Traveling

You are currently browsing the archive for the Traveling category.

The Chiricahua Mountains – how cool is that name?

We saw dirt devils galore. Kinda cool.

Almost there…

Hello from Bisbee! This is the Lavender Pit Mine – the town’s bread and butter up until 1974. It was mostly mined for copper, with turquoise and other stones serving as lovely byproducts. It’s a looong way down…

This lovely lady, whose name I never caught, sold us honey made by killer bees! The store is a sliver of a place and chock full of sweet goodness.

These three shots are all of the same GIANT agave. The hubster is 6’1″ for reference. Wowie!

After the mine closed, the town was slowly taken over by artists and other eccentrics. Our kind of place!

So many fine murals…

And great gates!

This photo was a very happy accident.

Take the High Road every chance you get!

Fifty-four steps to our lodgings, complete with Dutch door!

Meet one-eyed Jesus, a marker for for the fabulous Shrine hike that follows. Juniper did NOT like him, growling and keeping as far as caninely (not a word?) possible. Perhaps it was the fact that only one of his eyes was painted. Perhaps it was the fact that he was my height and very life-like, yet remained very, very still. I’m not sure. Nevertheless, we were amused. Also at this spot, on our way down – we spied a wild javelina! Neat.

Bisbee has cool buildings right, left, and center.

It also has a fine patina of rust and ruin.

Our littlest friend, made on our evening walk. Woof!

 

Tags: ,

This post is actually kind of funny, not haha but curious. Because I like order, this is actually the end of our trip, but it seemed silly to have a little New Mexico here and a little there. So welcome to my neatly boxed brain of chaos.

This same brain can’t get over how green it all is, so used to the colors of winter – flaxen and bleached. If you are curious, the top two photos are from Gallup, where we only popped in at the El Rancho and didn’t, a la Bob Hope, stay the night, but did partake of a great lunch at Garcia’s and wandered a bit, imagining our sweet Juniper Beulah’s beginnings in this dusty town. We wondered if anything looked or smelled familiar to her, but she gave nothing away.

After that it is Farmington and the Animas River running swift, before winding northeast through Chama. The Cumbres & Toltec Narrow Gauge begins our final stretch into Colorado. How about the Conejos River Valley from on high? Beautiful, just beautiful, and on to San Luis with stellar murals and hilltop chapel. Finally, over La Veta pass, twelve days gone, to spy the Spanish Peaks and zoot on up I-25. There’s no place like home.

Tags: ,

Southbound…

Duran, New Mexico

I’ve got a thing for windmills.

The lovely Carrizozo Cafe treated us right. We had a delicious lunch, and our server shared a piece of his birthday cake with us. So sweet!


Organ Mountains

Told ya so.

Pecans

For my nephew.

The New Mexico State University campus – I thought this was some sort of Portland-style street graffiti. It was actually a warning. Use an umbrella or risk having hawks dive bomb your head! We saw the perpetrators but did not fall victim.

Desert plants fascinate me – all those hairy beautiful blossoms in such harsh conditions.

Tags: ,

And now, to Socorro (founded in 1598!), to begin the last leg of our trip and a mighty fine Thanksgiving feast with some of our besties, Michael and Mary.

We spent Black Friday neither shopping nor among crowds, instead enjoying superb company and the wonders of science at the Very Large Array. Site of a music video or two as well as important roles in two of our favorite sci-fi fil-ums, Contact and 2010, the Very Large Array consists of 27 enormous radio telescopes (weighing 230 tons each) on a site larger than the island of Manhattan, arranged in varying configurations to help earthbound scientists better understand the universe. For an in-depth video on the work they do, click HERE.

San Miguel de Socorro – my friend Mary attends Mass here.

Let your heart light shine!

Driving northward to Las Vegas, no not THAT one.

Breakfast at the Plaza Hotel – delicious blue corn pancakes and a breakfast burrito. When in Rome…

Really good coffee!

The two sculptures in the historic plaza were made from dead trees, far better than cutting them entirely to the ground! Las Vegas is a delightful town, full of kindly people and sweet shops. It was Shop Small Saturday and we went at it like gang busters, buying books, art, sweets, puzzles, lotions, soaps, and more. A great end to a marvelous trip!

Tags:

Welcome to Sante Fe!

La Choza is our favorite New Mexican Restaurant of ALL TIME. Whenever we’re in Santa Fe, we eat here every day.

The El Rey Inn, like Ojo Caliente, is our home away from home in Santa Fe, also going on 25 years. We love it here.

La Fonda

Plaza pigeons

This interior and the San Miguel Mission above are two of the oldest structures in the United States. This dates back to the 1200s and the Mission to 1610. How often I forget the history here!

In sharp contrast to the adobe history of Santa Fe is the new art experience at Meow Wolf. I am dating myself here, but do you remember the game Myst? It was the only video game I ever really got into, actually playing it beginning to end. If you don’t, the player clicked on different objects and places on the screen to solve a series of puzzles. The Meow Wolf is like an in-person version of it. Wander, climb, and crawl around, through a myriad of highly artistic and intriguing rooms and spaces, poke around, see what you find. It is fascinating and a delight to the senses. It can be a bit overwhelming, too. Take your time. Enjoy a break or two, you have all day.

This post is dedicated to my Grandma Tess, who would have been ninety-four today. She loved Santa Fe and New Mexico as much as I do, maybe even more so because she met my Grandpa there. We love and miss you, Grandma!

Save

Tags:

« Older entries § Newer entries »