Red Rocks in the Winter!

Praying Hands

We didn't find John Wayne here, but we surely felt traces of his ghost.

Even though I lived in Arizona for about 3 1/2 years (you'll hear more about that later) I had never visited some of the most beautiful parts of the state. I was able to fill in some major gaps on our Excellent Adventure.

Mileage: (I WILL put this in when we get to California!)

States: 36 ... THREE MORE .... Colorado, Utah and Arizona added to the 33 from the last post. Four corners was a GREAT way to add states

Saturday, January 16

This day didn't start out at all well. It was cold in Bloomington, New Mexico, up in the northwest corner near Farmington. As I mentioned in the last post, we had explored the Aztec Ruins (misnamed as no Aztecs were ever really there it is thought), and had a quiet evening. Gary had noticed that the sun had melted some snow, and the ground was a little soft and moist (not quite muddy) when he parked Buster. Well it definitely got down to freezing overnight, probably 25 degrees, and the next morning when we went to leave, he found the jacks (the supporting posts that descend from the motorhome to help level it) had frozen into the ground and wouldn't come up. I think he first tried chipping at them with a long screw driver, but ultimately resorted to coming in, boiling water, and throwing that on them. After about 30 minutes of effort, we were thawed from the earth, and ready to go. In town, we found a fuel station and pulled up to the pump. Again, after playing with the nozzle, etc., finally the attendant came out and confirmed that that pump wasn't working. There was no sign. Gary drove around to the other side of the of the station, and initiated using still another pump for the car. He went into the station convenience store to leave his credit card, as requested, and someone came up and used his pump .... and the gas was charged to his card! Man ... it was a frustrating morning.

As we got going, our predominant impression was, yes, we are in the high desert in the middle of winter. Lots of snow on the ground, though the roads were fortunately clear. And we knew it would stay cold .... less than 36 degrees at night, so we filled out propone tank .... our best heat source in those temperatures.

I had been to Four Corners before with my parents, and I thought it as more of a National Monument or something, but it's just a round cement marker with the flags of the four states mounted there. And then there are concessions with wares from each of the four states: New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. They weren't all completely staffed and operational on this January day, but we shopped around anyway. We bought silver earrings in New Mexico and a silver disc (pendant) divided into four quadrants with UT, CO, NM, and AZ lettered on it purchased in Utah. We bought a sand painting with images from the four states depicted (the image of Kokapeli for Utah, mountains for Colorado, red rocks for Arizona, and a yucca plant for New Mexico) in Arizona and then we bought arrowheads in Colorado.

As we are focused on trying to travel to all lower 48 states, it was really fun to get 3 new states so easily!

We continued north and west on the wintry day which remained slightly overcast. While it didn't look like it was going to snow, and that wasn't in the forecast which we had checked very carefully, it remained at about 34 degrees for most of the day. It actually added to the eery beauty of this very interesting and inspirational area.

We really enjoyed the day, putting on a few miles,

I think around 280, on our circular route through Four Corners and through Monument Valley. We got fuel in Kayenta and on a walk over to a Navajo store I literally got stuck in the mud. I had to step out of my shoes, pull them up with my hands, and walk to the store in my stocking feet. Also, unfortunately, I had chosen this day to wear my winter white cotton cashmere pants ..... THREE washings to get the mud out!!!

Then we made our way to Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona on the Navajo reservation. I had called ahead and they assured me that one loop of the campground was open. We pulled in at dusk, and found the open loop ..... but we were the only campers there. There were no services (it was a no-fee campground) and we felt quite the intrepid ones turning out the lights in such silence all under our own power: generator for electricity and propane for heat.

Sunday, January 17

Sunday morning was a beautiful, bright day, and we thought Canyon de Chelly was simply inspiring. Archeological evidence shows that people have lived in these canyons for nearly 5,000 years, longer than anyone has lived on the Colorado plateau, and 3,000 years before Christ. The canyon walls afforded shelter and images on the canyon walls tell their stories. These ancestors of the Pueblo and Hopi Indians were called Anasazi: a Navajo word meaning ancient ones. The Hopi and other tribes spent summers in the canyon, hunting and farming. And most recently the Navajo arrived. At the mouth of the canyon, near Chinle, the walls are only 30 feet high, but deeper into the canyon they rise 1,000 feet above the floor.

You can see the mouth of the canyon in this first photo, and get a feel for the vegetation.

Then, if you look closely, you can see dwellings in the walls:

This last image is of Spider Rock. It is named for Spider Woman, a Navajo woman who scolds little children. She is said to live on the top of Spider Rock, and naughty children are flown up there by elders who are watching from the walls of the canyon. The sun-bleached area on the top of Spider Rock are said to be the bones of the naughtiest children!

We had a lovely winter morning driving along the south rim of Canyon de Chelly, and stopped at the ranger station before we left. In the lobby, a gentleman, Frank , was selling silver jewelry including a lovely teardrop pendant that was a native glass design on one side, and was the silver sculpted image of a mother holding an infant on the other side. He told us he uses the mother and child image in reference to his mother whose picture was taken while holding her older son on the floor of Canyon de Chelly by Ansel Adams in 1942. He has a copy of an Ansel Adams book with the photo in it. And then he has another picture of his mother holding the book in the same spot 50 years later, in 1992 at the age of 90+. He gave me a copy of this picture and wrote the story on the back. I've put the picture here.

It's very cool .... and the pendant is very pretty. I'll have to have Gary take a picture of me wearing it.

We returned to the campground to see our solitary Buster!

We travelled on down Arizona 191 to the Hubbel Trading Post ... a hub for years for trading of local corn, weavings, baskets, etc. Today they have llamas at the Trading Post.

We had one final thing we wanted to see, just east of Holbrook off of Interstate 40: The Painted Desert and The Petrified Forest. But they are pretty strict that you need to be in your car heading toward an exit by 5 pm, and we got there about 4:15. So we decided to see what we could see, go on over to Holbrook and stay all night, and then come back and finish the next morning. So that's what we did. The lighting was good to get some feel for The Painted Desert. These layers of color are attributed to mineral content and different rates at which the sediments were laid down. Iron, aluminum and manganese oxides are some of the compounds found here. And the visual impact of these sediments is exquisitely brought out by the unique desert light. Here are a couple of images we saw:

Monday, January 18

We knew we had to get through the Arizona White Mountains by mid-day, as there was a prediction for a giant snow storm in another day or so. So we returned to The Petrified Forest and saw some more of the amazing things there on Monday morning. Tall conifers grew along the banks of the many streams that crossed the floodplain. Climate change, volcanic eruption and swollen streams carried them to adjacent floodplains where there were buried by a mix of silt, mud and volcanic ash. This sediment cut off oxygen and slowed the trees decay. Silica-lade groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood with silica deposits. Eventually the silica crystallized into quartz, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood.

There are many beautiful examples of this in the Petrified Forest National Park. On the left is Jasper Forest where erosion of a high rocky bluff left hundreds of petrified logs once encased in the bluff strewn across this valley below.

(Liz is obviously having a good time wearing her Texas cowboy hat!)

We encountered a really nice ranger in the Petrified Forest Ranger station who, I think, felt compelled to educate a school child who was obviously not in

school. He convinced her to try to acquire the Jr. Ranger patch and badge for this site ..... something we are now learning is available at many National Parks

though you need to ask about it apparently. She had a short workbook to complete with questions about what could be learned from the exhibits and in the

park. I would say it took her about 20 minutes to find all the answers, and there were only certain pages she had to do as a 9 year old. There were less advanced

and more advanced pages for younger and older children. This particular ranger then spent another 15 minutes (it was a slow day in the Petrified Forest!) and

finally awarded her a certificate, patch and badge for her jacket. She loved it, and wants us to try to remind her to do this when we get to our next National Park.

We went back to Holbrook after a stop at the store that seemed to sell the most petrified wood souvenirs and bought some very handsome petrified wood

book ends. Gary had noticed a small problem that morning: one of the cables that connects Buster to Bella so that the brake lights work in the car had come

unattached, skidded along the road, and lost the plug. So we either needed a new cable or to rewire the plug. This didn't seem like something easy to accomplish

in Holbrook, but again, as our adventure karma would have it, a store named Auto Safety House (!) was right across from the RV park. The

gentleman in there wasn't very busy. He didn't have another cable, but did have the right plug, and rewired it for Gary in 10 minutes. Great! (We tipped him!)

So we got on our way to Tuscon. We were to go through Show-Low and Greer, and as you can see were flirting with some kind of weather. The next day they got two

feet of snow! But the drive down the Salt River Canyon was beautiful (and steep and a tiny bit scary in the motorhome!) But Gary once again did a masterful job navigating Buster down to the valley below.

We arrived in Tuscon and followed the excellent

instructions of our friend, David Walker, to their home in Saddlebrooke. I had met David in 1990 when he first came to Mayo Clinic in our Executive Health Program. At that time we asked people to not only list their prior surgeries, but the name of the surgeon (in the Mayo Brother's days, they knew a lot of surgeons!), and where it had been performed. David listed "Tonsillectomy, Dr. Abbott, Ontario, CA, 1939." My grandfather, Frank Abbott, was a general practitioner in Ontario in those years, practicing with his older son Norman and my father, Kenneth, before Kenneth came to Rochester for neurosurgical training. Indeed, my grandfather, Frank Abbott, had delivered Mr. Walker, and we think my father may have taken out his tonsils! Well, at that time David and his talented wife Barbara (who has also become my delightful patient) were the owners, publishers and editors of the Emporia (KS) Gazette, a Pulitzer prize winning paper owned originally by Barbara's father. David went home, and wrote a wonderful editorial about meeting his doctor's granddaughter, and wrote something to the effect: "Her grandfather brought me into the world, and I'm going to count on her to keep me in this world." It's the best story!

Barbara and David had graciously invited us to stay with them, and we had a wonderful time.

Tuesday, January 19

One of the first things we wanted to visit was Kartchner Caverns, a "young" cave we had been told about by Jan Berghoff. Reminiscent of Carlsbad, it was discovered about 30 years ago, but kept a secret until all could be arranged to protect it. The discoverers worked with the Arizona legislature to declare it a state protected site, and then developed access with special doors, etc, to protect it. It is very warm and humid, and is still wet, with actively forming stalagmites and stalactites. Again, as my pictures weren't good in the cave, are a couple of photos of post cards (the Liz League technique!)

We were happy to go to High Falutin', an upscale cowboy place the Walker's recommended. You can see our little carnivore had a great time with the ribs!

The next day was largely a down day. We focused on school and acquiring a new computer. I had a wonderful time at the Apple Store in Tuscon and got all set up ... you are seeing the benefits of my new laptop and systems as you read! Gary was a little under the weather, so we had a quiet afternoon and evening. Liz had the best time with Barbara and David on their golf cart.

We had another lovely dinner together (Barbara is a wonderful cook!) and then took off on Thursday morning, January 21st for Scottsdale. I founded the Preventive Medicine department at Mayo Clinic Arizona in 1987, worked there for 3 1/2 years, and then returned to Rochester. I was really looking forward to seeing how everything had changed, seeing some good friends, and continuing to share with Gary and Liz some of my own Arizona experiences.

On to Phoenix!

Julie, Gary and Liz

New Mexico .... Land of Enchantment

There were many beautiful and unique areas in New Mexico as I hope to show you in this post. Visiting in the winter didn't allow us to get out and explore as much as we might have liked, but seeing the snow against the red stone and sage brush was also very beautiful. I loved this scene of a typical Santa Fe street.

Mileage: Will update at end of January

States: 33 Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico

Sunday, January 10

Carlsbad Caverns is located in the southeast corner of New Mexico, and it is really remote. We had to take a little connector road over to the state highway where Carlsbad is located and at dusk it really seemed like the end of the earth. They had a nice RV park, and even though the cold weather persisted, we had a really comfortable night. The park opened at 9 am, and we arrived soon thereafter. We had the choice of riding the elevator down some 20 stories/400 feet, or walking down the natural entrance which is a long, steep switchback trail (again, another challenge for the knees which they met!).

The Caverns are limestone caves, and within the National Park there are more than 110 caves. Huge caves have been formed by the gradual leaching of limestone by sulfuric acid. Self-guided tours lead to the Big Room which is 8.2 acres in size. One can purchase individual audio guides which you hold up to your ear like a long telephone, and you can run the descriptive tape at the pace you wish. As is the case with many caves, Carlsbad is the summer home to hundreds of thousands of bats, and their exit ensemble at summertime dusk is something many visitors come to see. The bats had gone south for the winter, so we didn't get to see them and their impressive exit. But we did get to see their evidence: mounds of bat guano were clearly evident on the ceiing of the caves ... their roost.

The variable dissolution of the limestone has resulted in beautiful and varied limestone formations. You will recall that stalagmites are those formations which rise from the Ground, and that stalactites hang from the ceiling. While the lighting wasn't ideal for picture taking (though was ideal for viewing .... a Hollywood lighting director consulted on the lighting for the cave), I did get a couple:

But I'd like to show you a little more from Carlsbad through the Elizabeth League technique: taking a picture of a post card!

We did both the Natural Entrance and Big Room self-guided tours (I was here in the early '60's, on the high school trip around the US, but I don't remember taking the long walk down), and then (as Buster was parked a very short distance away outside the park), we decided to take the long way home through a scenic desert drive. We saw these beautiful long-horn sheep just as we were exiting the canyon.

Monday, January 11

This was a big travel day, as we had to back track to Pecos, Texas to pick up our mail. Sometimes its hard to predict just where we're going to be by the end of the week. We give the mailing instructions to Cincinnati on Tuesday, and on Wednesday they send all the mail that has been collected there to us at the current address by second day Priority Mail. On Tuesday in Big Bend we thought we would make it to Pecos by Friday, but the weather held us up.

After collecting the mail, we continued on Interstate 10 west to El Paso. I was driving when we drove through the city, and to see Juarez/Mexico so close and see how packed and compressed with people it was (even as we just glimpsed it) was startling. I couldn't get a picture because I was driving! We drove on to Las Cruces (named for the crosses on the hill that mark the graves of some settlers killed in an Apache raid), where we stopped and did a Target run: batteries, DVDs for our entertainment, I think a new swimsuit for Liz, and other "necessities." We motored on to Truth or Consequences, and climbed a bluff to a park with a beautiful view of the mountains and surrounding desert. Travis, our Rio Grande River guide, had told us that Truth or Consequences got its name because if it agreed to have its name changed, the television quiz show would agree to come there and film the show. That did happen, in the 50's we think, but unfortunately the show only lasted a couple of years, but the town's name stuck.

Tuesday, January 12

We headed out from Truth or Consequences and took Interstate 25 up to Albuquerque. It parallels El Camino Real and old route 66 is nearby, too.

Albuquerque seemed huge ... it is a city of 1.2 million people sprawled across the desert. It took us nearly an hour to drive from one side to the other. On the northeast side, we stopped for gas and ran into, unfortunately, the rudest person we have encountered on this trip! We were finishing up our fueling, and it was one of those situations where there was a car facing us fueling. As she finished and pulled away, we were clear to drive through and exit. Before we had a chance to do so, a woman in a pick-up truck pulled in and needed to back in to get to the pump. We started to pull forward indicating could we please exit first, and she simply got furious. She backed her car right up to our bumper, cursed at us, flipped us off, and kept calling us names for 5 minutes. We just sat patiently waiting to be able to drive. Then she had us wait five minutes more while she went inside to buy something. It really was unbelievable. She even flipped us off again when we finally drove past her as she waiting in the left turn lane after exiting. As I said, fortunately this type of ridiculous anger and rudeness has been extremely rare. It is true, Buster occasionally causes minor impositions on some drivers when we have a wide turn or something, but most people give us a smile and a thumbs up!

We took the "back road" from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, called the Turquoise Trail and found one of the campgrounds that was open in the winter .... Los Campos de Santa Fe. It is right on Cerrillos Blvd, one of the main oblique arteries into downtown Santa Fe and near a lot of shopping. But the campground was completely empty; only a couple of other campers. We settled right in.

Wednesday, January 13 ... Happy Birthday, Carolyn Madsen Hebbel!!

As it was Wednesday, I spent part of the morning with my Women's HealthSource colleagues which is always a pleasure. We have started an online version of the newsletter, and some extra editorial work is needed both to add content and write an introductory letter about the issue each month for the website.

We also pursued Liz' request which she had had in play for sometime to color her hair. She wanted BLACK hair! I wasn't prepared to go that far, but when we stopped at the Target in Las Cruces I found a non-permanent brunette with reddish tones hair tint. We had done the skin test on Tuesday to exclude skin irritation and allergy, so this was the beauty shop morning. It went fine ... she LOVES it, and Gary and I think it is tolerable. It is supposed to wash out after 25 washings or so, so we'll see what happens.

As it had already snowed in Santa Fe, and we wanted to go up to Taos at even higher altitude, we decided to just take the car. We took the scenic "High Road to Taos." You'll see the mountains in the background with cactus and desert plants up front. We also thought this perspective on a Santa Fe style church was very pretty, as well as the little decorated Christmas tree by the side of the road. As you can see there was scattered snow everywhere.

Also, I'm sure you all want to see the first pictorial recording of Liz' new hair color!!

We were struck that for a Land of Enchantment, which is the New Mexico motto included on car license plates, they might have gotten a little more enchantment with a few zoning laws. While there were lots of beautiful vistas and scenery along the scenic high road to Taos, there was also a lot of trashy looking property. I'm certain this is a result of hard times, low wages, etc., but it still seems people could be a little neater! I'm not certain if we have more zoning laws about property and rusted out old cars and collapsed buildings on your property in Minnesota .... perhaps not. Perhaps the nordics are just a bit tidier!

Taos is very pretty and quaint. We didn't drive the extra 15 or so miles up to the ski area, but I think most people stay and dine in town anyway. We had a delicious lunch at the Bent Street Cafe. Gary had delicious tamales, and I had a homemade celery soup which sounded a little unusual, but was perfectly seasoned and was delicious. Bent Street is where Governor Bent lived (and maybe died!) He was the first American governor of New Mexico.

Below you'll see one of the shopping areas in town, and the Kit Carson Museum.

After lunch, while Gary was browsing in Governor Bent's home/museum, Liz and I were walking

down Bent Street and the strangest thing happened. We were on the sidewalk next to oncoming

traffic, and we looked up and saw this car very slowly rolling toward us. It was coming across the

road diagonally from the other side of the street. It rolled obliquely slowly into the curb just ahead

of us blocking the lane. I'm going, "Who in the world is driving like that .... do they think there is

perpendicular parking on this street, rather than parallel parking?" And then we had our answer:

NO ONE WAS DRIVING! It was a loose car on the street! Presumably someone didn't set a parking

brake and the car just rolled there by itself. When we came back that way to get our parked car

(parked probably 75 feet away, and out of danger fortunately!), we saw that someone had come and

moved it and parked it correctly. It was mysterious!

The drive back to Santa Fe was beautiful through the Rio Grande Gorge. The headwaters of the Rio

Grande are in the Southern Rockies/San Juan mountains, and the river had done some nice carving through the mountains

by the time it reached this point in New Mexico.

As you can see, the sky was darkening, and we wanted to make sure

we got down the mountain and safely to Buster before any weather

confronted us. We thought it was so fun when we passed a

manufactured housing lot in the outskirts of Santa Fe. There was

a very attractive Santa Fe style house!

Thursday, January 14 we decided to just explore Santa Fe. Gary and I had visited Santa Fe a couple of years ago in the fall. I had a meeting there and we drove up to Bandelier National Monument and the ruins there. So we felt we could just do a little review of some of our favorite things with Liz. We had been hoping to find a handsome Indian/Southwest rug and we saw many beautiful ones in a marketplace in Santa Fe. Here's a picture of Liz sitting on the one we decided on in her new hat purchased at The Pink Coyote.

Liz got a darling turquoise and silver bracelet there, too, and then we walked over to the Palace of the Governors where many native crafts are displayed and sold. Walking around in our new hats (again from The Pink Coyote) we saw this great sculpture of bears.

One of our main priorities was to return to Cafe Pasquale. It is famous particularly for its breakfasts and when we had visited in October of 2007, we had had to stand outside for over a hour to get a table. On January 14 for lunch ..... not so much. But it was as charming .... and as good as ever. I had an amazing roasted vegetable lunch with a yummy creamy/cheesy sauce, and Gary had a big scramble of seemingly everything you can imagine. Liz had gourmet mac and cheese in which they blended about 4 or 5 different cheeses. It was all so yummy. Gary and I had previously bought these great black T-shirts there, his with a very rakish Zorro-type bandito on the back. Liz has now added a Cafe Pasquale t-shirt to her wardrobe. And look how cute it is ....

We spent the rest of the afternoon sauntering around Santa Fe including visiting Ortega's ... a lovely jewelry store specializing in southwest pieces. I have been eyeing a carved graduated oblong bead sterling silver necklace, and saw a gorgeous one at Ortega's. It seemed a little pricey, and I said I would keep looking. But when Gary dropped Liz and I off at the motor home and went back to Wal-Mart to do a little shopping .... he was gone an awfully long time. So I am holding out hope that he went back to get the necklace for Valentine's Day!

Friday, January 15

We got a reasonably early start from Santa Fe, and backtracked a bit back toward Albuquerque to connect to state route 550 toward Farmington and Bloomfield where we planned to stay. We got into more and more snow, as you can see. We arrived relatively early in the afternoon, and

learned there was a National Monument

there named Aztec Ruins. Gary was surprised that the Aztecs would have been this far north, and, in fact, he was right. There was an ancestral people that inhabited this area from 850 to 1150, but they weren't the Aztecs. But the name stuck. People left these ruins in the late 1200's, possibly due to drought, the allure of other places, such as south to the better watered country of the Rio Grande drainage, but many Southwest people still maintain ties to their traditions and stories. The ruins are fascinating.

You will see below on the left an exterior view of a kiva, a circular ceremonial chamber, and on the right the interior view which is beautiful and conveys a real spirituality.

Liz actually stayed in the RV park in Bloomfield, as she wanted some down time. She locked the doors, and we were only gone a couple of hours during the daylight, so that worked out well. This was a night that, once again, we were really happy we had figured out the heating system as it felt nippy and we were certain it would go below freezing again that night. We were right.

We go to Four Corners tomorrow (and get THREE new states: Colorado, Utah and Arizona) tomorrow. That will be fun.

We're getting closer to what I still think of as home .... Southern California. So it's exciting. We're trying to stay warm like everybody else in the country.

Later,

Julie, Gary and Liz