Chapter 3 picks up in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Day 13: Tuesday, April 17, Albuquerque, NM
Great weather again today, high 70’s and light breezes. Albuquerque is right at the western base of the Sandia Mountains at about 5,000 feet. It’s slightly smaller than Portland and spreads out on both sides of the Rio Grande River, mostly on the east side stretching up to the foothills of the mountains. One of Albuquerque’s claims to fame is the world’s longest tram, which takes you from the valley floor in town up to the top of Sandia Peak. Unfortunately for us, it’s closed this week for spring maintenance but you can drive up the back side of the mountain to the top, which we did. This picture is of Albuquerque from the top (10,678 feet) of the mountain. It took us about 45 minutes to drive from the 80 degrees in town to the 50 degrees at the top of the mountain. They say the view is at least 100 miles in every direction. After coming back down to town, we cruised around and then drove the complete length of Route 66 through town. Essentially the old highway forms a southern boundary to Old Town (founded 1706) and then downtown (the skyscrapers, banks, etc.) and heads right up in a straight line to the mountains. It is lined with the motor courts, restaurants,and other buildings from the 50’s and 60’s, many of which have been restored. Here’s a couple pictures of Route 66 (Central Ave) in Albuquerque.
Day 14: Wednesday, April 19, Albuquerque, NM
Today’s agenda is to visit Old Town, established in 1706 by the Spanish and complete with many of the original buildings. It’s built around a plaza and, of course, other than the church, is shops and restaurants. After 2 hours of shopping (which is about my limit – how many scorpions in suckers can you buy in one day!), I have to say it was quite interesting and the shops were generally not full of junk. Here’s a couple pictures of the plaza and church.
The church is on the plaza immediately to the right of the plaza in the picture above. Tomorrow we’re off to Sante Fe where most of you would think that visiting the Old Town would be the highlight, but, oh no, we’re anxiously looking forward to attending a real Indian Flea Market on Sunday! Stories to follow, I’m sure………..
Day 15: Friday, April 20, Albuquerque, NM to Santa Fe, NM
Up bright and early this morning, again to beautiful weather. This morning we’re visiting a “must-see” (according to all the tourist guides), the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Turns out we’re a week too early as next weekend is the largest “Pow-Wow” happening here. In any case, this center is an attempt by the Pueblo Indians to explain their history, life style and belief system and I have to say, they do it well. A very impressive cultural center. After that we left town and headed north to Santa Fe, newly sensitized to the culture of our southwest Native Americans. As you’ve heard before, we try to avoid the interstate by taking back roads, usually without really knowing where we are going. My credo continues to be “if the road has a yellow line, it goes somewhere”, and I knew that if I kept the Rio Grande River on my left I eventually would wind up in Santa Fe. Tooling along the backroads we come across a sign leading to the San Felipe Pueblo and since the co-pilot is really wanting to see a real pueblo, we take the road, thinking again that since there was a yellow line, it lead somewhere. Well, it did. Right to the “real” pueblo where they do NOT want outsiders to be. We actually didn’t get that close before an arrow was shot across our bow (figuratively speaking, of course) and we were intercepted by a native who clearly gestured to us to get out of there and so, in the interest of maintaining peace and not provoking a new Indian uprising, we quickly turned tail and ran for the interstate. There is no small irony in the fact that when we found the interstate the only thing at the exit was the massive San Felipe Hollywood Casino and Racetrack…., owned by the San Felipe Indians, of course, make of that what you will…. On to Santa Fe.
Day 16: Saturday, April 21, Santa Fe, NM
Today’s big adventure was visiting old town, site of the oldest continuing operating public building in the US. The Palace of the Governors was built in 1610 and is on the north side of the plaza. The front is a covered porch that stretches for the entire block and faces the grass square. It is lined with vendors selling mostly native jewelry along with other stuff. Here’s the front of the Governor’s Palace – which is the original 1610 building! The vendors for the most part are the original Native American artists and craftsman. There is a lottery every morning for the 64 spaces that are available in the plaza – an old guy on the bus told us that 55 vendors were turned away today because the spaces were already taken!
But before we get to that, let’s start with the first public bus ride in Santa Fe. Yes, the streets in old town are so small and narrow plus the available parking is sooo expensive so we rode the bus! It was great – the bus stop was at the entrance to the RV park and a day pass for seniors only cost $1. That’s a “win-win” if I ever saw one. Of course you really see a cross-section of real America on the bus, and this was no exception. Half-way there we were adopted by this little old retired lady who gave us a non-stop commentary on life in Santa Fe, some history, some tourist tips, etc., made the ride go quickly. Once at the plaza it was obviously historical, interesting, expensive and hot! I had forgotten my hat and after only a couple of minutes (here at around 6,500 feet) the top of my head began to itch. Now, for most of you that means “cooties” but for people like me it means that a vicious sunburn is starting to happen. We stepped in one store to buy a simple straw hat but backed out at the $50 price. Around the corner off the plaza I did manage to find a baseball hat for $20 (including tax – there is tax on everything; they are really getting their money’s worth out of the tourists!). Crisis averted, so back to the touristing. The area around the plaza is filled with shops (i.e. expensive tourist stores), restaurants, hotels, churches, etc., all in old buildings or in the Santa Fe style. The La Fonda is an old, expensive, historical hotel and this is the view up the street with La Fonda on the right looking towards the plaza.
After lunch, we split and Peggy continued to shop while I went to the reading room at the public library and read the paper (along with the other 11 men in the reading room, most of whom looked just like me, tourists hiding from the feminine partner and avoiding spending the entire day shopping.) I kid you not, 90% of the people crowded around town are women, with the few men trailing through the crowd looking thoroughly trained on the end of their leash….. Not me, I get to hide in the library!!!!! One of the great compromises in American history! We agree to meet in a couple of hours and complements to the co-pilot; she is ready to roll at the appointed time.
Day 17: Sunday, April 22, Santa Fe, NM
The second round of the Lunch Box-Indian War is scheduled for today. While most people come to Santa Fe for the history, the expensive and exclusive shops around the plaza, the elite artist galleries, craft shops and spas that line Canyon Road just east of old town, not us. We’re real Americans! Our itinerary for the day included Jackelope Mercado (a sprawling complex of buildings and tents containing every imaginable Mexican “crafty” item, especially pots, the Hobby Lobby (in search of some kind of fake cactus) but the main event of the day was not getting pampered along Canyon Road, but a visit to the Tesuque Pueblo Indian Flea Market!!!! Those of you anticipating the Canyon Spa can only imagine what lay behind this:
Now, you might remember that I grew up 50 miles from Custer’s Last Stand in Montana so I know the consequences of tangling with the Indians but what the hell! You might note that in the sign in the lower left of the picture it states quite clearly “No Cameras”. Since we were on the reservation the signs were everywhere, but mirroring the “devil may care” attitude of the old west, I took out the camera and Peggy took a picture from the cab of the Lunch Box as we sped out of the parking lot in a cloud of dust. No scalping today!!!! (unless you count the prices in the flea market, which, of course, were unbelievably high!) We returned to Santa Fe and finished up our shopping day with those bastions of Americana, WalMart and Smith’s (the local version of Fred Meyer’s). It is interesting to note that large grocery stores sell hard liquor, there does not appear to be any state liquor stores. Tomorrow wraps up our stay in Santa Fe and we start heading north, visiting Taos Pueblo before heading north into Colorado later in the week. We have had a great internet connection here in Santa Fe but are not sure what lies ahead as the next couple of days are in the Colorado Rockies before heading to Cortez, Colorado at the end of the week. Also interesting note, the altitude (7,045 feet here in Santa Fe) is having a noticeable effect. Don’t know why that surprised us as Sharon and Gary Beckman warned us! Last interesting note is that here in Santa Fe gas is $3.68 a gallon.
Day 18: Monday, April 23, Santa Fe, NM to Taos, NM
Up early this morning and off to Taos, heading north hoping that the weather will cool a bit. The road to Taos was interesting, climbing alongside the Rio Grande for most of the way, punctuated with casinos every couple of miles! Finally up out of the canyon we are in a relatively flat, high desert landscape bordered with mountains on all sides. The sky is clear and it is hot! I think we’re somewhere around 8,000 feet. We make our way through the village of Taos on the way to Taos Pueblo. Of course, this is prime tourist country so everything costs money. Not only do they charge to enter the pueblo, but they charge $6 just to take your camera in! Oh well, here we go. It actually was pretty interesting. A World Heritage site, the pueblo has been occupied for over 1,000 years. It’s a large compound dominated by two large buildings on the north and south. The plaza in the middle is split by a small river. Here’s a picture of the north building, approximately 5 stories tall and all made out of adobe. People still life in these buildings despite no electricity…
After leaving the pueblo we decide to find a place to stay and wind up at an RV Park about 5 miles northwest of town on the edge of the high plain. Thunderstorms are piling up (which drive Augie crazy) and we hunker down for the night. Fortunately they do cool down the day so it’s not too hot, which was good, because watching Dancing With The Stars provides enough heat inside the Lunch Box. This pictures says it all, does it get any better than this? Dancing With The Stars on the TV with a spectacular New Mexico sunset in the background.
Day 19: Tuesday, April 24, Taos, NM
Our third “old town” experience is on tap for today as we explore downtown Taos. It’s much smaller, of course, than Santa Fe, (which actually was smaller than Albuquerque). We head out in the morning, hoping to take advantage of the cooler part of the day. The place is not very crowded and so we meander around the plaza. For the most part I experience the joy of the various benches and my travelling partner enjoys the experience of the various stores! It works! As I sit on my various benches, I ponder the landscape in front of me and have an epiphany! You know how the state animal for Oregon is the beaver? I have decided that the state animal for New Mexico is a 60-year old women with long braided gray hair, a “crinklely” full multi-colored skirt, tasteful little jean jacket, some kind of sandals, and lots of Indian-like jewelry and crystals of some kind hanging from various places around the body. They are crawling everywhere, with the few male companions either meekly following along attached on a leash or sitting quietly on the afore-mentioned benches (just like me!). Just a thought…. After a couple of hours we head back to the RV park for a quiet afternoon.
Day 20: Wednesday, April 25, Taos, NM to Aztec, NM
We hit it the road, heading back northwest towards Colorado. MapQuest wants me to go towards Santa Fe but Lewis and Clark (my patron saints of exploration) wouldn’t have done that, so neither will we! We head off on Hwy 64 across the top of New Mexico heading west and are quickly glad we did. Who knew that 30 minutes outside Taos we would be in heavily forested mountains with spectacular views and LOTS of snow?! It also dropped about 20 degrees. As we kept driving through the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, the geology changed from mountains to alpine meadows to forested canyons to high desert sagebrush to desert. Unfortunately we were delayed for about an hour outside of Chama, NM because of a vehicle accident that blocked the road. The joy of “motor-homing” meant that we just pulled off to the side of the road, walked the dog and had lunch. Once the wrecks were cleared, off we went. Again, we didn’t really know where/what we were headed to, but knew that we were stopping for the night in Aztec, NM. The name is the result of early Spanish explorers who were coming up from Mexico, but there were no Aztecs in New Mexico. The natives in this area were a branch of the Puebloans who populated the rest of the area. Picking an RV park can be somewhat of a science: a combination of recommendations from the web, location, price, etc., and in this case location won out. I knew that it wasn’t the RV Hilton when we pulled in and I went up to the office, which meant that I knocked on the mobile home door, walked through the living room (saying “hi” to the children) and sat at the kitchen counter to register. Not the regular routine. I was so excited to be there that I forgot to ask about bathrooms and showers (which was OK because it turned out that there weren’t any!). Oh well, the site had electricity and water so we were good. And the location was great because just down the road was the reason we were here, Aztec National Monument.
Day 21: Thursday, April 26, Aztec, NM to Cortez, NM
First thing this morning was our visit to the national monument. It was surprisingly impressive, given that it was a block down the road from the RV park in a residential area. The ruins were pretty complete, again about 1000 years old, and amazingly well preserved. Here’s the view from the top of one of the ruins looking out over the pueblo.
There were over 100 “apartments” in the original buildings. We were able to walk through a series of apartments on the ground floor that had the original wood ceilings and walls. The workmanship is amazing as these are not made out of adobe, but are actually made out of mortar and stones cut to the correct shapes. It was also clear that the Puebloans were a tad bit smaller (both in width and height) than the modern mature male. While there is no truth to the rumor that I got stuck in a doorway, the picture below is not me coming out of an ancient pit toilet, but actually exiting the pueblo through an exterior door!
After exiting the pueblo, we hit the road again to land in Cortez, Colorado for the next couple of days. Weather has changed our itinerary since there is too much snow up in the mountains, but there’s lots to do/see around Cortez. Adventures to follow…
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