FTJ, Entry 79: Pueblos in Pecos, Reconnecting in Durango

Okay, going to try and do a fast catch-up. We spent a day out at the Pecos National Historical Park, where there are extensive ruins of an indian pueblo. In short, the description of this place is as follows:

Pecos National Historical Park preserves more than 12,000 years of rich cultural history, including Pecos Pueblo and Spanish mission ruins, the ruts of the Santa Fe Trail, the Forked Lighting Ranch, and the Civil War Battle of Glorieta Pass.

Regarding the pueblo ruins, apparently the Spanish, disappointed that this area held no real riches, still sent missionaries to convert the Indians living together at Pecos Pueblo. The invaders built an elaborate mission ("convento") -- with towers, buttresses, and a complex layout of antechambers. But the conversion didn't really take. Decades of Spanish demands and Indian resentments culminated in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when the Indians coordinated across numerous pueblos and drove the Spaniards back to Mexico. The Indians killed the mission priest and destroyed the church. And that was that.

The remaining ruins are fascinating. Some photos from the trip:

The pueblo once spread over this area and more, housing 3,000 people.

Yikes! We kept ourselves and the dogs on the trail.

Look how cute Lucy looks.

At right, a lovely interior doorway left from the original mission. Below left, the ruins of the
mission convento built by the Spaniards.

Us at the ruins of the convento.

We climbed down a few reconstructed kivas, round underground ceremonial rooms used by the Indians centuries ago. Don't know why this photo comes out horizontal every time! Maybe I look better sideways....

Anniversary Serenade

Lucky us, we spent our 15th wedding anniversary with our great pals Joyce and Dave at La Cantina, a lovely little restaurant off the main plaza in Santa Fe. We knew the place featured entertainment during dinner, but had no idea that our waitress, Stephanie, was part of it. She stepped away from our table and began to sing like an angel, along with three other wait staff/singers. I cried, naturally. She sang "Don't Rain on My Parade" right off the bat, which got my waterworks started.

In the courtyard of La Cantina

Stephanie sings! And she brings us booze and food. What a gal!

Awww....so cute!

 
 

On to Durango -- and a Reunion with Friends

Our next trip was to Durango, CO. The views, as usual, were spectacular.

The snow-capped San Juan mountains in the distance.

   

Our RV park, Alpen Rose, situated between two red mountains. Gorgeous views from every angle.

We actually escaped the usual winds most of our stay here. Do you believe the color of the sky?

In Durango, we were super-excited to reconnect with Lori Cole and Steve Salka, a great couple we had met while in Key West last December. They have a stunning ranch outside Durango, and we visited them, their dogs, their horses, their amazing home, their gorgeous antique cars, and other sundry toys. What a great time -- and what terrific, super accomplished, open-hearted people. Thanks again, Lori and Steve -- how lucky we are to have met you. Much love from us!

The very lucky (and great looking) couple!

The back of their home, with a small view of their BIG Jayco RV.
You should see the interior (of the house AND the RV).

Just look at this magnificent ranch!

Lori and Steve have plenty of TOYS -- a cherry '57 T-bird convertible (the gorgeous redhead drives a gorgeous red convertible, of course!); a perfect black DeSoto gangster car (I think from the 30s); and I believe the only REO (forgot the year, unfortunately -- 1930s, no doubt) of this vintage in existence in the U.S. (Hope I got these descriptions somewhat right, Steve.)

And check out the REALTommy Gun -- love it! They also have a boat and ATVs, and other great playthings. Beau was enthralled.

  For my part, I wanted the horses. So lovely, so sweet.

Above left, Beau checks out Steve's numerous medals and commendations.
He is a much-decorated Navy SEAL.

Friday night dinner in downtown Durango, Cosmo restaurant. What a great time.

We capped off the day with a dinner for the four of us, Steve and Lori, and Lori's very beautiful daughter Jamie (group photo above).  Had a fantastic time -- everyone talked a blue streak and laughed and shared and got to know one another better. 

And we promised to stay in touch. Maybe there will be six of us on the road some day soon!

Whew. I am tired. Will end this interminable posting to prep for the next one (I am still behind), which will cover our scary/terrific trip to Silverton, CO; the little cattle drive that stopped us in our tracks on the way to Utah (SO cool); and the amazing Monument Valley. Oh yes -- and the continuing saga of the seemingly never-ending swirling gusting typhooning freaking wind, filled with penetrating dust and grit and dirt. As a bonus, in Utah, it blows RED dirt. Our RV is full of it. Check it out:

There's always a downside, I suppose, to on-the-road freedom.

Tanks, Panky

PS - I have taken so many photos that my camera finally died, in protest.

FTJ, Entry 78: Fabulous Santa Fe

Before getting to Santa Fe... while we were in Las Cruces, we learned we could buy an RV in New Mexico and not have to worry about registering it in Connecticut. Hmmm. That piqued our interest. We looked at a great Winnebago Vectra diesel pusher, but it felt wrong. 

Then, when we got to Santa Fe, we dragged Dave and Joyce to Albuquerque to check out two diesels, a Newmar Kountry Star and a Holiday Rambler. The latter was beautiful, and we took it for a test drive.

The guys check out the drive and handling.

To make a long story short, we liked it and made an offer, but the dealer refused to budge on the price, so we walked away. Sticking with Harvey the Marvey RV for now! More money to party with...

Only problem continued to be the WIND, which was still blowing horribly -- note the storm below.

We drove in this mess....

So much dust on the road from Albuquerque the mountains are obscured!

Santa Fe Smiles

Once the wind died down, we thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful town of Santa Fe, and extended our stay there a day (especially since we wasted a day looking at RVs). Check out the wonderful architectural style of this very cosmopolitan, artsy city.

 

The town's central plaza.

 
We visited the Flea Market (where Native Americans sell their wares) along the veranda of the Palace of Governors, and two beautiful old churches -- including the Loretto Chapel, with the famous "miraculous" spiral staircase. The staircase is shaped in a double helix and ascends twenty feet, making two complete revolutions up to the choir loft without the use of nails or apparent center support. It has been featured on the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries."

The Flea Market is outside the Palacio Real -- a fortress and castle built around 1610.
It housed the government under three flags--Spanish, Mexican, and American.
The city says this is the OLDEST PUBLIC BUILDING in the U.S.

Loretto Chapel

For some reason, Beau STILL keeps taking blurry photos!

I made sure that we visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum -- a BIG treat for me. I was a bit disappointed, however, that we did not have the time to go out to the Ghost Ranch where she spent so many years painting. We are jamming in as much as we can in short periods of time on this trip!

Strolling the town, we also just happened by a gallery devoted to Chuck Jones, the head of Warner Bros. studio for many decades, and the creator of such classic characters as Pepe Le Pew and the crazy martian you see in many WB cartoon classics. He also directed many Bugs Bunny films.

Dave outside the Chuck Jones gallery on a Daffy Duck bench; us in front of the O'Keeffe museum; and another shot of the plaza.

C'est Pepe!

Love the bronze sculpture of the bears -- there is a little bee on the one bear's nose!

Outside the city, we took a trip to one of the 19 Pueblos in the area, but were disappointed to find that the one we visited -- Santa Clara -- was basically a small enclave of rundown private adobe homes selling pottery. We went in one of the houses and an old Indian woman was there watching her TV, and selling some pottery pieces off her living room table.

Weird.

We then traveled up in the mountains to Bandelier National Monument -- a trip that was breathtaking.

Hi Joyce!

I will end with a few views of our RV park, Santa Fe Skies:

A sunset as seen from our RV site.

OMG - After all this, I am STILL behind. Have to fill you in on the visit to the Pecos Historical Monument and then our even more amazing trip to Durango, CO, and our terrific reunion with Steve and Lori, a couple we met in the Keys.

Till next time -- hope I catch up on this #$%!**#  blog soon!

Tanks, Panky

FTJ, Entry 77: The Dustbowl Called Las Cruces

While being awed by our mountainous surroundings in Las Cruces, New Mexico, we all quickly became very tired of the never-ending high winds and dust clouds that blew everywhere nearly night and day, permeating our rigs, our clothes, our cars, and our bodies. Heard of the saying "eat dirt"? We did, every day. Plus, our eyes were crusted with it, our noses dried up (no humidity to speak of here in the desert), and our skin was cracking, dry, and dusty.  Yuck.  Four days of it was more than enough.

The Organ Mountains, as seen from our Las Cruces RV resort.

Note the clouds (or is it DUST?) above the peaks in the background.

 

We saw a few of these artsy water tanks.

 

An unfortunately dark photo of the office at Hacienda RV park in Las Cruces.

Our sites are on the left of this paved lane.

A Screw Loose

In the last blog, I wrote about the treacherous ride through the Guadalupe Mountains. Well, after we arrived in Las Cruces, Beau discovered that all of the mounting bolts on the tow bar (which holds our Malibu as we tow it behind), were dangerously loose. Can you imagine if one of those had given way? The "Bu" could have broken loose and we could have killed someone -- like Dave and Joyce, who traveled behind us!

Beau called the local RV service place and we had Harvey the Marvey RV's tow bar fixed, imposing ourselves on Joyce and Dave most of the day. 

In the evening, we went to dinner at Lorenzo's, a nice Mediterranean restaurant.

A Mediterranean restaurant in a pueblo-style building.

 

Carrie, our waitress at Lorenzo's.

The Santa Fe Trail

When we left Las Cruces, we headed north to Santa Fe. This drive was much nicer, with continuing dramatic scenery and beautiful vistas once again.

Love this sign -- from a town we had reserved in, but then changed our minds. (The winds in Las Cruces convinced us to cancel our trip to Silver City and the night's stay in Truth or Consequences.)

Salt Basin

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Along the way we stopped at a rest area and learned a bit about the area. For instance, we were driving through the Rio Grande Valley, where the Rio Salado Sand Dunes form from sand blown (what a shock) northeastward from the normally dry bed of the Rio Salado (salty river). The Rio Grande is in a deep trench between the uplifted Los Pinos Mountains to the east and the Ladrones Mountains to the northwest. Rocks from the crest of the Ladrones are found four miles deep below the dunes.  Hmmm -- I think that is where they would have found our RVs had we stayed too much longer in Las Cruces!

We also were on the path of the old Camino Real, which wound its way below the basalt buttes of San Acacia. The buttes were called Acomilla and formed the walls of a narrow passage for the Rio Grande, along which hostile Apache frequently waited to ambush travelers in the old days.

Found this online:

El Camino Real del Tierra Adentro ran from Mexico City and the port city of Veracruz to Santa Fe, a distance of over 1,500 miles.  Many of New Mexico's early settlers sailed to the new world from Cadiz, Spain, considered by some to be the actual beginning of El Camino Real.  For 300 years, people from Mexico and Spain settled New Mexico along the famous trail.

Pretty cool.

The views as we approached Santa Fe got better and better, with snow-capped mountains beckoning us forward.

 


 

Albuquerque

More on Santa Fe (which is super cool), and our adventures in seeking a diesel pusher (can anyone say "poorhouse"?) next time....

Tanks, Panky