps suggested that our route might be affected by a Winter Storm Warning. Winter? It’s April! Snow as forecast for the weekend in Santa Fe, yes, but that shouldn’t affect us today.

Before leaving, though, I did see a couple of pretty birds in the back yard. One had a predominantly red head but I couldn’t find it in the ID parade that is Tammy’s bird-wathing books. The other had black and white stripes on its head, like a badger, and from the books, I believe this was a white-crowned sparrow.

Apparently someone has seen a hummingbird in the area: probably one of the first to return from its Winter further south.

Typical New Mexico landscape plus clouds

This formation is composed of sand and gravel eroded from the Sierra de Los Valles. Its age is between 5 and 2 million years old (Pliocene epoch). It’s known for its ancient pueblo dwellings carved into the volcanic tuff, but we didn’t get that close.

The view from Anderson Overlook on New Mexico State Road 502

The drive took us through Los Alamos and I kept my head down while a guard inspected the driver’s ID. Just in case,

A herd of deer totally ignored us as we drove round one corner, but it was nice to see some wildlife bigger than a bird!

A sign welcomed us to Tyuonyi pueblo. Pronounced ‘QU-weh-nee’, which made me wonder, if that’s how you pronounce it, why don’t you spell it that way in the first place when you’re anglicising a previously unwritten language?

What remains of the village was occupied about 500-700 years ago. Tyuoyni had over 400 rooms and stood 1-2 storeys high. About 100 people may have lived here with another 400 residing in the cliff dwellings above.

We enjoyed our hike by all these dwellings. peeping into caves. Well, you had to climb ladders to visit some caves, and I’m sorry to say I didn’t. I’m not that keen on climbing ladders on terra firma at home, I wasn’t going to experience one of these home-made contrivances close to a precipitous edge.

I saw this sign and immediately donned lots of warm Winter clothing, long johns, padded trousers, three coats and a big furry hat. Then someone pointed out that in fact it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and that the route wasn’t really closed.

It was a bit off the main path, but we did see a flash of colour. At least one cactus has decided to bloom.

I’m glad Jyoti and Rupert climbed these ladders so I didn’t have to. What an experience though.

The Bandelier landscape has been formed by both sudden dramatic volcanic eruptions and the slow forces of erosion.

The Jemez Mountains are the result of 13 million years of sporadic volcanic activity. Two large eruptions, 1.4 and 1.1 million years ago, expelled as much as 200 cubic miles of volcanic ash and formed broad plateaus around the mountains. As the ash was ejected, the center of the volcanic field collapsed to a huge depression known as a caldera. Today, the most visible part of the caldera is the Valle Grande (Spanish for Big Valley).

Small streams, like Frijoles Creek, gradually carved canyons through the plateau, while rain, frost, and seeping water eroded many small holes into the solidified ash (tuff). The Anasazi carved their homes from the tuff using tools made of basalt, another volcanic rock. Volcanism also produced obsidian which the Anasazi used for arrowheads and knives.

Yes, of course I copied that from one of the many information boards, thank you very much.

View from Bandelier National Monument Frijoles Canyon Overlook

As always, a photograph cannot do justice to the scale of this landscape. It’s big and you want to embrace it all but you can’t.

Tammy drove us to White Rock where we ate at Pig and Fig. In the distance, we observed rainclouds, and even rain, which appeared to evaporate before it even reached the ground. It was a bit windy and dusty, but we managed to overtake some tumbleweed on the freeway.

Jyoti, Rupert, Liesel and I returned to Golden Crown Panaderia for pizza and I enjoyed the World’s Best Coffee Milkshake. Grateful thanks to Donald Trump for allowing me to use a plastic straw: a paper one wouldn’t have taken the strain. Thank goodness for Presidential Executive Order 14,208.

Because snow had been forecast for Santa Fe, Liesel and I returned to Albuquerque a day earlier than initally planned. And it did indeed snow. In fact, we woke up to a few flakes here.

Our plan was to do the Three Guns Spring hike. Instead (doing some food shopping on the way) we visited the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, inside, away from the pesky weather

One current exhibition is Entangled Cultures: How Humans and Microbes Co-create through Fermentation. Milk, bread, beer all processed by some mechanism inexplicable to people before the age of science.

We also learned about evolution of apes and humans, and especially the folks who lived here in what is now the southwest of the USA.

People have lived in the American Southwest for nearly 12,000 years. The first Southwesterners were descendents of immigrants from Asia. They came to an unknown world but quickly and successfully made it their home. The exhibition reconstructs aspects of daily life, the ways in which people related to one another through particular kinds of artifacts and architectural structures, and infers some aspects of spiritual life from the symbolic features of art and aesthetic expression. Together, these insights offer a fascinating picture of the remarkable history of the American Southwest.

We had a coffee before returniung home. There was quite a houseful now: us four, plus Leslie plus our hosts Buzz, Neil and Gabe plus cousin Ann and her husband Bruce. So dinner for ten it is. But not just any old dinner.

We enjoyed the Passover Seder, a first for me. The ritual included a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. Gabe was our storyteller, reading from a children’s book rather than the original from the Book of Exodus. A small amount of wine was involved, and lots of food. A place was set for Elijah, so that’s now eleven place settings. He didn’t show up on this occasion.

Meanwhile, this is what we missed in Santa Fe, thanks for the picture, Tammy.

The Mobile Spins

After a busy day yesterday, it was more relaxed today. Liesel and I drove into town, parked up and walked to the Cathedral.

This is one of seven archangels carved in 2005 by José Lucero, a local artist affectionately referred to as Picasso Santero. He created these from the remaining trunks of cottonwood trees that once stood along the river.

Meanwhile, Buzz and Leslie were taking a train from Albuquerque to visit us here in Santa Fe. Meanwhile, Gabe was driving here with Neil. We all met up by the Cathedral, which was too big to fit in the photo.

The Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi

While wandering around the town, we couldn’t help but notice the old Route 66. In 1937, the route changed so is passed through Albuquerque rather then Santa Fe.

But the first port of call was the French Pastry Shop, part of La Fonda on the Plaza Hotel complex. A nice French place with French pastries and other tasty treats. So for lunch, I enjoyed a French baguette with my default, favourite filling, cheese and tomato.

We visited KESHi, The Zuni Collection, where there was plenty of Zuni artwork to look at. The small animals are known as fetishes, but not ‘fetish’ in the way we usually think about!

So far, we haven’t been lucky enough to see any hummingbirds in the wild. This one is made from onyx, with turquoise eyes and some mussel shell for a beak. Mussels and coral are found locally, left over from the time New Mexico was under the ocean, several weeks ago, at least.

After Gabe left us to take Leslie, Neil and Buzz back home to Albuquerque, the rest of us, that is me, Liesel, Rupert and Jyoti, well, we returned to the French pastry place for coffee and dessert. My choice was something called ‘opéra’, layers of sponge with coffee and chocolate and very tasty, merci.

Jyoti found a ring she liked on a stall in the street, and it needed a slight adjustment. The man said he hoped to have it ready by the end of the day. He did, but by then, we’d returned home so we went back the following day to collect it.

We visited a few galleries in Canyon Road, not all 300, that would be a real labour of love. Some say 300, some say 100. I didn’t count.

Amongst our favourites, I think, were the wind-powered mobiles, which are also optical illusions. There are quite a few at Wiford Gallery. Tempting, yes, but far too big to take back to Albuquerque, never mind England.

When we returned home, I took out my new telescope in an effort to capture some landscape pictures. Without realising, I found a cow’s behind.

The same distant hill was viewed though the phone and through the telescope. You can see how good the magnification is.

Unless my detective work fails me, this image shows Cerro Chiflo, located near Taos, a volcanic plug in the Tusas Mountains of New Mexico. Cerro Chiflo’s peak reaches approximately 9,000 feet. The landscape includes piñon and juniper trees, and desert sage.

And of course, I had to have another look at the Sun.

While eating our evening meal, the Sun went down and we had a beautiful sunset, nearly as good as those we see in Northenden.

What was on the menu? Lamb curry for most people, but I believe my potato curry was far superior, thank you very much, Jyoti!

After all this time in NM, I was disappointed that I still wake up every day with a nosebleed. The other side effect of the lack of humidity, and possibly the lower air pressure at this altitude, is that my skin is a lot drier than usual, and my phone doesn’t always recognise my thumb print.

As mentioned before, we returned to town to collect Jyoti’s new ring. We also had breakfast. The green chilli that accompanied my huevos rancheros was perfect, nowhere near as hot as the stew I’d wrestled into submission a couple of days ago. A local delicacy is sopaipillas with honey, but I passed on this occasion. And yes, I am inconsistent with my spelling of chili, chilli and chile, but then so are most New Mexicans.

We visited the New Mexico Museum of Art, in a building that could have been transplanted from a pueblo. The main exhibit on right now is Eugenie Shonnard: Breaking the Mold. She was a locally acclaimed sculptor, being a pivotal figure for the history of art and sculpture in the Southwest, widely recognized during her own time for her contributions to the visual arts, yet largely overlooked in recent decades.

Chest of Drawers by Eugenie Shonnard, ca 1931

“Marsden Hartley traveled widely, taking in the people, cities, and culture of places like New York, Berlin, Paris, Bermuda, and Santa Fe. During his travels, Hartley frequently wrote letters to friends and family about his experiences. In the early twentieth century, writing a letter meant picking up a pen or pencil, or even sitting down at a typewriter, such as the one in front of you. Take a sheet of paper from the top drawer of the desk and write a letter about a place or experience you would like to share. Feel free to take your letter and send it to someone or leave it in the tray to share with other museum visitors.”

How could I turn down such an invitation? Well, it’s been a few years since I last bashed out a missive on a typewriter and I’d forgotten how loud they are. The clicketty clacketty noise I made reverberated all around the rooms, there was no way I could be stealthy. If you want to read what I wrote, you’ll have to pay a visit: I left my sheet of paper there, typos and all.

There were plenty of items out in the courtyard too, including frescoes.

Voice in the Sky by William Shuster, 1934

Here are some lovely people in front of the sculpture Abstraction by Georgia O’Keeffe.

Next stop, Iconik Coffee Roasters for some iconic coffee followed by a quick visit to Beastly Books.

Something scary with an animatronic werewolf behind

What a great shop for lovers of science fiction and fantasy. (We could do with any kind of bookshop in Northenden, thought grumpy old Mick.)

Liesel and I visited the library and sat down for a while. After meeting the others, we dined at The Shed, a Mexican restaurant not too far from The Plaza. I’d been a bit worried that I’d struggle to find vegetarian food in New Mexico, but so far, there’s always been something for me. Tonight, a Tamale Plate: green chile vegetarian (green chile, onion and corn) tamales, served with beans and Spanish rice, a side of red or green chile, and garnished with lettuce & tomato. Again, relatively mild green chile, it didn’t blow my head off.

The Tactful Cactus

The drive to Taos Pueblo was very enjoyable, partly taking us through the Santa Fe National Forest. I say ‘us’, but I should say who ‘us’ was. We’ve borrowed Buzz’s Toyota Prius and Liesel drove me, Jyoti and Rupert today. Tammy worked at home while Aaron went to his place of work in the library.

Rupert, Jyoti and Liesel at Apache Canyon Scenic Viewpoint

We saw a deer on the road, and a few prairie dogs at the side of the road, standing up on their hind legs, on the lookout, pretending to be meerkats.

I think this tree gives a good indication of where the wind comes from. It was a little windy today, but not too cold. Not a high number on the ‘will-Mick-get-earache’ scale. Otherwise, it was an enjoyably warm day, although the wind did kick up some dust.

We were welcomed to Taos Pueblo and we were in time for a quick guided tour. The guide, Summer, introduced us to this World Heritage Site. A few families still live in the pueblo, but there is no electricity and no running water, so most people live in nearby Taos.

People have live here since time immemorial and there are currently about 2,600 Red Willow People.

The many shops were run by the artists themselves, and we wanted to support all of them by buying something. In the end, Liesel and I came away with a small painting. Flat, not fragile and easy to pack: I know, those shouldn’t be the main criteria for selecting a work of art, but it is a very nice picture.

I asked if I could take a picture of the dreamcatchers and the man said, ‘there’s the tip jar’! Bribery and corruption at the highest level!

I bought a glass of lemonade in one place. My credit card was declined. Thus began yet another long dispute with the credit card company. I hope they’re this on the ball when something genuinely fraudulent is taking place. The lemonade was good though, homemade and very refreshing.

Mass is still held at St Jerome’s, built in about 1850 on the site of an earlier war-damaged church. The two religions co-exist very well here, catholic and earth and nature based beliefs.

The buildings here are built from adobe, or sun-dried mud. In some places, the straw used in the mix is very obvious, and I wondered why it hasn’t decayed in the heat of the place plus the occasional rainstorm.

The outdoor ovens were introduced by the Spanish, who in turn had had them introduced by the Moors. According to Summer, there is no accurate temperature control: the only way to tell when it’s hot enough is to see whether or not a piece of straw combusts inside once the fire’s been going for some time.

I didn’t buy anything in the gift shop, nope, not even a bow and arrow, and certainly no jewelry. Nor did I treat myself to ‘fry bread with top pings’. I might have gone with lesser pings if they’d been available.

We visited Taos for a late lunch before driving to walk across and admire the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, the 7th highest bridge in the USA, about 600 feet above the river itself, much higher and more stomach-churning than I’d anticipated.

We’d agreed to meet Tammy and Aaron at an African restaurant, Jambo, in Santa Fe. As usual, I programmed Google Maps to take us there. Are you sure this is the right way? Of course it is. It wasn’t. We had to turn around when its chosen route would have taken us along a dirt track for who knows how far. And then, just round the corner, it told us that we’d arrived at our destination. I sacked Sheila, my Australian Google Maps guide. Rupert’s device got us to the right place.

The meal was lovely, we all enjoyed it, before driving home in the dark, in three cars. Yep, we got us a convoy.

There was a beautifully clear sky so I set up the new telescope, the Seestar S50.

After a bit of messing about (I’m still learning) I got a great photo of the Orion Nebula.

I found Mars nd Jupiter too, but other objects eluded me as the clouds rolled in and slowly covered the sky. At least we were outside before the Moon rose.

During the night, I looked out a few times, but there was no point in taking the device out again, the clouds stayed.

While Tammy and Liesel went off to town for a relaxing, refreshing massage, Jyoti, Rupert and I set out for a walk across country towards the local Community Center. This was a perfect opportunity to see some local wildlife. Some birds, yes. And a beetle.

This might be one of the local stink beetles, so I’m glad I didn’t mess with it!

The dusty path was well formed, whether by animals or people, I don’t know, and the only concern was that we’d be able to find our way back later on. We relied on landmarks, such as this.

A drop of rain fell from a small cloud in the sky. Out of all the places it could land, it found its way to Jyoti’s skin. She didn’t want to get wet so this was our cue to head back. It didn’t rain much, to be honest. It was a good walk though, and interesting to see cactuses in various states of life.

In the afternoon, while Aaron was still at work, Tammy drove us to Madrid. That’s Madrid, with the emphasis on the ‘Mad’ rather than the ‘drid’.

It’s a cute little town, it looks old, and I could imagine it being populated by old peopl⁰e, hippies and drop-outs. I felt right at home.

We dined in the Mine Shaft Tavern and Cantina. Before visiting New Mexico, I’d been warned not to eat the green chili stew because it’s not vegetarian. Well, this place had a veggie version of the local delicacy, so I thought I’d give it a go.

I ran out of napkins drying my tears and mopping up my sweat. But despite the spicy heat, I persevered and with the help of a small bowl of sour cream, I managed to finish off the bowl of stew. Without the chilis, it would have been a very nice but simple vegetable soup. I’m glad I had the opportunity to try it, but next time, I think I’ll leave it for another customer.

In other news though, I did find out that some parts of the film The Man Who Fell to Earth were filmed here, along with several other movies. Yes, the film in which David Bowie, being an alien, just played himself.

Having had my tongue set on fire, I really wanted an ice cream, but while wandering around the town later, I was thwarted in my mission. We looked in some galleries though, and again, we oohed and aahed at and admired the artwork but didn’t purchase anything.

Liesel and I both thought that Martha in particular would enjoy walking around this town because it is paved, not with gold, but with shards of pottery, many different colours, stones, rocks and all sorts of debris.

It’s definitely a colourful little place, redbud trees, flowers, other blossoming trees, well-decorated buildings, murals and brightly coloured cars.

Sadly, sometimes it’s necessary to chop down trees. Here, they occasionally turn the stump into something beautiful. Not sure about the subject matter here, but I thought this chain-saw carving was very well done.

In the evening, we visited Tumbleroot Brewery Distillery, not for the beer but to relax to some music. I had a glass of cider on this occasion. We found seats at the back, as far from the stage as possible, and hoped that not too many folks would be standing and dancing on the floor, blocking our view.

The support act was Haylie, who goes by the name Lady Apple Tree, a little bit folk, a little bit country and very good, despite having to battle against most people in the audience talking while she was performing.

The main band, Cactus Blossoms were a bit louder and they kept us well entertained. They reminded me of the Everly Brothers, having similar harmonies (two of the members are brothers) and the instrumental arrangements reminded me of early ’60s pop music. Apparently, this was their first gig in Santa Fe, but they’d brought along some supporters.

They were very smart in their baby-blue suits, although the colours produced when combined with some of the different coloured spotlights were less than flattering!

I was still full from my lunchtime bowl of lava, but that didn’t stop me from eating some chips (French fries) here in the pub tonight. I thought the chips were very salty, although some vinegar would have helped with that. On the other hand, the ketchup was far too sweet for my taste.

Not knowing the songs, I couldn’t sing along, but I hummed, tapped my foot, drummed my fingers on the table and mentally added them to the playlist for a radio show sometime soon.

What a great way to end a very busy day.