Musings

We visited an ancient pueblo (village) atop a mesa today…still without electricity and with perhaps fifteen year-round, permanent residents. This is the view down; I have no good shots of the view up at the plateau-top architecture. This is considered the winter housing, roughly, of the people. In summer, they mostly lived down by their fields on the flats below.

There are no flowing water sources atop the mesa, and this was an open cistern the people used anciently, and empty today. Residents now customarily drive water in barrels and plastic containers up the steep, paved road to their homes. Part of the road is visible in the first photo.

These are among the documented oldest walls/homes in the pueblo. Using a cannon and other means, Spanish thugs destroyed much of the pueblo in 1599, so the many buildings standing in the 16th C were more than decimated.

This is a double ladder to the roof of a kiva that post-dates the Spanish destruction. The Spanish were keen to convert the Acoma to Christianity and get them to abandon their pagan practices. But the Acoma people disguised their previously circular kiva ceremonial rooms by making them rectangular like the house rooms. The second ladder behind the double one descends into the kiva. Except for a few special events, only men entered the kivas. Our guide, the young woman shown, did not say if that is still true, but I’m guessing it is. The Acoma are matriarchal, and the women own the homes, fields, crops, and most other household items.

This humped structure is a baking oven, used for food not pottery. These days, I’m guessing they are mostly only used at special times of the year, and not on a weekly/monthly basis.

That snow-dusted mountain in the far distance is Mount Taylor, a sacred place to the native peoples of this region. The beams supporting the roof of the early 17th-C church atop the mesa were cut on the mountain and brought by the men of Acoma under order and direction of a Spanish priest. The Spanish did not permit four special beams used in the altar to touch the ground during the whole process of carrying them BY HAND (not using animal labor) to the church. What high-handedness.

Okay, switch gears. This is the walkway to the casita the Guru and I are staying in, an independent outbuilding of the main house, where the rest of the party are staying. The whole place is lovely, wonderful, and relaxing. Except maybe this stepped path for The Foot—no, really, it’s good exercise.

Here’s the view from the living room area of our casita. See? Relaxing.

We went to a nearby restaurant for our evening meal…boy, are we lucky; the food is outstanding; I mean, it could not be better. Oh, yum. This is a version of chile relleno I’ve never had, with a splayed roasted chile stuffed with a mixture of corn kernels, mushrooms, and pine nuts, with a bit of cheese on top. Soooooo tasty. I expect we’ll be eating here again, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. We shall see.

Posted at 11:45 PM | 1 Comment »

Our first scenic stop was a wildlife area on the left bank of the Río Grande. Mile wide (not quite), and all that. Lots of suspended sediments. Also saw a trio of gulls (ring billed?) standing in the water; didn’t expect to see gulls.

This bright yellow flower was labeled as golden currant. We thought it smelled like honey, and the scent even wafted over the blooming rosemary causing confusion in identification.

These turtles had this section of a backwater/pond totally staked out. Love the one to the left of center with its head down and feet sticking out. Watched it for a while, and it never moved.

The cottonwoods are budding, yet the old leaves remain. The wind in the dry leaves has a different tone than the summer-green leaves. Duh.

Roadrunner. Posing. Like turtles: never moved.

Then we went to Old Town ABQ. This wedding party, as near as we could tell, was waiting to be summoned into the church, which dates to 1793. I ducked inside the church, and the priest was asking people where they’d come from…. Love the dads (?) standing off to the side in the partial shade.

Posted at 11:57 PM | Comments Off on Of wildlife and waiting

I haven’t mentioned wild critters so far. On day one we saw a beaver crossing the road. Pretty sure on that ID, and definitely on the location. Strange. On day two, we spotted antelopes. Not many, but they were out there in the windswept terrain. Today, we just moseyed along pretty early, and whoops, look in with those cattle…odd shapes…yup, two bison. I don’t think we will do better tomorrow and the coming days…unless…elk?

Off in a nearly abandoned part of town, we found this pair of couches perhaps commiserating on the lousy neighborhood…or waiting for a parade?

For lunch we found a real Mexican place. I had a red and a green tamale. With a side of beans. I was stuffed. The two sauces provided were both cooked, so a real contrast to yesterday’s salsa offerings.

The Guru made this shot, a real grab of an abandoned ranch with a butte not far distant (I was driving; foot’s doing quite well, thank you). The sign says “Baptist Church.” Life after ranch.

That line of mountains in the distance, that’s the east side of the Sandia Mountains, which are the east side of the Albuquerque basin. There’s a road to the top, very winding and slow; it passes a ski area and a parking lot signed winter play area. We took that road. It hammered our mileage even worse than the winds and gentle upgrade have over the last two days.

The vegetation at the top was rimed in a snow-ice combo. The wind was fierce. We made a quick walking loop, clicked a few frames, and scuttled back to the quiet of the car. And warmth; the car indicated it was 22°F outside. [Remember, we were in 104 yesterday.]

The rime was pretty thick, and one sided. The wind was strong enough to blow pieces off and we could see small white bombs scattered on the blacktop.

We headed down, garnering all the battery-energy we could. The battery level went from below zero (zero on the gauge not being empty but false empty that keeps a bit of charge in the battery at all times), to 59%. Now, that’s a downhill!

And in ABQ: yup, still windy. Supposed to slack off in the evening. Can’t wait!

Posted at 9:41 PM | 2 Comments »

Most of today’s photos were through a bug-marred windshield or a reflection-blotched side window. We walked up to this overlook with a good view of the Arkansas River—which must have been great when the trees were younger, but now they hold more carbon.

We got away from the interstate and went to a tamale place. The menu was on a sign, but didn’t include tamales. Uh oh. But we asked, and indeed got two plates of pork/red sauce tamales. Apparently the local preference is for the homemade hot sauce on top, so we had that, too. The other four salsas were offered in a salsa bar. The salsas were stupendous. The owner is from Michoacán—so the food is not TexMex as it is most places—we were told.

We kept grinding westward. Hot outside; strong AC inside. Look at this: 104° at 4:03pm in western Oklahoma. Yikes. That was the high. There’s a weather system passing through…um, tomorrow?…and temps will drop. This might have been a record-high. It was also super-windy. The big commercial flags were totally horizontal; we heard gusts were expected to be up to 50mph.

Not surprisingly, after we left the trees behind, we saw lots of wind plants…whole forests or plantations of them. We agreed that we were seeing more than a couple of years back.

We did encounter this one blade traveling down the highway. We wondered if it was defective. Perhaps a half-hour later, we saw two other blades on trucks that had pulled off the interstate. We figured that somehow the two parties and three blades had gotten separated. [We make up stories all the time to fit what we notice as we go down the road.]

Seems like the windmills—the old-fashioned kind like this—are fewer and fewer. Stands to reason. And they are difficult to photo at highway speeds!

And oh my was the sky pretty as we traversed the final miles of the day. The camera makes it darker and more contrasty than it was. Still: nice god-rays, looking even better against the empty, distant skyline.

Posted at 10:52 PM | Comments Off on Snapshots

I didn’t know the ants got on the peonies when they are still tight, tight buds. Proof.

However, today’s most interesting serendipity is that we had a Burnsian lunch, including with John’s bro, and, this was super unplanned, we had dinner with my brother. In western Mississippi. Texting can facilitate last-minute planning…. The texting frenzy that made arranging for the later meal possible began around 4pm (local time), and we met up at 7pm. Of all things.

And this is the celebratory pecan praline ice cream dessert that five(!!) of us shared….

Posted at 10:22 PM | 4 Comments »

You can’t tell all the taste-layers in the stratigraphy of this grand burger. There are two straight-forward patties, each with a melted processed cheese square, onions fried in the burger-grease, some BBQ, fried bacon, small scoop of slaw, tomato slices, lettuce, soft toasted bun, mayo, ketchup, and mustard. That’s what I saw, anyway. It’s a Ghetto Burger from Ann’s Snack Bar. And it was lauded in a recent episode of “Billions.”

The Guru spotted this on Instagram, and we saw it for real. I don’t know if the signs are intended to be read in conjunction or independently.

So, the first photo is indigenous cuisine, and the second is indigenous signage.

Posted at 7:06 PM | Comments Off on Indigenous…

Apologies for yesterday’s Taxus (genus) shot. With today’s raindrops, I’ve upgraded the image. MUCH more interesting now.

Posted at 9:12 PM | Comments Off on Just add water

Yeah, the flowers are stunning right now…

…but the new vegetation is interesting….

…too.

Posted at 6:45 PM | Comments Off on Not just flowers

Lazy me, I took yesterday’s chili and…goosed it. Added quick-sauteed veggies atop, with a sprinkle of finely sliced onions.

Not stupendous, but worked for us.

Posted at 9:02 PM | Comments Off on Leftovers by another name

I had several hot ideas for this space, but I forgot them within minutes after I had them. In the end, I can merely report that I made (mostly vegetarian) chili, and we eased into Friday-Fest dining on it. 😎

Posted at 9:02 PM | 1 Comment »