Go West Young Man (11) - The Salinas Pueblo MIssions

     Based on hindsight and experience, perhaps Santa Fe was not the best base for visiting the Salinas Pueblo Missions as they were quite some distance from Santa Fe and the driving to and fro did take quite a bit of time; lesson learned. The town of Mountainair would have been a much better base of operations, so for those of you entertaining the thought of visiting these missions, use Mountainair or even Albuquerque.

      Before we get to the pictures though we have to relate a couple of interesting little events which occured on the way to the missions.

      As we are moving at a good speed down highway we come upon the good town of Madrid, it looked like a delightful little place with banners across the road advertising the chili festival;



Perhaps the car up front, which I drove around, was supposed to block traffic?

but it appeared that the people there were not at all that welcoming. There were lots of trucks with trailers parked along the roads and  people yelling at us get off the road and out of the way. Now we have been many places where people from Texas are perhaps not liked and maybe our license plate gave us away, but this was the rudest welcome we have ever experienced.
     Then Norma turns to me and says, "there is a movie in the making here, that is why all this stuff is here and why they are yelling at us". She must have seen something on one of the trucks. Sure enough, we drove right into the filming of some of the scenes of the Disney movie "Wild Hogs" with John Travolta and Tim Allen and others.
     No, we are not in the movie, surely we were edited out as the language used on a couple of occasions to get us out of the way would have gotten the movie a triple X rating. This was quite an experience, which was either preceded or following by a short visit to a three horse town, but I can't remember if that visit came before or after the Madrid incident.

     We also came up on a rock sitting along the road that resembled the head of a Spanish soldier of the time with his helmet on. Some people say that I have a vivid imagination, and that is perhaps so. Take a look and decide for yourself.

The "Spanish Soldier" looking North and thinking "Are we there yet?"

 

 

 

     Now as to the three horse town we were just driving along when we saw a sign about the old church in "I can't remember the name of the town" so we turned off the road and went to see it. I think it was in Los Cerrillos, but I am not sure. We found a neat little church, a nice "court yard" behind the church,

Norma at the door to the couryard.

The Pieta in the courtyard.

The Church front seen from the street

     In addition to the church there were several buildings with "historical building" plaques on the doors or walls. On one of those we saw a door open and decided that it would probably be a good idea to look at such a historical building, and we were talking about it as we walked towards the door, and we suddenly hear doors slamming shut here and there, in other words, people had been observing us the whole time, but we didn't see them. The only moving things we saw in town were three horses in a corral, so therefore, not a one horse town but a three horse town, in other words, a town of some importance.

     Somewhere along the way we came upon another little adobe church sitting along the roadside with what appeared to be an interesting cemetary, and we just had to stop and take a photo.

A small country adobe church somewhere along hwy. 14 in New Mexico.

     Looking at the order of the photos in the original folder it would appear that we came upon the  "Spanish Soldier" first, followed by the three horse town and the Madrid with its Chili Festival and movie making and the little church mentioned directly above.

     The Salinas Pueblo Missions are a National Monument and the history attached is very interesting; picture this in your imagination, you are a Franciscan Friar or Brother, leaving Mexico City and heading North into this hostile land now called New Mexico, but at that time it was part of Tejas. You have with you perhaps several good pairs of sandals, maybe one or two more cassocks, a donkey to carry some of the supplies and perhaps an oxen to carry the water barrels. Then you start out walking or occasionally riding on the donkey at the dizzying speed of 3 miles / 4.8 km an hour. Now assume we only walked 6 hours per day the trip would have taken about 7 or 8 weeks, a distance of roughly 1,200 miles / 1930 km not allowing for terrain variations and not knowing the exact route taken from Mexico City to the first Mission.
     These were people with some guts going off into the unknown, not knowing when and where they would find water, hunting for protein (you can only eat so many beans and then the gas will get you). They encounter local people and they do not speak each others langauge, their cultures and customs are worlds apart.
     The thing that really amazes me, aside from the journey, is that now these Franciscans convince the indiginous people, who perhaps much rather have removed the heads of the heads of these intruders, to build buildings, a people that in this area didn't build anything, but who lived off the land and in tune with the land and on the land.
     First they have to be turned into stone masons, then they have to learn rudimentary math in order to figure out how many stones long and wide and tall walls will have to be and how many stones it will require as these mission churches were not built of adobe. They also had to go long distances looking for trees that could be turned into roof beams, door beams and posts, gates and all the other things that wood is used for in construction. In other words, they also had to become carpenters. But perhaps most interesting of all is that in the culture of the natives based on the division of labor, women and children did most of the work.
     What is left of the three missions; Gran Quivira, Abo and Quarai, speaks well for the work of the Franciscans and the indiginous people of the area. Before the pictures of the missions here are a selection of links to information about the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salinas_Pueblo_Missions_National_Monument
http://www.nps.gov/sapu/index.htm
http://sangres.com/newmexico/national-parks/salinas-pueblo-missions-nm.htm
http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/salinas-pueblo-missions-national-monument-outdoor-pp2-guide-cid9316.html
http://newmexicohiking.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/the-salinas-pueblo-missions/

    Here are some of our photos from the missions, beginning with I beleive Quarai and ending with Gran Quivira. One would really liked to have had more time.

  

This fellow should work harder and he would get rid of the belly.

                                  

Watch out for the local fauna, it may bite with serious consequences.

 

                                  

     After a long and interesting day we headed back to Santa Fe for some rest and libation, but not before we stopped to take just one more photo along the way, as the sun was setting in the mountains.

      More to follow in the next post which will be about our visit to the Loretto Shrine and Chapel and some of the other churches in Santa Fe.

Go West Young Man (10)

     After an uneventful, sans flat tire, arrival in Santa Fe it was time to do a bit of laundry and other things so the first day was somewhat dull except we did take a bike ride around Santa Fe, this time having had the good sense, learned through the experience of "toasted buns", to place the bicycle seats in the car when we are driving. We went to several places in town and got some good pictures and had a nice lunch with a fantastic beer (Santa Fe Honey Lager on draught).

At the entrance to where we would have dinner in the evening.

Norma among art work by a local artist.

Norma waiting for me to take the picture so we can have lunch.

The Cathedral in Santa Fe, the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi

The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe

     We also decided to go out to eat in the evening at a place next to the Loretto Chapel. The dinner was absolutely fantastic; a plate with a bit of this, followed by a plate with a bit of that, followed by a plate of a some of this and another with some of that, you get the drift. One should remember that when one orders from a menu without prices one must not go into shock, nor should one ask for the smelling salts, or the "nitro" tablets, when the bill arrives. It was only $175.00 (not including tip) which is $87.50 per person and at that point the most expensive dinner we had ever had. It still ranks as #2, since the most expensive one was in Denmark three years later ($1200.00 for four people, $300.00 per person),  but one of my brothers paid for that one. Since we were going out and we had clean clothes we stopped at the motel next to where we were lodging because of the decor in its front yard and had a picture taken.

My fantastic and beautiful wife all dressed up for dinner.

Her prince has arrived, not in a royal carriage, but in a New Mexico wagon now used as a planter.

Norma among more art work.

     The next day was a busy day which will follow in the next post - The Salinas Mission Trail.

Just when I got used to it ...

     Words that cannot be printed. First of all I find that my playlist won't play on my current page, and I don't seem to be able to find out how to correct that using either Playlist.com or Blogspot.com. This is very irritating to say the least. Here is a link to my play list, but it shouldn't be by link, it should be an item on the side that begins to play automatically, just as it did to begin with. Frustrations because I don't know if this link will play one song or all the songs. There are some choice words in my mouth and current vocabulary and they are ............. (use your imagination).
http://pl.st/p/22278691083

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.