Sedona, AZ

I don’t know if Jerry took lessons from Kee on our Canyon de Chelly trip or just wanted to get the Tracker all dirty again. With apologies to Kenneth Graham of Wind in the Willows, we took what I call “Jerry’s Wild Ride.” We headed out of Sedona into the canyon on a road strewn with rocks and rife with ruts. Our jerky ride gave us great views of the red rock canyon. Once I get my teeth reattached, I’m sure I’ll have fond memories of the day.

Painted Desert

Last year we drove east with our son Jeff and stopped at the Painted Desert. While always a beautiful place, it’s colors were dimmed by overcast skies. So here, Jeff and all, is what the rich reds, whites, and pinks look like against a bright blue sky.

Canyon de Chelly

A close friend spent his vacations in Chaco Canyon and always shared his delight in the area. Wanting to know what he was talking about, Jerry and I spent an amazing day deep in the fine sand at the bottom of the canyon. We hired a Navaho guide to show us the ruins and give us background on the Anasazi who first lived in the canyon.

























Jerry wisely turned the keys over to Kee whose expertise took us on quite a ride. The white sand is deep and rutted, requiring great skill to navigate. Kee explained the sites and answered our simple and, sometimes, knowing questions. The walls have thousands of petrogylphs (carved) and pictographs (painted) created by former Anasazi, Navaho, and Hopi residents. We also were thrilled by a native flute serenade echoing off the high sandstone walls. As we headed back to the visitor’s center, two mustangs hurried past us to a watering hole. They kindly posed for Jerry.


























After our wonderful wild ride, we drove the rim of the canyon looking down 500-800 feet to our path below.

Billy the Kid Scenic Byway

Leaving Albuquerque, we journeyed south to search for an outlaw on the Billy the Kid Scenic Byway. The small town of Lincoln is a open-air museum of the battles that occurred in the early west. Billy the Kid was involved in a war among those who were attempting to gain control of contracts to sell beef to the Army and the reservations. The street of town held the blood of his victims. The courtroom of his trial and the jail room of his escape still stand. These buildings and others remain as symbols to tales of villainy vs heroism.
























East Coast money was well spent in towns along the trail. In Ruidoso, the Hubbard Museum of the American West was started by heiress, Anne C. Stradling, who moved to the southwest where she enjoyed horses and life on the range. She donated her private collection which included personal antiques as well as turn of the century carriages to the museum. The museum had another photo exhibit that grabbed Jerry’s attention. The temporary exhibit on mining presented well researched documents that taught us about New Mexico mining and added to our knowledge of California’s gold rush.












Another heiress, this one from Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, and married to a Bancroft, also moved to southern New Mexico, to the town of Alto. There she spent over $20 million building a magnificent theater adorned with glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly. We enjoyed a tour of the building and wished there were a performance during our time in the area.
















With an improvement in the weather, we visited a lava flow. The Valley of Fire in southern New Mexico is the result of lava oozing up rather than an eruption. While not as dramatic as sites on the West Coast, it did allow us direct contact with the lava.



From looking at the earth, we decided to look up, very far up. We visited the Very Large Array, the radio telescope system that was in the movie Contact . There was no one at the visitor’s center to answer my naive questions, so we relied on the label copy along the trail. I learned a lot, but have even more questions. What I found most fascinating were the huge machines used to move these 270-ton telescopes along railroad lines. We want to come back and see it in operation and find someone to answer those simple questions.

Albuquerque

Our caravan ended with a lox and bagel breakfast Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the balloons that were scheduled to fly in a mass ascension as the last event of the fiesta were unable to soar due to strong winds, as was true for Friday and Saturday. After breakfast we said goodbye to new friends and headed off on our own random roads toward home.
Those of you who have followed our travels all along have notice certain threads in the fabric of this narrative, spectacular scenery, Native American Culture, and lots of food. We now add an additional thread, museums. Albuquerque has many wonderful museums and we sampled several of them.
We started with the Balloon Fiesta Museum near where we were camped. There we enjoyed a tour learning about the history of ballooning, especially Transatlantic and around-the-world attempts. The most fascinating story was about the test pilot who parachuted from 102,000 feet, not once, twice, but three times. This was a test to see if an astronaut could bail out if need be. Believe it or not, the man’s still flying.

Down in Old Town, the Albuquerque Museum has a lovely sculpture garden on its front lawn. The biennial exhibit did not appeal to Jerry but the photography exhibited got his attentions.

We ended our first museum day at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. This was an excellent review of all we had experienced on the caravan. Our appreciation of pueblo art and our improved understanding of native American history has been a benefit of the caravan. We gained so much information on the tour, we were tested. We both earned above average scores, of course.

On another day, and for our last museum in Albuquerque, we took a recommendation from Jim and Jackie, Albuquerque friends of Steve and Rita. We have learned a lot about the Spanish role in New Mexico, both good and bad. Their influence on art is well displayed at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Sorry, no pictures allowed inside. We also wished we could have seen a show at the Roy Disney Theater. We consoled our disappointment with a very good Mexican buffet at the museum. (Notice the food thread is still here.)

Carlsbad Caverns Nat. Park

El Paso

From Tucson, we drove on to Texas to visit with Dave's parents. Anna Lee and I have been having a debate as to whether or not we had slept in Texas before. This was important because sleeping in a state is necessary to have that state's sticker put on the side of the RV. Anyway, we are finally now legal because El Paso qualifies. Not only that, we had a great time. Joe and Nan took us on a tour which included a great view spot where we could look a long way into Mexico. Then we went to tour the UT El Paso campus. Saw some great art in their museum and spent time in the library. Then we had a delicious dinner and went to their house where Anna Lee actually won at "fizbin," our name for a game they never let us win. We all called Dave and Cheryl to annoy them full blast with both sets of parents, such fun. After dessert, Joe had to have a rematch which he won.

Jerry, Anna Lee, Joe & Nan.
The unique Bhutanian architecture in the library entrance of UT El Paso.

Biosphere II

We have enjoyed four wonderful days with friends from our Maritimes trip last year. Bonnie and Joe gave us the king’s tour of Tucson. We started with another architectural vision, Biosphere II, which is now a laboratory for Univ. of Arizona. The idea of living within the confines of a glassed enclosed miniature earth is both revolutionary and controversial. The tour covered both of these views. The interpersonal relationships are still being studied as members of the team write their own books with their own views of what happened in the two years they resided in Biosphere.

Ted de Grazia’s home and museum

Artist Ted de Grazia’s home and studio was filled with charming paintings of Tohono O’odham children and dark paintings of personal and political protest.

Kitt Peak

Our tour of the four-meter telescope at Kitt Peak was probably over my head but the guide was patient with my questions and we did learn a great deal. Of course, the view was good, too.

Cacti at the High Desert Museum and in Tucson

A blooming cactus or two.

Mission San Xavier del Bac

Mission San Xavier del Bac is a beautiful late 18th century church still serving the Tohono O’odham.

The bad guys won the toss and elected to receive

Our last tour was into the depths of a decommissioned Titan Missile Site. This tour also had a great guide though the subject matter was again over my head.

Dinner with friends

We dined well with Bonnie and Joe, enjoying delicious meals in their home as well as sampling wonderful Tucson cuisine. They are cat lovers, so we invited one of their cats to join us at Miguel’s. We all licked our plates clean.

The next morning

The view west

The big dust storm

This blog entry is beginning to be a weather channel report. We spent our first night in Phoenix surround by lightning and thunder. All 360 degrees of the sky put on a light show for us. The second night we stayed in as a thirty-mile wide sandstorm blew in. We were on the outskirts but our pictures show the missing mountains out our window and their return the next morning.

The Suite at Arcosanti

The Vaults at Arcosanti

Arcosanti

Architecture is one of our themes as we travel. Acrosanti, a creation of Paulo Soleri, is a work in progress/lab for alternatives to our dependence on cars in our daily lives. The plan is to live, work, shop, and have entertainment all within adjacent buildings. This project was started in the seventies and interns come to work and test their own ideas. There is a wonderful suite (a bit rugged) with an amazing view that would be an unusual place to stay (Francis Ford Coppola stayed there).

Sunset at Wupatki Nat. Monument

Door at Lamaki Pueblo

Wupatki Pueblo

Wupatki National Monument

Well fed, we toured Wupatki National Monument. The ruins were photographic as you can see, but we were disturbed by the fact that the Park Service kicked out the last residents in this area in the early sixties after promising them they could stay until they died. It seemed they didn’t have deeds to prove their people had "owned" this land for over 800 years. A display in the Visitor’s Center has letters written as recently as 2005 from Native People wanting to move back.

Bicycle Mural

Flagstaff

Our entrance to Flagstaff was announced by the closest lightning and thunder we have ever experienced. That led to a typical rain storm for the evening.

We started our day with a lovely 10K walk. This mural was fitting as we shared the trail with bicyclists headed to the university.

Hungry from all our walking, yes food again, we enjoyed Navajo tacos at Cameron Trading Post. They were big enough for two, so leftovers tomorrow.

Las Vegas

All I intended to say about our second stop was "Las Vegas, HOT". Then we dined at David Burke’s at the Venetian. This was the best combination of food, service and presentation we have experienced in years. There are no pictures so visualize a room primarily in red with Humpty Dumpty’s scattered about. Hang in there, this is not a foolishness. The servers and busboys have real personalities, not the cloying kind, the conversational but unintrusive kind.

And the food. Starting with a Crunchy and Angry lobster that was mmm (mouth too busy for words). Then it was a contest between Jerry’s sesame crusted white tuna and the salmon on a artichoke/carrot reduction stew with spinach gnocchi. My mouth waters at the memory. Though the dessert menu added great temptation, we were virtuous. Then the waiter brought out a brandy sniffer overflowing with cotton candy. Now I don’t like cotton candy though Jerry does. To limit his consumption, I sacrificed and ate more than my share.

This post may be a tease but for anyone headed for Vegas, we cannot recommend the restaurant too strongly.

Devil's Postpile

 

Rainbow Falls

 

Inyo Crater

 

Mammoth Consolidated Mine