Well we finally got out of New Mexico and are sitting in Amarillo Texas but not sitting too easily as the area is under a severe thunderstorm warning - PING PONG SIZE HAIL - and a tornado watch - yikes!
Hopefully it wil pass us by but nevertheless we have parked close to the severe weather shelter AKA the brick built toilets.
On a lighter note it is pleasant to see cattle grazing on grass instead of dodging the cactus in the desert.
Before we left New Mexico we visited a couple of unusual attractions.
The first was Madrid where some of the film the Wild Hogs was fimed.
It is an old mining town which has become an artists colony.
This is the cafe from the film.
Anyone seen the hose and my cable ties?
.
But some of the stuff was more conventional.
The second was Tinkertown museum. It is a living testimonial to a man called Ross Ward’s belief in self determination, independence and his ability to carve, paint, create and improvise out of scrap. At age 57, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and passed away November 13, 2002.
This car was one of his last pieces
Manyof his earlier pieces are animated using old washing machine motors, cranks wire and lots of ingenuity.
However this was the exibit that created some wonder in me.
What is a 35 foot wooden boat built in Malden in England doing in a shed in the desert in New Mexico USA.
The story of it's voyage to it's current resting place would be interesting.
Also called the Gathering of the Nations it is held in the PIT
at the Uni building in Albuquerque. Even the bikers got in on the action. They called the run to the pit “Rolling Thunder” lots of indians on Harleys.
I liked some of the humour demonstrated on the articles we saw for sale, even custom skate boards.
One bumper sticker I nearly bought reads “ I am the rez boy your mum warned you about.!”.
We saw the entry of the dancers, all 3000+ of them, led by the eagle feather staff. We were allowed to photograph much of the proceedings but if an eagle feather falls to the ground all recording is to stop while the special ceremony to recover the feather takes place.
The music for the dancing is supplied by groups of drummers around the edge of the pit.
CAROL'S BIT.
Today was the last day of the gathering of the nations. This is where the Native American nations from the US and Canada come together for a big pow wow. There are competitions for the best dancers in several groups, a miss native America, and best regalia. There is a lot of singing and dancing, and some of the singers, mostly girls have very powerful voices.
The regalia is very colourful and inventive, although not always traditional. This year's colour seems to be flourescent lime green or ditto in candy pink.
A lot of traditional dress though. Feathers are used a lot, and the head-dresses especially on the men are magnificent. They wear large bells around their ankles that sound in time with the drums.
One of the dances is to see how much the girls can make their dress swing, and this dance is seen a lot in films.
The dresses have a lot of long fringes made from wool or leather thong, that swing with the drums and gather momentum. Silver or tin cones are sewn onto the dresses in 'shimmy fringes' that glitter and move with the music. The sound stays in time with the beat of the drums.
Around the outside of the main arena are Indian market stalls.
These stalls can only sell genuine Indian made stuff, and I made a dent in my credit card with a heavy weight 'wolf' 'bracelet, and pendant.
The Indians are very polite and courteous , and tend to take the 'micky' out of themselves in a gentle way. The stall holders always said hello, and said 'thank you for buying from us' or shook my hand.
From what was being said from the podium, it is very obvious that they haven't forgotten what was done to them , but they all stick together and help each other. The money raised from this gathering will help the Indian people, and of course they have their casino's for the white man to lose his money in. The goods on sale aren't cheap either. There are some excellent silversmiths here and their pieces of jewelry are beautiful, custom made if required.
This gathering is something that should not be missed , and is unique
John's Bit
The number of seriously overweight people was quite astounding. Mind you we saw that the standard meal of Fry bread and full sugar coke on offer from the food court must be a contributory factor.
The organization was slick, it had to be with hundreds of tribes, 3000+ dancers and many singers to showcase. Everybody seemed to be good humoured and the M/C kept his cool even when people were tardy.
One of the most recent additions to the National Parks, Tent Rocks was not initially on our list of “ must see places “ but as we had a few days to fill before the big Albuquerque Pow Wow at the end of April; we decided to have a look.
The access instructions were a little off putting, we had to drive up through a pueblo, then the road quality dropped to gravel with a rider that it was not suitable or recommended for Rvs. However we gave it a go, taking it very slowly on the gravel section as it was badly washboarded.
Again the weather forecast was for us to be on the edge of a big cold frontal system which was dropping loads of snow up in Denver and some in Northern New Mexico. It had been cold overnight and it was a bit gray and threatening as we drove up, however a few flakes of snow greeted us as we poked our noses outside the Trek. We retreated to the Trek, had a warm drink and as the flakes seemed to be sporadic got togged up and headed up the trail.
The rock formations were 'well weird'.
Some even looked like the KKK turned to stone.
Millions of years ago, a volcanic eruption had laid down several hundred feet of soft rock. Later on these layers had been covered by harder rock. Now as erosion wears away the hills sometimes a little hard cap protects the softer rock beneath it and you get these tepee shaped formations.
As we climbed higher we entered into a slot canyon which eventually narrowed to the point where I had to turn sideways to get through.
There were some points where the hard rock caps had toppled down into the slot and were jammed across the slot, creating a roof and a feeling of doom as we ducked underneath, This tested Carol's claustrophobia but as she could always see the light she kept on going. But as the snow was still falling we kept our eyes on the sky. I am sure that there was no risk of a sudden flash flood but we were both conscious of the pictures and stories of people trapped and swept away in such canyons before.
The snow flurries kept up and as we climbed, we saw other hikers coming down just wearing fleeces and they were clearly wet through and cold. The danger of snow and rain was obvious and had been widely forecast but people still went hill walking without proper clothing. Still I am sure they all had their mobiles and were expecting a rapid rescue if they called 911. After all a woman had called 911 last week when the local fast food joint failed to satisfy her shrimp appetite and refused her any more!
The dangers were bought home to us as the skies darkened and wet snow started to fall heavily.
As we got back to our RV park we had a couple of inches with snow still falling. We even lost our satellite as the dish sported a layer of the white stuff.
We are back in shorts and Tees with sun tan creme but a reminder of winter has blown through New Mexico. There were 15+inches of snow in Taos. We were there last week. But we escaped with some Snow Sleet Rain and Hail.
So in the sunshine we visited the Botanical Gardens Zoo and Aquarium. Carol quickly entered into conversation with this big box fish.
A rare white rhino.
The zoo had quite a few endangered species in its cages. I suppose I am being unkind when I call them cages, the enclosures are well laid out and most animals seemed happy enough. However I hate to see birds without the room to fly freely.
We came into Santa Fe and were surprised to see a city center built using Adobe style construction. Later on we found out it is the law passed in 1958, whereby new and rebuilt buildings, especially those in designated historic districts, must exhibit a Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, with flat roofs and other features suggestive of the area's traditional adobe construction.
The town was formally founded and made a capital in 1610, making it the oldest capital city in what is today the United States.
We visited the governors mansion, now a museum, and saw the mud bricks from 400 years ago still holding the roof up.
Buildings like this old hotel have changed little in outward appearance in the last 75 years.
We found a really nice RV park and have used the bus service to get into town and explore the many art galleries in and around the city center. On one road the concentration of galleries is such that it claims to outdo London or Paris in terms of art per square mile. We some rubbish but also some realy impresice and original work.
After Santa Fe we are heading to a little known National Monument called Tent Rocks
then on to Albuquerque for the big Pow Wow in late April.<
Just south of Los Alamos we entered Bandelier, another canyon full of ruins.
In 1880 men from Cochiti Pueblo guided Adolph Bandelier, a self taught Swiss anthropologist, down the walls of Frijoles canyon to the homes of their forefathers. We got a chance to see these homes today.
The carbon dating from fires in the canyon show that it has been inhabited for 10,000 years. Early hunter gatherers found reliable water, year round game and a wider variety of vegetation than the mesa tops.
The earliest dwellings were probably modified caves. The very soft 'tufa' rock was easy to work and there were many hollows which could be used as starting points.
Later on additional rooms were built out from the cliffs and the rows of holes for the roof beams can be seen today, sometimes three stories high.
This room was the third level and has storage alcoves, windows, a fire pit and a smoke hole. Some rooms were part of an extensive suite with connecting doors, others were so small that only a child could have used them.
Access below by ladder would have been the normal way in and out
but the agile would have used the rock ladders to make their way up to the mesa top.
Over time people built in many places in and around Frijoles canyon. Over 3,000 archaeological sites have been discovered in Bandelier National Monument.
The great house seems to have been the last to have been inhabited. It is circular in form unlike the others we have seen which were rectangular. Only one of the three kivas built inside the great house has been excavated.
“Spiritually, our ancestors still live here at Bandelier. You see reminders of their presence here – their homes, their kivas, and their petroglyphs. As you walk in their footsteps, value the earth beneath you and show everything the same respect we do when we re-visit this sacred place.”First nation elders.
STEPS and MORE STEPS Carol was wondering if there were many more steep sets of steps.
FIRE
On May 4, 2000, Bandelier National Monument fire management personnel ignited a prescribed burn, Upper Frijoles 1&5, which has become known as the Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire, near the summit of Cerro Grande. This prescribed fire was based upon a flawed plan and required fire management policies were not followed. This fire progressed without problems until on May 5 at approximately 1300 hours when slopover and spotting resulted in the burn boss declaring it a wildfire.
This tree was one of the many badly burned in that fire, but still alive.
DEER
As we walked out of the head of the canyon we came across this litle group of mule deer.
Those words were uttered by Robert Oppenheimer after witnessing the successful detonation of the 'gadget' as they called the first ever atomic bomb.
He recognised the potential of the new technology in 1939 and was appointed Coordinator of Rapid Rupture, a title that delighted him, by the bomb committee that Franklin Roosevelt had established to shepherd nuclear weapons research, Oppenheimer surveyed the work of bomb design being conducted at small laboratories scattered across the United States, none of them allowed to talk to each other, and proposed that the separate projects be assembled in one place under one director. That place was Los Alamos.
We are in Los Alamos and walking the same streets as Ferme, Teller, Bohr and Oppenheimer did in the 40s when this town did not exist on the maps. Mail went through a PO box in Santa Fe and censorship was ironclad.
We even walked down the street called Bathtub Row, so called because they were the only ones with tubs when the scientists were housed there.
This was the one Oppenheimer lived in.
The museum in town was excellent covering the early days of the nuclear race and then showing the problems the USA faces in maintaining their aging nuclear stockpile, without being able to set them off.
They also had an excellent area showing the efforts being made to clean up the radioactive debris left behind during the construction and testing of nuclear weapons in and around Los Alamos and in the Nevada proving grounds.
The aerial pictures showing the aftermath of years of underground testing were the eerie reminder of Robert Oppenheimer's words “ I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
