 |
| Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque |
From
the Grand Canyon North Rim and Phoenix we started our long trek east and south
back toward Florida for the winter. We
had planned a few more stops along the way, with a long stay in Albuquerque and
the surrounding New Mexico highlights.
 |
| Bob Standing on the Corner |
While
we drove east from Flagstaff AZ on I-40, we deviated slightly to go thru
Winslow AZ on Historic Route 66. Bob
likes Jackson Brown’s music, particularly the song “Standing on the Corner”, so
he wanted to take his picture standing on the corner with Jackson Brown’s stature
while listening to never-ending song from the tourist “trap” on the corner - a
brief moment of fun for Bob looking for that famous blond in the flatbed truck.
 |
| La Ventana Arch, El Malpais Ntl Monument |
We
made a short stop in Grants, New Mexico, where we visited El Malpais National
Monument, a badlands area caused by 60,000 years of volcanic lava flows that
filled a long river valley, making it almost impossible to transverse. In
addition to the lava flows, it contained volcanic craters and cinder cones and
lots of ash.
 |
| 1692 Spanish Grafitti, El Morro Ntl Mon |
Just
beyond the badlands to the west, was El Morro National Monument, a high sandstone
cliff standing straight out of the plains and seen for miles around, used by
travelers for centuries as a major landmark.
The most welcomed aspect of the landmark was the reliable, year-round
pool of water at the base of the cliff (it was not a spring, but rain water),
which was often life-saving for the travelers as they traversed the arid high
desert. Graffiti, in the form of
petroglyphs and pictographs from the ancestral Puebloans, and names and dates
carved in the cliffs from the Spanish, the US Military during the Indian wars,
and finally the European Settlers…they all left their mark. It was fun to walk along the cliff base and
read some of the entries, many of which were quite eloquent.
 |
| Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque |
We
spent 10 days in Albuquerque, and enjoyed quality time with our good friends
from St. Augustine, Dom and Jan Vita, who were visiting Jan’s sister Karen, who
lives in Albuquerque. The reason for the
timing of our visit to Albuquerque was to be able to attend Balloon Fiesta, the
largest international ballooning event in the world.
 |
| GloDeo, Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque |
We
selected two events to experience. The
first was the Unusual Shape GlowDeo, which we enjoyed with Dom, Jan and Karen. The Unusual Shape balloons are NOT the
traditional round or tear-drop shape, but were all “characters” like Darth
Vader, the Wells Fargo stagecoach, a NM cactus, etc. It is
held in the evening, when the winds are usually too strong for balloons to
ascend into the air. The balloons are tethered
to the ground, but still filled with hot air.
It starts at
sunset and goes well into the dark night.
When the balloons light the propane gas to keep the balloons filled with
hot air, the balloons “light up” from the inside. As you watch, the balloons appear to be
flashing on and off from the inside.
Every five minutes or so, they countdown the time, and all the balloons
light up at the same time. It was a fun experience,
and we walked through the huge field looking at all the various balloon shapes. We had only finished half the field and
balloons when it was over.
 |
| Mass Ascension, Balloon Fiesta |
We
got up at 3am to drive to the Balloon Fiesta for the Saturday morning mass
ascension, our second fiesta event. Over
500 balloons, mostly colorful round or tear-drop shaped balloons (but some of
the unusual shapes also), ascend from the field. The “Dawn Patrol”, an early group of about 10
balloons rises about 6am to test the air flows for the remaining balloons. About 7am, the rest of the balloons start to
rise. The balloons take off in rows,
with the individual balloons staggered so that only one balloon rises at any
time, to minimize mid-air collisions on takeoff. It was incredible to watch. By the time we left about 9am, the sky was
filled overhead with balloons….the wind died about half way through the event,
and many balloons were just hovering over the field and actually landing nearby. It was unbelievable to see so many colorful
balloons right overhead…it was like a sky full of stars. If you have not had the chance to see this
event, it might be one for your “bucket list”.
 |
| San Felipe de Neri, Old Town Albuquerque |
We
enjoyed a lot more that Albuquerque had to offer. We loved visiting “Old Town” with Dom, Jan
and Karen. The heart of Old Town is a historic plaza, with the oldest mission
church in Albuquerque, San Felipe de Neri. The Plaza itself was small. When Albuquerque was first settled by Duke Albuquerque,
the Plaza and Church were the heart of the town. When the railroad came to town, the center of
town moved about 2 miles away. The plaza became very quiet and surrounded only by
homes. Over time, it became somewhat of
a tourist destination and glitzy, but has now converted to a somewhat artsy, restaurant
area…a nice place to stroll around and just relax.
 |
| Old Town Plaza, Albuquerque |
New Mexico is known for its own cuisine
based on red and green chilies. We had a great lunch on the terrace at a really
old restaurant which has “certified” New Mexico chilies – “certified” green chilies
only come from Hatch NM. Hot, but tasty – wish we could get them fresh
in Florida.
 |
| Dragon Lantern, Chinese Lantern Festival |
We also spent an evening with our friends
at the Chinese Lantern Festival; a small venue with a lot of Chinese themed
lanterns, or shapes with lights, that focused on themes special or spiritual to
the Chinese culture. We walked around
looking at the many displays, and then enjoyed a show that featured Chinese
dance and culture. Interestingly, the
“Chinese” themes included a Tibetan dance, in addition to the expected Mongolian
and other more usual Chinese art forms. Tibet
was invaded by China in 1950 under the orders of Mao Zedong, and remains
occupied to this day.
 |
| Albuquerque Vista, Sandia Crest |
We
drove to Santa Fe to visit that historic town, by driving on the eastern side
of the mountains that tower over Albuquerque.
The “Turquois Trail” included a stop at the top of Sandia Crest
overlooking Albuquerque, for a fabulous vista, and wandered through the
numerous mining towns. The mining
efforts include the “most expensive” type of turquois, silver and gold, but
those towns now focus on the tourist trade.
We passed many art, craft and jewelry studios on the way; another income
source for the locals.
 |
| Saint Francis de Asis, Santa Fe |
Santa
Fe is the capital of NM and a college town, with all the usual college, culture
and government type buildings. We spent
all our time in the historic area which included the “oldest house” in North
America, the oldest church in Santa Fe (a mission church), the “newer’
cathedral, and of course the Governors “Palace” (with floor windows to show the
original dirt floors). The archeological
excavations and restorations of these buildings have all been done quite well,
and the history is very interesting. Because
St. Augustine is the oldest continuously lived in city in the US, we researched
the claim of the “oldest house”. It is
not, according to Google, the oldest residential house which is actually in
Fairbanks MA, built in 1637. However,
the Governors Palace was built in 1610.
The
most interesting historical venue was the “counter cultural” exhibit at the New
Mexico Museum of History. It showed the history
and impact of the mid-to-late 1960s idealist counter culture, or hippie
revolution. Many of these free spirit
hippies ended up in Taos NM, an under-populated area where they could set up
collective farms and communities. It was
a “blast from the past” to go through that exhibit and see what some of our
generation was doing, while others of us were serving in Vietnam. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed in
the exhibit; it would have been fun to share some of the memories the
exhibition brought back to both of us.
 |
| Sanctuario de Chimayo, Chimayo |
We
took the “High Road to Taos” scenic byway to Taos on another day, and enjoyed
the Truncas Mountains as we drove into Taos.
We stopped at the Sanctuario de
Chimayo, an old mission church in the countryside that is legendary for healing
the sick. The historic church has five
beautiful, wall-sized, hand painted wood panels that are the entire decoration
for the otherwise bare adobe walls. A small room located next to the sacristy features
a hole in the floor from which “cure seekers” pull handfuls of earth to rub on
their bodies. We didn’t see any cure seekers while we were there…only tourists
like us. Again, we cannot share this as pictures were not allowed.
 |
| Taos Pueblo, Taos, NM |
After
realizing that Taos has become just another ski town with a shopping problem,
we spent most of our visit at the Taos Pueblo.
In the Taos culture, a Pueblo can be a village, a house, or houses. It truly is one of the oldest continuously
lived in “homes” in the US. Initially
founded in about 1000 AD, this adobe pueblo has been expanded and occupied
continuously since that time. It
consists of several “sections”, including a large five-level pueblo consisting
of many rooms. The pueblo is still being
used today, although not many of the “homes” are still used for that
purpose. The Historic Pueblo has no
running water, sewers, bathrooms, electric or heat or AC. They have been modernized in that doors from
the street are used to enter the buildings, rather than ladders coming into the
home through the roof (for defense). Only
about 150 people live full time within the Pueblo. Most of the pueblos are now shops or
restaurants for tourists visiting the pueblo.
Other families owning homes in the north or south buildings live in
summer homes near their fields, and in more modern homes outside the old walls
but still within the Pueblo land. There
are over 1900 Taos Indians living on Taos Pueblo lands.
 |
| Rio Grande River, Low Road to Taos |
We
drove the “Low Road to Taos” back to Albuquerque; the road followed the Rio
Grande River and through the Rio Grande River Valley, all the way from Taos to
Albuquerque. The valley is full of agriculture and it is easy to see why the
Ancestral Puebloans moved from the dryer Mesa Verde and Four Corners area to
this area about 1300 AD (see our last blog post for more information).
 |
| Petroglyphs, Petroglyphs Ntl Mon |
We hiked the Petroglyphs National Monument in
Albuquerque to see numerous petroglyphs left by the ancestral Puebloans as art,
directions, spiritual, and just plain graffiti.
This is the largest “collection” of Petroglyphs in the US. The large basalt boulders from the lava flows
provide huge, flat surfaces on which to draw.
Additionally, the desert patina causes a dark coating on the rock which
is removed with stone tools to reveal the lighter rock below, the perfect
canvas for petroglyphs. The petroglyphs
have been dated from several thousand years ago to recent, but the majority are
from ancestral Puebloans from about 1000 AD to 1700 AD, with a significant
increase about 1300 AD, when there was a huge migration into the area.
 |
| TePee Curios, Tucumcari NM |
We
left Albuquerque on Interstate 40 which parallels the historic Route 66. We
travelled sections of Route 66 where most of the historic buildings along the
way are just derelict buildings and signs, left to crumble in the dry desert
air. We stopped at a couple of towns,
but the best preserved and restored buildings and signs were in Tucumcari
NM. Tucumcari has made an effort to
restore many of the fluorescent signs, and building fronts, even adding murals
to capture the essence of the road during the 30s, 40s and 50s. We had lunch at Dels, one of the original
restaurants, which has been serving since 1954. It would have been great to see some of the
signs lit at night.
 |
| Phil, Laurie and Bob |
We
are now headed east and traveling fast to get back to Florida and some
warmth. We stopped to spend two
delightful days with our Laguna Beach friends Laurie and Phil Owens, who
recently moved into a beautiful new house north of Dallas. We shared good memories, food and wine with
them, and helped them celebrate Laurie’s mom’s, Francis, 99th
Birthday.
 |
| Illinois Monument, Vicksburg Ntl Military Park |
Vicksburg
was another one day stop. Bob has always
wanted to visit the Vicksburg National Military Park. Like Gettysburg, the victory for the Union at
Vicksburg was instrumental in ending the Civil War. Vicksburg was critical for the Union to
control the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two. The city was so well fortified, that after
several attempts, Grant realized that any more direct assaults could not
succeed; therefore, he imposed a siege instead.
After only a 2-month long siege, with the city cut off from supplies,
the battle was won by the Union.
 |
| Downtown Vicksburg MS |
Vicksburg
itself is a cute, true southern town, with several antebellum homes
nearby. Although we didn’t get a chance
to visit any of them, we did visit the Corps of Engineers Lower Mississippi
River Basin Museum; Bob, a prior Corps employee, really wanted to see it. It had a great overview of the historic
flooding on the Mississippi River, and the impact the Corps of Engineers had on
reducing flooding by building levees, dykes, dams, and other flood control
structures post the 1927 great flood. Unfortunately, in 2011, another historic
flood took place anyway. We enjoyed a
glass of wine and views of the historic Yazoo River flowing into the mighty
Mississippi River from the roof top bar of the tallest building in Vicksburg
(10th floor).
 |
| Linda and Mildred |
Our
last stop on the way to Florida was to visit Bob’s aunt, Mildred Whitlock, in
Tuscaloosa Alabama. We enjoyed dinner
with her before heading south to Florida.
It is always good to visit with friends and family, and it is one of the
advantages of our journey that we will certainly miss.
We
are now back in Florida. Our 3 year
adventure has come to an end. Before we
go back to St. Augustine, we will be spending a little time exploring housing
opportunities on the west coast of Florida.
We
will do one more post, with our thoughts and feelings, and perhaps some
statistics about this 3-year adventure. We
continue to thank God for his blessings and the opportunity to explore this
beautiful country and meet so many wonderful Americans along the way.
Feel free to pass the blog link on
to anyone who might be interested.
Best to all,
Linda and Bob
