it's all over now

After the snow in Santa Fe, the weather calmed down and it was warm and sunny. Four days is not enough time for Santa Fe, nor are 2 days enough time to drive through the gorgeous countrysides of northern New Mexico, southern Colorado, and northern Arizona, but that's all the time we had, capped off by the "desert" of the trip - a day at Grand Canyon. Pictures don't begin to portray the majesty and awesome-ness of the real thing; you'll have to take my word for it.

But vacations are all too short and I need a vacation from my vacation! The end.

Roswell in the rear view window

What else is there to say! After a month in Roswell, the best thing anyone can say about Roswell is watching it recede in the rear view window, driving north on 285 towards civilization.

We left with the temperature on its way to 80 degrees, and got to Cline's Corner (often the coldest spot in the state) just as a spring snow storm began to blanket the northern part of the state with up to 12 inches of snow in some places. It was going sideways across the road. Got to Santa Fe on the worst Friday afternoon in recent history, made for the first bar and sat it out.

Santa Fe snow

Things got a lot better after that, including the wonderful B & B my sister found for us, called Las Palomas (the doves) and, of course, the city of Santa Fe. My nepherw put it well: you have the proportions wrong - a month in Roswell and only 3 days in Santa Fe? so next time we'll do it the other way around.



The plaza in Santa Fe




Tomorrow we're off for a scenic ride through northwest NM and a little of Colorado near Mesa Verde, and through the Navajo nation to Grand Canyon.

miscellany and errata

A couple of things I forgot and a correction, in no particular order.

Not only does New Mexico now have a state cowboy song (see earlier post), it also has an official state guitar. Custom crafted by Pimentel and Sons, a long time established company of guitar makers, based in Albuquerque, the state guitar is called the New Mexico Sunrise and has an ivory and coral inlaid Zia sun symbol on the neck.
There's also a state cookie, a piece of legislation, which was the subject of much snickering (get the pun?) during the recent session. It's the biscochito, otherwise known as the Mexican wedding cookie -a shortbread-like anise flavored cookie. Google "biscochito" and at least 3 pages of recipes come up.

And, there's a bi-lingual state song (never mind).

Another vignette from Carlsbad: A couple of young men, gringos, who were in front of us, paying at the Mexican restaurant, went outside, got into a pickup truck, and the driver took a hand gun out from his waistband (where it had obviously been during dinner) and put it on the floor by his feet in the driver's side.

The correction: the restaurant in Albuquerque (see earlier post) is El Pinto, not La Pinta. How could I have made that mistake!! They sell their salsa and sauces in grocery stores all over the state - even in Carlsbad!

Speaking of restaurants - Roswell has not just one, but two, Thai restaurants and they are both very good. Also a Hunan Chinese restaurant. And, of course, numerous barbeque and ribs places. Cows and pigs are high on the food chain here.

Did I mention that the world's largest cheese factory is here? Produces mozzarella exclusively for national pizza chains.

Easter at the monastery

Who'd have thunk I'd go to church? And not just any church, but the chapel at the Monastery of the Sisters of Poor Clare. They are a cloistered nunnery on the outskirts of Roswell, part of a national "chain" of such nuns (pardon my irreligious take on things). The nuns sit on one side of a huge metal filigree screen at the front of the chapel, and the public is invited to attend and sit on the other side. We don't see them and they don't see us, and the priest gives Mass in the middle, turning first towards their side of the screen and then towards ours. I went to the Thursday evening benediction mass (the others were held at inopportune times - like 7 AM!). I won't go into the intricacies of the service itself, except to say it had been a very long time since I'd been at a church service, and a high Catholic one at that, and of the 40 or so people in the public part of the chapel, I was the only one not kneeling and praying, and saying a rosary, and taking communion.
The priest seemed bored by the whole thing, leafing through the big bible on the altar between his parts, and his assistant seemed to fall asleep as he rocked back and forth. The acolyte spent the whole time kneeling on the bare floor, and yawning. His big job was carrying and fetching the wafers and the wine and the cups and the cloths and the incense back and forth.
When the communion was actually being had (taken?), the nuns did come one by one to a half open dutch door and receive the stuff from the priest, and then disappear into their part of the chapel. All the public got to see was a fleeting glimpse of a face. I'm told that families come from all around for this glimpse of their daughters. The nuns sang in high sweet voices and it sounded, or was supposed to sound, like angels floating unseen.
When it was over, the public scooted out of there. I had stayed to take some pictures of the outside (even I am not so irreligious to try to take pictures inside) and I met the priest - in street clothes, scurrying out himself. He got into a late model car and drove off quickly.

the priest's car


the entrance drive









Thus endeth the lesson.

The Arts

Roswell has a number of museums, from the military history (at the local military training institute), to the Robert Goddard science museum (he of the first rockets),
to the historical museum (a reproduction/re-furnishing of the original settler's house) and 2, count em 2, fine art museums. And they are actually very good collections. and free admission. And open every day of the week.








photo of the first rocket test from 1942?. Goddard's first lab was in Massachusetts, but when he set off a rocket, it scared the local populace and they told him to move somewhere with wide open spaces. so he did - to Roswell. The museum has preserved his lab, down to the lathe, and metal cutters, and old pieces of metal, and the workbench, etc. Actually pretty fascinating if you are interested in rocketry.
Interestingly enough, when Gary was a child, one of the places he lived was next door to what is now the historical museum, but he had never been inside it when the family lived there.

kitchen as it really was, and the formal dinning room.



Here's some shots of stuff from the Roswell city museum. They had an exhibit of contemporary native artists, including a more than life size metal sculpture, and a very modern rendition of the symbolic kokopelli figure. The group of sitting clay bird-people is the work of the current artist-in-residence, from Singapore.

The Contemporary Art museum is totally funded by the big ranching family here, the Anderson's. They sponsor an artist in residence program also,but the artists (up to 12 at a time) and their families live on the Anderson ranch grounds for a year at a time. Then the museum keeps (or is donated) the best of the works created during that year. It is chock-full of great stuff!! I couldn't take any pictures, sorry. I've been back a couple of times this trip and spent many fulfilling afternoons the last time around. Some of the stuff was the same, but they must have so much stuff, the collection shifts each time.

So, see, there is an intelligence here and it's not just other-wordly.

Carlsbad

It's only 75 miles south of here, but getting to and being in Carlsbad is entering a whole different world, and I don't just mean the caverns (which are really neat, and which you will see pictures of later).
Carlsbad is where the "tru-waste" is deposited in a deep salt bed outside town. "Tru-waste" is waste generated by the government's nuclear weapons program, that has an atomic number greater than uranium (hence, in the Department of Energy's own propaganda - transuranic). It is collected at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). That means it is trucked in and brought in by train from what turns out to be thousands of sites across the US where plutonium is manufactured and/or processed. This picture is, of course, of a "simulated" WIPP cannister.

Carlsbad is also the location of the first intentional use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes - at least it was the experiment that failed. The government set off a small device under ground to see if it could be used as an excavation tool - the only problem was that radiation escaped above the surface. It was capped and now there is a marker on the spot. Of course, it is probably still radioactive, but tourists are welcome to come stand on it and have a picture taken (we did not).

Then, there is Artesia. Yes, that's where the word artesian well comes from - or is it the other way around? - but the main industry of Artesia is oil and natural gas production. Very ugly town, very smelly town. When we stopped to take a picture of the refinery, a fellow stopped and asked what we were doing - like we were terrorists, or something. They drain off brine pits under the surface as part of the refining process, and now the town is worried about sinkholes - right in the middle of town, where the 2 state highways intersect.


You can see what rusty thinks of Artesia.




But there are some pretty spots, too. After all, it is a very unusual geological area - it is the northern end of the Chihuahua desert (which extends into Texas and Mexico) and under it are huge gaping holes in the ground - some salt (see above), some mineral (like gas and oil), and some gem-like minerals and empty holes where the water has eroded the limestone formations (the caverns).

roadside propaganda

There are also natural springs, which is good, because there isn't much rain. One of them is Sitting Bull Falls, so named because supposedly, cattlemen chased SB and his braves to it after they were caught cattle rustling. Good story, but historically, SB was never in New Mexico.
Of course, the Falls was at the end of a county road, off another county road, and not much signage, so we got lost coming and going, but got to see some pretty countryside. What signs there were, were riddled with bullet holes.

man meets cow

intersection of county roads


Then there is the monument to Frank Kindel. Who? He was a "paper boy" who flew people, newspapers, and messages around the lonely stretches of the desert in a single engine plane, dropping bundles of mail etc at remote ranches. At age 72 he was still flying, when he crashed in the desert. There is a monument to him on one of those county roads, a single propeller mounted on a stone obelisk. (see http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/702).

And then of course, there's food. In Carlsbad, it was pretty awful. The "best" mexican restaurant was totally inedible. We had to throw it away. Check out this place:


they mean it - no whining about the food!

But the Caverns were fantastic. These pictures don't even begin to present the majesty of the place - a Huge room (there were lots others, smaller, which we didn't explore), 8.2 acres in area, with "ceilings" as high as the room is long. Even though the parking lot was full, including RVs, buses, motorcycles, and cars, once we got down the elevator (750 feet of descent) the room is so big, it looked empty.

did I mention gypsum also? the earth here has a quite complex geology.



There is also a Living Desert Museum, which has examples of all the flora and fauna of the desert, and is also a refuge for rescued animals - like golden eagles, Mexican wolves, elks, bison, various lizards and snakes etc.
L to R: ocotillo cactus, Mexican wolves, eagle








Elk, and me with Rusty




Not content with the natural sights, we also explored the town, which is on the Pecos River (same river that flows (sometimes) through Roswell, and where Gary went to boy scout camp as a youth). Somehow, it looks about the same, only seedier.








At one time this plume was an architectural marvel - carrying water from the Pecos, up and over it, and onto agricultural fields for irrigation. The sign explains it all.

hasn't changed a bit in 40 years.








There used to be a town established by freed slaves in the 1880's, til the well went dry. this marks the spot. Pretty desolate.




ufo over Roswell on the way home, or is that a cloud?