Go West Young Man (9)

     The drive from Roswell to Santa Fe was rather uneventful except for a tire slowly leaking air across the landscape and which was fixed in the great town of Vaughn at the junction of highways 285 and 54. The fellow repairing the tire was rather helpful, even answering the question of "what do young people do for economic opportunity in this town?". His answer was very revealing "They leave town, because the only thing here is the railroad which hires some people, and then people like you with an occasional flat tire, so essentially there is no future for them in their home town".
     It was discovered that the slow leak caused by a roofing tack embedded in the tire which was missed on several inspections at other tire shops and which basically caused "problems" since the car only had 6,000 miles on it, or about 7 months into its life in my possession.
     Somewhere along the way we stopped along the old historical route 66, which by the way, we drove alongside for many miles this summer (2012) in California and Arizona. Here are a few pictures of the stop along the way.
     Later in the day we arrived at our destination of the La Quinta in Santa Fe, I just love the name of that town, Blessed Faith. More will follow.

The Proverbial Cigar Store Indian with Norma

The guy on the right needs to get rid of some of his belly.

 

 

Back again

      Realising that it has been several months since I posted I will get busy again on the "Go West Young Man". One has been rather busy with important things as wells essential things but not necesarily in that order.
     Essential things - a one month long road trip during June and July covering 7,160 miles (including 1,000 miles in Texas just getting out of and back in the state) and 13 states (not including Texas). More about that trip in future posts.
     In addition the important things - one of my former customers has contracted me to take care of certain aspects of their operations in various cities on the 3 coast.

Another trip to the Veggie garden

     Although the Travel West Young Man will continue we sometimes take a break and focus on other things. Such was the time this spring; the spring garden was planted (seeded) and now it is time to look at some of the vegetables growing there. Based on past rainfall this year, including last night when 4 3/8" fell and Thursday night when 1 1/2" fell at our location, and assuming (yes, I know this is dangerous and one could easily make an ass-u-me of one self) that sufficient amounts of rain will continue to fall from the sky over the next several months so one is not required to once again bail the City of Houston out of its red financial situation by consuming enormous amounts of water to keep the garden alive and paying dearly for the consumption.
      Here are photos of some of the veggies growing in the garden this year.

This is the beginning of Graeskar (A type of Melon) from Denmark.
They are particularly good in salads and when pickled in a sweet type of pickle juice.
This is my first attempt at these and I do not know what the end result will be.

The oregano has moved out of the container and is now in the ground
and doing rather well; always good in a number of Italian dishes.

One of two Brussels sprout plants, growing like crazy, and soon, we hope,
they will have Brussels sprouts.

Green chives and I keep cutting and they keep growing.
Good thing as they work well in many recipes.

Serrano peppers, we have three of these plants growing.
At the rate of production we may be able to keep our neighbors in peppers.

Sweet basil, great with pasta sauces and pesto and a number of things.

Long Island dill, great stuff in salads and with many dishes.

Lemon Basil, also great in many Italian and Greek type dishes.

Cilantro, the mainstay of many Mexican dishes.
In the parsley family but quite a bit stronger in flavor.

Carrot tops, and they are green as opposed to the commonly understood color
when the term carrot top is mentioned.

Parsley in the velvet leaf family.

Leeks on the left and white radishes on the left.

A view of the total of 5 tomato plants growing, cherry, Roma, beef steak and yellow sugar.

Cucumbers, one of three plants, some are burp less, others are not, but all are good.

The Rosemary is blooming in its shady spot under the still
non-producing avocado tree. Since the tree is only 6 years old
I understand we have to wait at least another six before we will
get fruit (6 + present age = I sure hope someone will enjoy them)

     From time to time updates will be published as things mature. In particular I am interested in the

results of GRAESKAR plant (in English this is a ???? because when I went on line to a Danish - English dictionary there does not appear to be a translation.) It is a member of the melon family.

Go West Young Man 8 - (UFO's, Aliens and Toasted Buns)

     We are in the great city of Roswell NM. The day started out with a bike ride at Spring River Bike and Hike trail. Here are some links to points of interest; http://www.roswellmysteries.com/index.aspx?pk=2, http://www.cleananpress.com/roswell/spring.htm  . This was a great way to begin the day. After the ride we went to the post office to mail some cards and see what else was in store. Then it was time to visit the "Area 51" / "Alien" museum.

THIS IS THE UFO and ALIEN PART

Not being a great fan of Science Fiction I kind of dreaded this museum visit but actually found it interesting. There were recordings of the original radio broadcasts on local radio, the front pages of the local newspapers, and all sorts of things to look at, to read and to listen to. The most interesting was the UFO identification chart. All things were determined by the US Government to be weather balloons.
Below are some links that may be of interest and a few of  the photos we took at that museum as well as a street scene or two. here are links to crash site information; http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11159, http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11160

A model of the impact of the UFO into what is now known as Area 51

 Here are a couple of links to the historical data on this incident;
First from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
Then the Roswell UFO Museum http://www.roswellufomuseum.com/
An alien autopsy, sounds spooky or should one say spacy? http://theshadowlands.net/alien.htm

Poor alien, being prodded and probed.

Perhaps we should include what is claimed to be the comments of someone once important;
http://www.crystalinks.com/roswell.html

What we have here is a fantastic specimen -
the question is whether the "spook" or G-man on the left or the doctor on the right is the proper specimen.

Where would we be without including a link to the FBI's vault of old cases; http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/fbi-vault-reveals-ufo-roswell-files/story?id=13347754

As you can see they are really small fellows and appear rather friendly.

The flying skills of the aliens obviously leave much to be desired.
Here is a UFO that crashed into front of the museum.
According to the US Air Force it is actually an "untethered weather balloon".

A FEW OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST

    Roswell's claim to fame is not limited to the Alien crash and all the "hoopla" associated with this. Roswell was at one time an important city on the Chisum Trail. The link here has a nice piece of audio attached so when you hit it, pause the player on this blog; http://deestory.homestead.com/chisum.html

and here is another good link to some of the history of the Old West http://www.southernnewmexico.com/Articles/People/JohnChisum-CattleKingofth.html.

     We did of course take a picture of John Chisum's statue located in Roswell

This is obviously a true Texas Longhorn, although not made out of hide.

     The next photo is almost a study in contrast, as it is a photo of the mighty Pecos River as it flows just East of Roswell.

It is hard to believe this muddy stream is actually the mighty Pecos.

For contrast see photo below.

This is what everyone expects the Pecos River to look like.

THIS IS THE TOASTED BUNS PART



    On our bicycles we have some rather comfortable seats with gel pads for cushioning of the lower regions. As this is being written, 6 years after the trip in question, these gel pads have seen better days, and on one of the bike seats they are completely gone. This is what the remaining seat pads look like today and as can be seen the pads are missing on the adjacent seat;

     One of the attractions of the Roswell area is a New Mexico State Park named "Bottomless Lakes", the name apparently being coined by the cowboys of bygone years. Folklore has it that the cowboys would drop ropes down into the lakes trying to see how deep they were, but it appears that the ropes never reached bottom. What the good old cow pokes did not realise was that the lakes are in fact the visible portion of an underground river with a fairly strong current and the ropes were being carried horizontally by the current not too far below the surface.

     Norma and I went to visit these lakes and parked the car in the designated parking area as we were going to bike the trail around the lakes - good idea, good exercise, good for the heart, fresh air and so on.

     As our bikes were being carried in a rack on the back of the car the seats were of course exposed to the New Mexico sun which can be brutal. We got the bikes off, dusted them off and after making sure we had sufficient water, mounted the bikes for a good ride - SIZZLE - SIZZLE - OUCH - YIKES - OH (@%A$&*)STUFF . Much to our very unpleasant surprise, the gel pads acted as sponges for the heat of the sun.

The remedy was to cool the seats of with a bit of water, refill the water containers and then do our biking. Here are a few photos from the area;

      Here are some links to Bottomless Lakes State Park; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottomless_Lakes_State_Park, http://newmexico.org/explore/state_parks/bottomless.php,

http://www.stateparks.com/bottomless_lakes.html and those that are so inclined can get a lot more information just by "googling" Bottomless Lakes New Mexico.

      Thus ended a fine day, looking forward for a cool place to sit.

     

Go West Young Man (7)

     The journey continues, but now actually not quite in a westerly direction because the destination for the day is Roswell (space alians, etc.). But a couple of stops where made on the way. The first one at The Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, though not actually a required stop on the mission trail, there is some limited history available and a nice statue of Juan Diego. The link below is from research done by a member of the faculty of Marquette University.
http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/NativeGuide/NM/W-368.pdf

The Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mesilla NM

The statue of Juan Diego with the Tilma

    The church was not open, or at least we did not find any unlocked doors, so we continued our journey now generally in an direction of North East.
    The next stop was obviously White Sands National Monument, this spot of pure white "sand" covering 275 square miles (176,000 acres) or 710 square kilometers (71,225 hectares). While I was stationed at Oro Grande back in the early part of 1967 I wanted to go there but we were not permitted to leave our base since we were training on a top secret weapon, but one could read about it in then current issues of Popular Mechanic.
     What follows below are pictures from White Sands National Monument and some links with additional information.

White Sands National Monument Park Headquarters

Park headquarters.

Our trusted Subaru Forester in the middle of the White Sands

Norma, not at the beach, but in the desert of New Mexico

No beach anywhere close, but lots of whiete sand.
Trying to keep my stomach from protruding into the picture.

A sea of White Sand all around us.

Note the wind pattern in the sand.

The obligatory photo of the Yucca siting in the sand.

This link is from the National Park Service and has links to a wealth of information about the Monument.
http://www.nps.gov/whsa/siteindex.htm
Here is another link from the NPS http://www.nps.gov/whsa/index.htm
A link to Wikipedia's information about the park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_National_Monument
Last but not least a link to some great photographs from White Sands.
https://www.google.com/search?q=White+Sands+photos&hl=en&rlz=1T4ADSA_enUS388US390&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Hl05T4b2EaLo2QXn74iUAg&ved=0CC0QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=540

    We now take leave of White Sands on begin a journey up through the Sacramento Mountains http://newmexico.org/learn/geology/sacramentos.php, having gone through Alamagordo, on our way to Cloudcroft. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudcroft,_New_Mexico
     Our first stop on the way up was at San Augustin Pass, elevation 5,710 feet / 1,740 meters above sea level, in New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains this is on the level of ant hills.

At San Augustin Pass, elevation 5,710 feet / 1,740 meters above sea level.

Looking on some direction, but I do not remember which, from the San Augustin Pass.

     We arrived in Cloudcroft, an nice little town, but it appears that we were not happy with the photos from Cloudcroft, because none were saved, so here are some links to additional information and links to various photos; http://www.cloudcroft.net/photos-2/, http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g46989-Cloudcroft_New_Mexico.html, https://www.google.com/search?q=cloudcroft+new+mexico&hl=en&rlz=1T4ADSA_enUS388US390&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=NmY5T_zYMamg2AXPqpy9Bw&ved=0CGUQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=540


     It was time for something to eat and feeling a bit homesick for Texas we found a small restaurant named Texas Pit Bar B Q and here we ate. We walked around town for a bit and took photos. The weather is very pleasant, having come out of the desert below, and here it is only 79 degrees F (26 degrees F).
      Leaving Cloudcroft again we wind our way down the mountains, with beautiful vistas; valleys, canyons and lots and lots of pine trees. 
     Tired after a long day we arrive in Roswell at the La Quinta and check in for the night. We have now driven 1,149 miles / 1,850 km since we left home. More about Roswell and the alians in the next post about the journey West.

Go West Young Man (6)

     The lessons of life are always very educational, particularly when one has not taken the time to do the homework or study ahead of the "test", this became very apparent on this particular day.
     We began the day early, having the usual "free" Continental Breakfast consisting of hard boiled eggs (it is a good thing we were rather active on this trip or our cholesterol levels would have skyrocketed), coffee, orange juice, bagels sans lox but with cream cheese, waffles. Then off to Mass at 7 AM at Saint Pius X Catholic Church which we found close to the hotel the evening before. Being the skeptic of the day, and seeing the name of the church I was wondering it this was a church of the Society of Pius X, in other words, not in communion with the See of Peter. My skepticism was unfounded as in small letters on the marquis it stated "Diocese of El Paso". The presider at Mass was an Columban priest from Australia, who is current a parish priest across the river in Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico. It was rather interesting to hear the bilingual Mass being said in Spanish and English - both with an Australian accent.
    After Mass we had the intention of taking the tram up to the Franklin mountain trail, and this is where the part of doing the homework comes in. We get to the gate and see a sign that the tram is closed for the day, and we are not aware of any other way of getting up there. There are actually several other ways, but we didn't know that (homework or the lack thereof).
    It is an area that should be explored if the opportunity presents itself, but first do the homework. Here are some links to the Franklin Mountains park area and trail. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/franklin/
http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/N_Franklin_Mountain_2320.asp
http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=BGS133-001
http://texastrails.org/traildetail.cfm?id=513
     As a result of this oversight on our part we decided to continue the journey rather than wait until tomorrow. We are still on the mission trail pursuit and so we pack up and leave El Paso heading west into New Mexico. But here is an important side note - somewhere along the way while looking at the map of New Mexico Norma notices the city of Roswell. Since she likes science fiction and stuff of that sort, all sorts of bells go off, "area 51", "aliens", "UFO's", and all of this in Roswell. Our itinerary is changed a bit to spend the night in Roswell so we can see all the strange things that are there. She is so lucky to have a husband that doesn't mind, even if he is not much into this kind of "stuff".
     We enter New Mexico, the "Land of Enchantment" just after 10 AM (MST) and stop at the "Welcome Center" and pick up some information and take a few picks.

At the State of New Mexico Welcome Center just off of Highway 10

The State of New Mexico Welcome Center - note mesquite fence and old wagon in the back, as well as adobe building.

     Shortly after leaving the Welcome Center we turned off of Hwy 10 and onto NM hwy 28 toward the town of Mesilla. On the way there we drive through an area full of Pecan plantation, and come to a sign that states this is one of the largest pecan plantations in the world. We stopped and took some pictures driving through this tunnel of trees, but somehow I must have deleted them, because they are not in the file of the trip. The plantation is Stahlmann's somewhere between Las Cruces and Mesilla.  Here are some links to Mesilla.
http://www.oldmesilla.org/
http://www.oldmesilla.org/html/history_of_mesilla.html
http://www.oldmesilla.org/html/events_calendar.html
http://www.mesilla.com/
http://newmexico.org/explore/regions/southwest/mesilla.php
     Mesilla's claim to fame is a young man generally known as "Billy the Kid", and here are some links to information about the Kid.
http://www.aboutbillythekid.com/fact_vs_myth.htm
http://www.aboutbillythekid.com/
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWbonney.htm
     There were also some rather heavy "range wars" between various cattle baron factions.
      Here are some of our photos from Mesilla.

Just a street view

As said previously, I am fascinated by interesting gates and doors. This one to a private yard.

We are now in the "Wild West", the side walk.

This building housed the courtroom where Billy the Kid was sentenced.

A wanten poster of Billy the Kid.

Another street view.

Good looking really Western "flavor" building.

    Future posts will have the remainder of this interesting day.