Musings

The approaching sunset offered us an arty entrance into Our Fair City. By the time we reached our neighborhood, the light had dimmed, yet the colors remained—here highlighted by the neon at the Plaza Theatre and the Majestic Diner. Summary: home safely.

Let me add three images from our time in Santa Fé.

I can’t parse the gunshot (or imitation of a gunshot) with the Nativity scene.

Cactus as a protector for leafy greens.

I was entranced by the patterns in the blue on this door.

Posted at 10:10 PM | Comments Off on Hello, Atlanta

Frosted morning.

We drove away from the mountains. We did see a herd of perhaps three dozen pronghorns about a half hour after this stop. This was the only antelope sighting on our eastbound leg.

Busy wind farm.

It’s so windy here in western Oklahoma that the rest stop garbage cans have tie-downs, and it’s that windy today. This is better than in TX, where the “rest stops” had neither garbage cans nor toilets. [Ick warning: they were toxic waste sites that reeked of urine and were festooned with trash that was small enough or heavy enough that it didn’t blow away.]

Posted at 8:27 PM | Comments Off on In which we exchange mountains for windiness

I began my afternoon perambulation here, as it is close to our hotel.

That’s a Rail Runner Express on the right, with the active track to the right of it. The parked train must be a backup? I don’t know what the deal is with the blue-purple train, decorated in a pseudo-graffiti style from nose to tail.

Feeling like I had “done” the depot area—now a Saturday Farmers’ Market—I proceeded into a residential area…

…and then looped to the central plaza area. This is the Loretto Chapel (privately owned)…

…and this is the active Catholic cathedral basilica.

Looking at the churches, followed by this “Settlers Monument” (2003), by sculptor Donna Quasthoff (1924–2021), I could not help but think about the arrival and “good works” of the Catholic priests and Euro-American settlers, who upended the lives and health and cultures of the people who lived in this area. Notice how the incomers are atop their beasts of burden and invasive species. Kinda creepy and definitely an ethical downer. I’m glad it was sunny and that we had leftover red-chili ribs for dinner to cheer me up.

Posted at 8:29 PM | Comments Off on Sunshine cleanse (ish)

Came across this apparently life-sized elk statue posing street-side. I “say” apparently because I’ve never been this close to an elk before. Heavy overcast made for strange lighting.

This lighting, however: fabulous. It lasted not even two minutes….

Dear friends treated us to a tasty dinner, and yummy as it was, the conversation and camaraderie was even better. These ribs were roasted with a red-chili paste just before serving; never had anything quite like this. Show-stopping. The waitron said the recipe is on the restaurant website. I looked; it’s not—their secret…I understand.

Posted at 10:49 PM | Comments Off on Selected pretties

We headed toward mountains, not difficult to do. Note plenty of snow.

We crossed the Río Grande. Note plenty of water aka snow melt.

We stopped at an overlook to see the canyon of the Rito de los Frijoles, aka Bandelier National Monument,

The main community on the flats is Tyuonyi, extensively excavated between 1909 and 1912, including 242 rooms. I cringe at the thought of the data that was destroyed and discarded. These walls are reconstructions.

This is Long House, which extends along the base of this wall for quite some distance. In some places the rooms were three deep. The rows of holes were the sockets for roof beams, called visas.

If you look very closely on the slope above the model, you will see walkways, stairs, and ladders that reach the big cave, aka Alcove House, just to the right of center and far above the model’s left shoulder.

This view makes the “trail” look more vertiginous than it is. If you visit, remember that ladders are easier to go up than to descend, IMHO.

The view from Alcove House. I was so lucky to be there by myself for about five minutes.

Back on the return trail along the creek, note the good flow of water and the logjam. We counted at least five big logjams, and all new foot bridges across the creek. The rangers were too busy for me to ask when the storm was that brought down the many trees and washed them downstream.

On the way back, we stopped at the Tesuque Village Market, which is indeed a market, but also a restaurant and bakery. We indulged in their key lime pie…lovely, just the right tartness.

We returned to Santa Fé on the Old Spanish Trail, which is winding and scenic. I find these fences particularly picturesque.

Posted at 8:44 PM | 1 Comment »

Looking back at a high range in Arizona. Despite a quick flirtation with Mountain time when we creased Idaho, we’ve been waiting and waiting to escape Pacific time. All but one county in Arizona stays in PacTime, according to info on the web.

Aha! The lovely New Mexico Visitor’s Center architecture imitates a kiva or hogan, I’m guessing. Off in a room with several rows of spaced chairs, I listened to Robert Redford’s dulcet tones describing Chaco Canyon ritual architecture. I found it another reason to be happy to be in New Mexico!

A dramatic geological feature…. We also drove through quite a run of malpaís, or nasty angular broken old lava flows that would be terribly difficult to walk through. [Yes, that’s a Starbucks lid in reflection.]

Finally, we got a view of the Sandía ridge, which looms over Albuquerque. Temps in the 80s.

After a quick visit with friends we’ll see for a longer visit later in the week, we turned north, finally reaching the Santa Fé Mountains backing…drum roll: Santa Fé…our home for the next few days. Temps about 15° lower than in ABQ.

Someone’s carefully chosen special dessert. Yum.

Posted at 9:15 PM | Comments Off on Hello Mountain time

I arose not quite as early in the dawn sequence as yesterday, yet the golden-yellow tones are lovely.

Still saw a few snow-caps as we motored south, and they tapered off as we continued.

Without a doubt, the most dramatic landscape was at White River Narrows.

After long miles of a downward trending road (which lead to overall mileage of 53mpg, at a speedy pace), we ended up creasing Las Vegas. We saw no meadows.

Yeah, we made a burger stop, which happened to be in the middle of the lunch rush. Wow, what a crowd, including dozens of vehicles in the drive-through lane. They even sent a guy out to take orders from those in line.

Back out in the country, we saw several solar panel fields. This one almost looked like a lake. In contrast, in the city, we passed dozens of housing units, almost zero with solar panels. I can’t fathom the logic.

We did get several glimpses of the reservoir called Lake Mead, and the level is low low low, just as you may have read.

After crossing into Arizona, in contrast to this morning, we drove on a generally rising trajectory (mileage was a hammered 42mpg).

There was roadside rotten snow coming into Flag (much diminished from our westbound leg), but none around the hotel.

Unexpectedly, our hotel had a two-plug electrical charger. The car is now fully charged and moved away from the charger. The other space has a handicapped parking logo on it, so I can’t imagine it gets used frequently.

Posted at 9:52 PM | Comments Off on Nevada means snowfall

Stunning orange-gold and pink sky to wake up to.

Some overcast as we rolled down the road.

Switched drivers in front of the only parking meter in Owyhee County. You better have the right change if you park there; it only takes pennies and nickles.

Still high overcast; still mountains in the distance.

Striking erosion patterns; overcast is mostly gone.

Must be an Easter Sunday requirement in this area: run the irrigation system.

Open high terrain. The snow is closer. The sky is clear.

Driving through a canyon; the sunlight has reduced the snow more in some places than others.

Snowy high flat. Dry road.

This flat: not so high and not so snowy. Clear, clear sky.

Big lead and silver mining on the slope by the town of Eureka. The boom really didn’t last long, yet the community survives.

A higher pass, so more snow on our level.

Again: lower and less snow at the road’s elevation.

My brain tried to make these horizontals into terraces (shades of the Mixteca Alta), but they are geological layers.

A bit higher again.

We watched this peak to the right for quite a while. Then as we kept motoring along and could see more of the ridge to the left, we noticed the spoor of (open pit?) mining in regular piles. MaNachur melds awkwardly with human terraforming.

Here’s Ely! This is US50. We started the day on US20 and US30. That seems quite an accomplishment for one day.

I think we crossed four and perhaps five passes over 7000 feet and maybe five more between 6000 and 7000 feet. Yup, we got high today.

Posted at 10:03 PM | Comments Off on We got high

We crossed a brige (truth: several), leaving our good times with family in SEA. We had “seen everyone,” and, a bit sadly, it was time.

The most direct route toward the east is up to a gap/pass. It wasn’t long before we could see snow above us through rain drops.

Then, we saw snowbanks eye-to-eye.

The skier head-count at the pass ski area seemed low, probably because of spitting rain.

Descending, at first we saw more mountains, more snow.

Soon enough, we zoomed through no snow and a very different landscape.

Several hours later, another ascent and pass. Rinse and repeat.

Note: yes, we are still carrying our Winnemucca chains. Unopened; hopefully, they’ll stay that way, and we can return them for a full refund.

Posted at 7:38 PM | Comments Off on Pass passing

First stop. No lie: this is John Sam Lake.

Snow geese migrating…although here they‘re hanging or wheeling.

Show daffodils.

Oyster nursery on Samish Bay.

A deer (!!) in Fairhaven.

A park on the shore at Bellingham. The ducks are buffleheads…or are they Barrow‘s goldeneye?

Posted at 11:13 PM | Comments Off on In which they venture north