the end

KIND AND GENEROUS by Natalie Merchant

La la la la...You've been so kind and generous
I don't know how you keep on giving
For your kindness I'm in debt to you
For your selflessness my admiration
For everything you've done you know
I'm boundI'm bound to thank you for it
La la la la...You've been so kind and generous
I don't know how you keep on giving
For your kindness I'm in debt to you
And I never could have come this far without you
For everything you've done, you know I'm bound
I'm bound to thank you for it
La-la-la-la...Oh, I want to thank you for so many gifts you gave
The love, the tenderness,
I wanna thank you
I want to thank you for your generosity, the love
And the honesty that you gave me
I want to thank you show my gratitude
My love, and my respect for you,
I want to thank you
Oh, I want to thank you, thank you;
thank you, thank you
I want to thank you, thank you; thank you, thank you

kind and generous - sunday, 6/26/06

the first problem was finding the place to turn in the rental car. it was blazing hot out, and no wind was blowing, quite a change. there was no one visible at the place to turn the car in, so i finally just parked it and we dragged the luggage, literally, into the rental return the building. there i was informed that i had to get this thing checked in, which is what i had been trying to do for 10 minutes, but to no avail.

i left pam with the luggage and went out to find someone to check the car in. first, i couldn't find my way out of the parking lot. second, i drove a circle, TWICE, around the complex and could find nothing for budget. i decided that maybe it was in a whole different area, so i drove through a gate into an area that i discovered to late was designated for the cleaning of returning cars. when i tried to get out, i found out too late that to LEAVE you had to punch in a code on the exit machine...now, that was going to be a problem.

i drove to an area where i saw a person, who told me she was off the clock and i needed to find someone else...who in turn told me to go out and someone else would let me out. fortunately for me, a guy was just coming in. i waited for him to park his car and then i asked him to let me out. he did. i went flying back to the car lot where i had begun. this time, as i pulled in, there was a woman standing on the curb. i noticed then the arrows which pointed the car in her direction. had someone been there when we first drove in, might have figured this out. i got out and she checked me in in about 4 seconds. the phone was ringing, and it was pam hoping i would get my ass into the terminal, as the shuttle bus for the airport was about to leave.

getting on the plane was a blur, and this time we had the 3 seater. in yet another coincidence, we were seated next to a gal who as returning from the route 66 convention that they had had that weekend in albuquerque. her name was shelly graham, and she had published 2 photography books on route 66! we got into this conversation as the plane was coming in to land in dallas. i took her picture with pam and she gave me her business card. i was familiar with all of the authors and books that we discussed, as i had done research on route 66 BEFORE we left on this trip!

we parted ways in dallas, and then the bad luck continued. our gate was originally relatively close to where we were getting off of the plane. however, once we had hauled all our crap down to it, they told us they had changed the gate...to gate 1. we were at gate 24. on the way we stopped in a store and pam bought her boys a dallas cowboy football and i bought austin a "hook 'em horns" texas t-shirt. i got another auntie anne's pretzel to tide me over.

we had made a point the whole trip of not getting onto the plane until it was ready to go. we were smart to have done this before. it certainly was a last good move in relation to this last flight, as once we got on we discovered that the AC wasn't functioning. immediately, a woman in front of us was bitching a blue streak and complaining loudly. she was seated on the aisle, and another mother was between her and a small girl, who had the window seat. i thought the bitching about the AC was obviously justified, but i didn't predict it could get worse. it did.

the kid by the window puked. and then again. and then again.

bitchy woman was about to go nuts, and you could see she was just barely under control. i handed her a handy wipe that i happen to have left over from some restaurant adventure, and you could just see she was about to meltdown! it was pretty funny, but not really. this is where my many years of using portajohns came into use. i have learned the fine art of breathing through my mouth. pam wasn't so lucky...

the AC was not coming on, and after the initial puking incident, the kid began a series of trips to the bathroom that apparently were only slightly successful, as she returned again and promptly puked right in her seat. behind her were 3 teenage girls who were attached to the bitchy mother. they were like little valley girls, and the one on the aisle next to me was particularity obnoxious. after one of the puking incidents, this one loudly says "ooooh...that one sounded bubbly!" at this point i started to grin, and i turned to look at pam and that was all she wrote..pam broke out in laughter that neither of us could stop, and then we were joined by several others behind us, including a guy who said he would probably be barfing soon. i hated laughing, but i just could not help it and it was pretty hard to get it under control.

finally, the pilot came on and said they had the auxiliary power fixed and were getting underway. they were actually moving the plane and he was saying we were ready to go...but no, we weren't. the kid puked again, and at this point the stewardess' had on rubber gloves and that stuff you use to sprinkle over puke when kids do it at school. the plane is lurching backward to pull out and everyone apparently but the pilot knew we still needed to stay on the ground!

i lost track of the number of times this kid puked, but it didn't make for a fun flight home. i had to go to the bathroom and by luck of the draw had to use the can after she had been in there...and had forgotten to flush the toilet. i am pukaphobic to begin with, and while in that confined space could only go mental thinking of all the possible vomiting germs i could get in contact with. i was like monk, using toilet paper to touch anything she might have touched, including the door handles. pam thought this was pretty funny. i guess it might have made for an amusing vision...

and then, as if it weren't already bad enough, we landed in a thunder storm...and as we were coming in, pam and i were talking about the earrings. i pulled them out. since she had gotten both ears pierced, it didn't seem to make much sense to me to split the earrings, so i told her to take them both. she said, no, that wasn't what she had wanted. i told her to pick one and she did. then i was left with mine in my hand and trying to figure out what i was going to do with it.

it dawned on me that in one of my piercings was an emerald earring that bebo had given me, one of the rare pieces of jewelry he ever gave me. it got real symbolic really fast. i took the earring out and replaced it with the white turquoise one, and turned to pam and said, that's it. NOW I AM REALLY DIVORCED! and for me, it finally really was true!

pam slept for a little while and i listened to my ipod, and in the last of the many coincidences of the week, the song 'KIND AND GENEROUS" came on. there couldn't have been a better song to end the adventure. i took the headphones off and gave them to pam to listen to because i wanted her to hear the words. it perfectly described how i felt about things that had happened, and especially at having such as good friend as her, as well as linda and chuck and taylor. everyone had made it possible for me to go. i am blessed.

the plane landed, the luggage disappeared for over an hour, and every human on the east coast descended upon the luggage area in the richmond international airport at 12:30 on a sunday night. where the hell did all of these people come from? the poor puking kid went to sleep in her mother's lap, and pam crashed with the luggage while i walked up and down looking for it. once we got all of it, we had to drag it outside, only to find another crowd fighting for space on the shuttle bus to the parking lot. the two of us plopped down on the curb and just sat there in sort of a daze...and we laughed, again. at that point we were so punchy we couldn't do much more that hope like hell we didn't become a hood ornament for a shuttle bus.

fortunately, when it returned, it stopped right in front of us, so i got in a lot of exercise throwing our stuff on the shelves as fast as i could. by the time we got to the car, loaded it up, paid the parking fee and got home, it was almost 3am. i was too weary to think clearly, and was pondering how to deal with the kee situation and his cat pan. pam was the only one with a working brain at this point, so rather than drag cat pans and cats all over, she just slept in my bed, where i think we talked more until we both turned over at 3:45. this is how austin found us at 7am when his father dropped him off...

exit albuquerque...sunday 6/25/06

i didn't want this day to happen in any way. but you just can't avoid life, and we were destined for home. needless to say, i was pretty melancholy about it, but we still had time to hang out in albuquerque, and we decided to go down to the rio grande river. pam wanted to dip her feet into it, and we had seen it from up high when we were leaving taos. down in albuquerque, it was a lot less menacing and certainly less scary!

we ended up at the bosque rio grande nature reserve. we walked through the preserve on this sunday morning, and down to the river. it was squishy with mud and i stepped in and took out some rocks, which were not easy to find in this place. across the river were some interesting adobe buildings. we took some pictures and hung out a little while in the sunshine and then headed back to the car.

we went back to the plaza to look for the ankle bracelet for pam. the trader i had bought mine from was not there, but her daughter was. pam found one that she liked that was made of sleeping beauty turquoise from the santa domingo pueblo. the girl shortened the bracelet for her so it would fit. i bought meg an ankle bracelet from the same trader and then we left and went to lunch at the route 66 diner.

that was a cool place, one that had been around when 66 was active. it was decorated with all sorts of memorabilia from that era and pictures of 50's movie stars. i had 1/2 a meatloaf sandwich and their version of green chile stew. this stuff was even too hot for me! pam had yet another enchilada (this one chicken), fried okra with ranch sauce on the side. we took pictures outside of the diner, and then we had to reluctantly go to the airport...where the first bad luck began to happen!

and what can top the banditos...SACHS PIERCING AND TATTOO PARLOR!-saturday, 6/24/06

we drove around albuquerque obviously in a daze from our close encounters in madrid, and finally we found a holiday inn express on coors blvd. we were looking once again for a place to get the ears pierced, but had no luck with finding a mall.

we drove into the plaza thinking we might be able to find an ankle bracelet for pam like the one i had gotten the first day there. however, all of the indian traders had packed up and gone home, and there were only a few shops open. we sat out in the plaza in front of the church and just talked. a family was on the bandstand and the kids and parents were rolling around engaged in a game of make believe. it was just after dark, and it was cool and just so nice to sit outside.

we wandered into a few more shops, and in the last one we went into i solved the problem of the piercings. anytime you see people with colored hair, you know you are in luck to find the unusual. if ANYONE knew where to get yourself a piercing, these kids did. sure enough, the recommend a place called SACHS up on central avenue in nob hill, which is just above the university of new mexico. it was a clean place and was open until 11 PM! we had already been in this territory the previous sunday when we cruised central avenue looking at old route 66 architecture.

i looked at pam, hoping she wouldn't put the nixy on this idea. needless to say, this was not exactly what she had had in mind i am sure. but she said ok. i actually wanted to go, just for the experience of it. besides, what the hell else was there to do for 2 old broads in albuquerque on a saturday night.? pam sucked it up. i told her we could wait and get them done in richmond, but she said, no, we said we were going to do it here, so let's do it. i couldn't believe it. i knew i was pushing the outside of the envelope to think she would agree to that one, but, damn, she is a trooper. you gotta love her!

we went through town, getting detoured and stuck in and out of traffic trying to get there, and then we had to park up the street and walk down to the place. we walked in and were surprised that there was so much business going on. we were greeted by james, who had 2 huge, gigantic gauge earrings in each of his ears. on the wall was a huge, disgusting picture of two tongues with a barbell piercing them together! pam looked like a scared rabbit, and i wasn't sure i was going to be able to get her through the whole thing. but she didn't say anything, and she filled out the papers that we had to fill out for the new mexico department of health to get this done.

they wouldn't let us get pierced using our own earrings, so we had to buy a pair of surgical steel earrings with a bead on it to do the piercing. billy was going to be our surgeon du jour, but we had to wait while he did a lip piercing on a person ahead of us who had brought her child to the fandango. in the interim, i had to go back to the car when i realized that i had left both of the cameras in the car. we got up and looked at the display cases of jewelry that you could buy for your body art. pam didn't know much about piercings, so it was up to me to educate her as to what she was seeing.

it is hard to believe that ANYONE would pierce some of the things we saw jewelry for. i finally pointed out the WEINER with the barbells in it and i thought pam would probably faint. not only that, but the ones for nipples and the most unbelievable one, which was the wonderful jewelry that we could choose from to PIERCE OUR TWATS! this involved a slight discussion of exactly what benefit any female might have as a result of doing this to herself.

probably the most hilarious moment came when we turned to another display case and then noticed the typed message taped to the top of the glass: "please do not expose your genitals while comparing yourself to the jewelry." apparently some enthusiasts couldn't help whipping out their dingles to compare what they had with what was offered! just thinking about the possibility of witnessing that type of encounter was enough to send me to another planet!

finally, billy came out, but he got sidetracked by a dude who was trying to get another gauge put in his ear. he had come with wife and kid, and after it was determined that he would have to go to the tattoo parlor next door to get the size gauge that he wanted, billy took us back to the "operating room."

billy himself was a hoot. he had tattoos, a baseball cap over an apparently bald head, and his own piercings, including a long barbell through one ear, a gauge in the other, and two eyebrow piercings on one side. i am sure all of this hardware was designed to take your attention away from the fact that he was missing one of the main front teeth. he was literally bouncing all over the room, talking more nonstop than even i could ever hope to do! he told us about the old grandmother who had come in and gotten her ears pierced for the first time and had brought family members with her! he thought it was cool that the two of us were doing this as a 50th birthday bonding experience.

he showed us everything he was going to do, and he marked the ears first before he pierced, and told us to look in the mirror to make sure they were placed where we wanted them. pam went first, as she was getting a third set of holes put in. she was a little concerned about whether or not it might hurt. billy asked us if we knew what of the 6 possible areas for piercing was the most painful. i knew the answer because i was about to get it done: the cartilage in your ear. pam was a little surprised at this, but i already knew, since i had had one done on my 40th birthday.
he used this little tool to hold the ear in place and then he pierced it with a hollow needle thing. he explained that by doing it with that, it cleared out a bigger hole, and didn't just punch the earring in like they did in the piercing pagoda places.

it didn't really hurt either of us much, and billy took our picture together after we were done.
we marched out on to the streets of albuquerque and back to the car, a couple of crazy old broads with new hardware in our ears and yet another wild tale to tell.

we went back to the hotel room and pam finished off the night by polishing all of our silver jewelry. then she yanked the covers up to her neck and just laid there like a little kid, and i snapped another silly picture.

geez, what a day! :)

madrid - a chile festival, a movie, and A LITTLE PEEK!

god intended for pamela and i to go out of new mexico on a high note, and boy, did he create a few screamers this day!

both of us were excited about going back to madrid and the turquoise trail. i was anticipating that it wouldn't be as exciting or breathtaking going back since we were all hyped up on the way in. however, it was still as eyecatching and the vibe was still good. the trip going to madrid didn't seem to be as long, however, and pretty soon we were pulling into madrid looking for someone to pierce our ears.

we had tried several times to find someone in pagosa springs to do the ears. linda had declined to join us in the endeavor, so it was up to pam and i to find a piercing pagoda in a mall somewhere to do it. when we pulled into madrid, the first place we saw was a jewelry store called THE CRYSTAL DRAGON. we went in and the hippie dude there said, nope, no one in madrid to do piercings. he himself was going to take his daughter into sante fe to the mall to have her ears pierced. apparently, the one person who could do it was on vacation.

right next to the crystal dragon were all the things from the chile festival that we had seen the weekend before. i guess he got a good laugh out of us looking asking tourista questions, but it turns out that the whole town had been taken over to film a john travolta movie called WILD HOGS. along with travolta are martin lawrence, william c. macy, marissa tomei and tim allen. the movie is about a bunch of middle aged guys who buy motorcycles and go on an adventure, ending up in madrid. they have a close encounter with a bunch of local motorcycle guys who are called the del fuegos in the movie. however, they are based upon a real local biker bunch from albuquerque called the banditos.

we walked out and took pictures up and down main street, making our way towards the mine shaft tavern once again. we talked to a lot of the shop owners and found out that most of them had rented out their stores for use as sets on the movie. only one set, the one of maggie's diner, had been built. many of the townspeople had been extras on the movie, which filmed at night. everyone we talked to had a different story to tell about it. most of the stars had not been into the shops, although marisa tomei had been into one of the jewelry shops. we heard that the banditos, who love madrid, had been paid off by the producer to stay out of town while they were filming. none of the stars were staying locally, and just showed up at night to film.

there was some final jewely irony, as we finally hit a shop that had a ton of kokopelli jewelry, including the exact slide pam had been looking for before she settled on the one she bought. we ended up back at the mine shaft and we went into a couple of shops that were open next to it.

the place was packed, and there was a local band playing mostly grateful dead, bonnie raitt and john hiatt tunes. they played a song that pam recognized as being a steve bassett song called "how far is heaven." how weird is that? the music was pretty good, and we ordered burgers and got a seat which was right by the door.

next to us was a blended family of mexicans and white people with babies being passed around and little kids running in and out with water pistols. they could have been indian or mexican, but it didn't seem to matter much. the place was filled with all sorts of people, including a few we had seen on our previous visit. nosering was back behind the bar, and the same guy who was cleaning up waited on us. women were dancing with each other and an old guy came in who had about 15 piercings in his ear. it all made for interesting people watching, and i am not sure i have ever seen such a wide variety of people in there, and that included tourists like us and old women and men.

pam was facing the door and all of a sudden her eyes got big and she leaned over and said "look what is coming through the door." in walked the banditos, four of them!

when we had come into town we had noticed a small ballpark on the right side of the road just before you got to the crystal dragon. we saw a bunch of bikers there and there was music blaring and rv and campers parked all around. we didn't give it too much thought, as we had seen more people on bikes here than at any other time at home. as it turned out, the banditos were doing a benefit down there to raise money for clothes for kids to wear to school.

the four that came through the door were led by an old dude with a grey beard, a cane and the complete biking outfit of vests, boots, etc. he was followed by a guy in camoflage banditos t-shirt and pants. there was a skinny white guy with a long ponytail who smelled like he had just toked up, and then the president of the club, who wasn't bad looking for a hood. however, he had a huge knife in a scabbard attached to his belt, so that made him a bit less attractive...:). these guys seemed to know a lot of people in the bar, and the old dude hooked up with nosering and they disappeared into the manager's back office for awhile. other banditos came in and out, but most of them got a beer and disappeared outside on the front porch.

when it was finally time to leave, we paid the bill and i hit the can while pam apparently went out on the porch by herself and proceeded to engage in light conversation with the banditos, who were apparentely quite enamoured with her! go pam! who says middle age women can't turn heads! when i had been in the bar, i had been trying like hell to get a picture of nosering and the locals without looking like an complete tourista ass. pam provided me with the perfect opportunity to get a picture of the banditos.

she headed back up on the porch for the photo opportunity, but the old dude with the cane decided to come down into the lot for the picture. i think he just wanted to get a squeeze out of pam! i had my picture taken with him as well, and we chatted with him a bit. his name was t-bone, and he was missing 2 front teeth. nosering looked enouogh like him to be his kid, and i asked him if that was true. he said, no, nosering was too ugly to be his son! we talked a bit about the fund raiser (he gave $100 and apparently "convinced" others to do the same.) we got in the car to go, and t-bone came over and put his face against pam's window, indicating he wanted to say something to her. she rolled down the window...MISTAKE....!!!!!!

hey, where you goin' ?(albuquerque to get a motel room)
you don't need no motel room! you can stay here and party with us (well, i don't think my husband would like that too much)
hey, he don't have to know! i know how you girls are! she ain't gonna tell on you (pam sucks air, stutters, i try not to explode with laughter)
aw, come on, you don't have to go! stay here! we have a good time (pam demures and says "i don't think so!" very nicely. don't piss off a bandito we have been told. they are fine as long as they are happy.)

i could have rolled up the window, but likely t-bone's beard would have gotten caught in the window, and i couldn't exactly see myself driving off dragging a middle age biker by his beard without causing a slight fuss. realizing that pam wasn't going to give in, he sighed and gave in..sort of..

ok, you gonna go, but how since you leaving, how 'bout a little PEEK? (no, i don't think so)
aw, c'mon! just a little peek? who's ever gonna know? she ain't gonna tell on you! (head nod to me, pam sucks more air out of the car. the other banditos up on the porch are now chattering in spanish at t-bone to get his LEETLE PEEK!)
pam rolls up the window, slowly, and t-bone give as mournful, poor woe as me look. i put the car in reverse and pam says, as we pull out, 'DO YOU THINK THEY WILL FOLLOW US ON THEIR BIKES!!!???" i look behind me, and no, there are no bikes

i think i laughed all the way to albquerque and i am still laughing. she will NEVER live that one down...

white turquoise! - saturday, 6/24/06

it was beginning to dawn on me that morning that my new mexico adventure was drawing to an end. facing going home, getting in the car and driving to atlanta was not something i relished. i didn't want to leave linda and chuck, new mexico, or my new found independence and freedom. but i got up and packed up the car and we went on into town to do a little last minute shopping. pam wanted to get a colorado license plate from the place i had gotten mine.

the shops weren't open yet. linda and chuck went ahead of us, with all of us to meet up at the flea market outside of santa fe. pam and i wandered back to the mineral springs and got water out of it. fortunately, i scraped off some of the mineral material and put it in my bottle, because when we got home, we discovered that was the stuff that made the water smell so bad. while it smelled, we still kept rubbing it on our skin and i splashed some back into my hair. for the two days after i had doused my hair it in, my hair looked acceptable to me! we took a couple of pictures sitting next to the springs, and then went into the shop when it opened.

i wandered around looking over stuff again while pam got her plate, and then we discovered...jewelry! we had seen white turquoise after our taos introduction with the earrings, but hadn't seen anything affordable that either of us wanted. every place we went we were told that the white turquoise was really hot and they sold out of it. at this place, he had a couple of pendants and rings as well. pam and i both ended up buying white horse turquoise pendants (i bought mine for my mother for xmas) and i bought a ring of buffalo mountain turquoise. when i got home, i noticed that the brown streak through it looks like a kokopelli! we also both bought old pennies that had the dates of each of our parents' births on them.

we headed out of colorado, crossing once again through chama and down to abiqui, where georgia o'keeffe had lived. we crossed over the continental divide and back into new mexico, this time stopping to take pictures of the "welcome to new mexico" sign. there were some beautiful buttes outside of abiqui, and we stopped at bode's market so pam could pee. we had talked at one point of going up to oja caliente to their mineral springs, but we had to save that for another trip. this road we were on took us through different territory, and we ended up in espanola, home of the low rider car, and then down to the sante fe flea market.

chuck and linda had already been shopping, and we met up. pam and linda bought cute tops and i bought green chile powder from hatch, new mexico, which is supposed to be the best place to get chile powder (it is. when i got home, i used it and it is wonderful!). we also bought 2 strings of turquoise and red coral to make bracelets with. each strand was $11 each, and i wish now i had bought more. the turquoise was all different types and colors and already drilled with holes. i ate a pork adovadi burrito at the flea market, although i couldn't get it all down. the wind was kicking up and it looked like we were in for a storm, but we never got it.

chuck and linda hit the road before us, and we finally left, headed for the turquoise trail and the road back to madrid!

the san juan river, ribs, and a lovely sunset - friday, 6/23/06

we were home from the great balloon adventure by 10:30, and linda and chuck were ready to go on another hike. today's adventure would be climbing up to 4 mile falls, which was apparently the highest falls in colorado. they had made sandwiches for us and were waiting for our return. however, both pam and i decided we had done enough hiking for one day, so we sent the park service gypsies out on their own adventure while we stayed home.

pam took a nap while i wrote down all the stuff that had been happening all week. i had neglected to do that up to that point, and as i am sitting here typing this, i am thankful for the notes i took. already pam is saying she can't remember stuff we did or what we bought where, and i can relate. however, the little pocket notebook with the notes in it has become invaluable in creating this blog.

we ate leftovers from the night before and then decided to head into pagosa springs for some more shopping and hanging out. we checked out a few shops, but didn't buy anything, and decided we wanted to go down to the river and get our feet wet. we parked at the springs visitors center and wandered down and out on the rocks. the water was a bit cold and we just talked and hung out for awhile. there were kids playing in the water and on the other side people were walking and hanging out on the public side of the springs. we got lost coming out of the parking lot (i was trying to rely on shortcuts and only did a long cut instead). we came back into town and parked the car in the public lot, got out and went down to the one public hot springs that was along the sidewalk. we put our feet in it for awhile and then went up and dipped our hands back in the one at the top of the stairway by the parking lot.

we had decided to go out to dinner that night to get ribs at THE BRANDING IRON. the food was pretty good, but my ribs were like shoe leather and i actually had them return them and bring me chopped beef brisket. they had good marinated carrots (not as good as hers, according to linda!) and coleslaw. on the porch there was a cool set up for plants, which we ended up taking pictures of, hoping to duplicate it when we got home.

there was a beautiful sunset that night and i took off in bare feet trying to chase the storm that we never got! we got some really glorious pictures, both of the sunset and ourselves! we yapped awhile and packed awhile and hit the bricks.

osa grande - the great balloon crash- friday, 6/23/06

my fear of heights is well documented and well understood. however, i have to say that at no point on this vacation did my lifelong fear rear its ugly head. if it was going to do it, however, today would be the day. pam and i were off on a 30 minute ride in a hot air balloon.

we were up at 6am and at the visitors center by 7am. they told us to dress accordingly, which meant long pants, jackets and decent shoes. good thing about the shoes. i could have done without the rest of it. as a matter of fact, before we ever left the ground pam had my jacket on on top of her stuff. that's what she gets for being a skinny minny! :)

we watched as the crew helped steady the balloon as they filled it up. there were about 20 people signed up for the rides, each one split into 30 minutes. pam and i were on the 2nd leg of the outing, so we were assigned to ride in the chase vehicle with tanya, who was also a potter and had immigrated to pagosa springs from florida with her father. she was pretty cool. we talked pottery and she gave me her card. she also had on a cool turquoise and coral necklace which i would love to duplicate.

the first group didn't go anywhere to speak of, as there seemed to be no wind. they came down in an open spot in a neighborhood, and we switched places. from the moment we went up, i had no fear. i was snapping pictures and watching everything. mike, the captain, pointed out chimney rock, piedra peak, and other local landmarks. we flew over chuck and linda's condo, and we saw an parachute glider. apparently, the pilot was a guy named pat parelli, who is known as the horse whisperer. mike pointed out parelli's spread and sure enough, he did head back and land there on a little landing strip. pam and i both made phone calls from the cells. i called austin and the last thing he said to me was "don't crash, mom!" hmmmm.:) i also spit a couple of times from the gondola!

when it got to be time to land, however, there were difficulties in finding a place to land. mike was trying to bring it down on the road or in a clearing in an area known as elk park. however, the wind kept blowing us back into the san juan national forest where there weren't any roads and there weren't any clearings. he kept trying to find a place, and the chase crew was busy trying to follow him, but finally it got to the point where he said he just had to put it down, period. we were running low on propane! we landed in an area known as turkey springs.

so we prepared for the tree landing! and that is exactly what happened! he told us all to squat down in the gondola so that we wouldn't get wacked by tree branches. i stayed up until the branches started really coming in the gondola, which was rocking back and forth because it was perched on the top of a tree! mike goosed the propane, the balloon rose again, and this time he did bring it down in a small clearing.

as soon as it hit the ground, he asked for a couple of people to get out of the gondola and get the lead ropes and try and guide the balloon down away from the trees. i didn't know i could move so fast! i got a rope and another guy did, and we started trying to direct the balloon away from the trees. however, we weren't successful. it caught on the top of a tree.

the chase crew arrived and everyone got out of the gondola and began the task of trying to get the balloon down on the ground without doing more damage to it. once it was on the ground, all of the air would have to be pushed out of it as well. unfortunately, it didn't come down without a fight. i heard a big snap, and the top of a tree was the victim! so was the balloon, as it sustained two big rips in it about 12 inches each.

pam was on the ground busy snapping pictures while i was trying to keep from ripping the balloon and keep from being crushed by it! it came down over my head a couple of times! mike told us not to grab the fabric at any place but at the seams, which was kind of hard to do. we had to roll it over towards the center, and a lot of things got tangled up. finally, it was all on the ground. mike said that they would have to get a bunch of 4 wheelers up there to get the balloon and gondola back. apparently, this had not happened all that many times. they sure had their work cut out for them getting all that stuff down to the support van!

we were ready for the trek back to the support van. however, there was only one problem, which was that we were in east jesus with no trail! this is where having the right shoes was a good thing. we had to hike uphill and then down hill. i pulled up the rear with mike and a couple of people from england. pam was up ahead. i got on the phone and called carol kluver to tell her to tell austin that, guess what, we crashed! we made it back to the van, and no one had water and it was getting hot, but it was all good! what a story to tell!

we returned to the the visitors center at the resort where we had started. mike served champagne, muffins and juice and told us about the history of ballooning and he did a toast and showered us all with champagne. we were now christened official first time balloonists. i could have gone up again, and while i was up there i kept thinking how i could come back to richmond and do this crewing thing!

we have lots of pictures, a certificate and t-shirts marking this adventure!

the mineral springs, and a bonding experience - thursday, 6/22/06

on our way back from chuck and linda's property, we stopped off at the grocery store and got snacks. we also stopped at the resort front desk and got tickets to go to the mineral springs that night. while there, pam and i bought tickets to take a hot air balloon ride the next morning. this was something pam had said she wanted to do, so we decided no better time than the present!

we had lasagne and salad for dinner and then it was time to go to the springs. it was the first time in many years that i had gotten into a bathing suit. only with this bunch would i have done it. seeing as they had seen me in a wetsuit 7 years ago, how much worse could it get? :)

there were 18 different pools you could get into at the mineral springs. we first went to one with a waterfall, and ended up at the end of the night back into it. in the interim, we moved from one to the next, all with varying temperatures. it was sort of like the story of the three bears where goldilocks goes from one bed to the other testing it out until she found the one that was just right! we took some really great pictures that night and we laughed a lot.pam discovered really quickly that the mineral springs turned silver a brassy color. i managed to get my stuff off before it really got bad, but pam had one ring that turned immediately. (this led us on a quest for jewelry cleaner stuff which we eventually got in albuquerque.)

at one point i ended up doing reiki and massage on everyone, starting with chuck. i rubbed feet and backs while we were in the pool, and the reiki was flowing pretty good! however, when we moved back to the waterfall pool something neat happened.

it was dusk, and on one side of the pool was a lip where the water flowed over the edge and down into the san juan river below. earlier, we had been down to the water's edge and found that water to be way too cold to stay there. back up in the waterfall, we were all just chillin' and i went over to the lip ledge. suddenly the palms of my hands lit up from reiki! this has happened to me before, usually when i go into a place where the vibes are really good. chuck came over to where i was and was standing to my right and then linda and pam came over and all four of us were hanging over the lip. i told them what was going on with my hands, and i put my right hand over chuck's hand and then my left over linda's. since linda is lst degree reiki, she could participate and pass it on with me.

i don't know how much time passed, but we were all quiet and relaxed and it was just flowing all around us. i wasn't sure how long i should do it, so finally i took my hand off of chuck's. he commented how he could feel it and how relaxed he was. i was reminded that it was chuck and linda who brought me to reiki in the first place 10 years ago. they had been to a fair in ashland, oregon, and a bunch of reiki practioners worked on them. when linda came east the next time, she told me about how they had been able to diagnose chuck's old knee injury, and how she thought i might want to look into it and get trained. i did.

so things came full circle, with the four of us hanging out with mineral water running over us and the sun going down in the distance. pam said later that might have been the highlight for her of the whole vacation. it certainly was one for me.

when we got back we changed clothes and sat out on the porch again. it wasn't as cold as it had been the night before, and we saw shooting stars and pam found a satellite. it was a very peaceful, memorable evening!

pagosa springs - fish tacos, shopping - thursday, 6/22/06

after our hiking adventure, we went into pagosa springs and used the ecologically friendly public bathrooms that pagosa springs had erected in the center! we went looking for a place to eat, and ended up at FARRAGOS on the main drag. they had a pretty interesting menu, and took a big leap and ordered fish tacos. since i am not much of a fish eater, this was a huge leap of faith. the other 3 all got quesadillas.

the fish tacos were to die for, probably the best thing i ate while out there. the had grilled tilapia and put cilantro and a special sauce on them and rolled them up in a tortilla. we sat outside under an umbrella and chowed down and then went looking for...stuff!

linda and pam soon paired off shopping and chuck and i, who are not apparently shoppers, ended up in a book store where i bought this funny book of postcards for meg's boys. i went into an antiques shop and found a 1956 colorado license plate. pam had been looking for a real new mexico license plate with the balloons on it. i had bought a fake one with the land of enchantmant line on it. we also went into this aromatheraphy shop and i bought these cute little bottles with corks in them to put the chimayo dirt in. pam was still jewelry shopping, but didn't find what she wanted. linda took us into an art gallery that they had been into earlier in the week. there was some pretty impressive stuff there. one of the things i liked was an india ink wash that someone had done. we walked over and looked at the river and the mineral springs, and went past the public one, which was really hot!

we left downtown and drove out to linda and chuck's property on the edge of town. there is a lot of potential there, and a lovely view of the mountains. she also had some huge rocks there that i told her she should make sure she keeps and uses in her landscaping. we took some pictures and i took some rocks and a couple of juniper branches to do something with when i got home.

piedra falls - thursday, 6/22/06

even after several days, i was still operating on eastern time, and when the blasted geese began to honk in the morning at dawn, i was there! :) but i didn't mind. i was in a cool place with my closest friends...and i guess some of them could be geese. i drifted back to sleep off and on, and got up and actually ate breakfast, which i had been boycotting most of the trip. granola cereal this morning.

today's adventure was to be piedra falls, which wasn't all that bad a climb up according to the billy goat barats! : ) i was a bit worried that my fatitude would keep me from making this climb. it had been a long time since i had done any hiking, and i was really, really apprehensive about it. would i embarrass myself huffing and puffing and rolling down a hill?

the drive there was a hoot. we were pretty soon off of paved roads, with chuck whipping the car all over the road like it was an off road vehicle and linda doing the navigating. we got confused at one point and ended up backtracking to a store that was there. pretty wild. we found out we were going in the right direction, but just hadn't gone far enough. pam and i were in the back seat trying not to laugh as linda and chuck bantered back and forth over where to go, typical male/female stuff. we got there...there was never a doubt.

when i first started out hiking, i got a little winded, but then again, we were at 8600 feet and i am old! chuck, being the kind soul he is, stayed behind me and i guess he could here me sucking wind out of the canyon because he asked me a couple of time is if was ok. surprisingly, once i got going, i was!

the falls were really pretty, and the water very cold! we took a lot of pictures, some of the best ones of the trip. i took one of linda sitting up on top of a rock by herself, and it seemed just perfect to me...it really captured her. chuck began the "chuck flexes his muscles" series of photos there as well!

pam and i both got down into the water looking for rocks. it was pretty cold, but i liked it. it was really relaxing! while we were hanging around taking pictures, chuck struck up a conversation with a group of people who were also there. it turns out that they were from richmond, and lived over in woodlake, where mary beth, my college roomie, lives. upon further questioning, i found out that not only did they know mary beth, but david (mb's hubby) had taught religious ed to their child and they all go to the same church! how freaky is that? i had a picture taken with the woman, terry, and tried to call mb a couple of times to tell her, but wasn't able to get her at the time!

on the way coming and going to the falls we saw cowboys working cattle on the hillside. we also saw a dead cow out there. it was the first time i had ever seen working cowboys. we tried to get pictures, but we weren't able to get them before we had flown past them.

the mancos arrows, electrical car weirdness and christian music- wednesday 6/21/06

pam has to be a saint to make as many wacky stops on this trip as she did. she took pictures, and was game. good for her. not many people would be!

on our way to pagosa springs we stopped after 5pm at THE HOGAN, which is a trading post along route 160. it had show up in one of the books i had looked at before i left. the owners apparently had taken telephone poles, painted and decorated them as arrows, and then shoved them in the ground. it looked like someone up in mesa verde had shot this huge things into the ground. anyway, my goal was to have my picture taken in front of them. pam obliged.

we passed chimney rock on the way to pagosa, got stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere, and saw a lot of bikers on the road. we also passed a mountain that seemed to have a cross on it, which was weird. this was where we were having the electrical no fly zone with the cell phone AND the cd player and where i had a meltdown because i couldn't get the cd to play! pam snapped the picture from the car window. what a strange site!

we got to pagosa around sunset, and after a few false starts, managed to find linda and chuck's condo in the complex. it was on a lake and had a lovely view of the mountains. there were a lot of very vocal geese that seemed content to honk all night and all day at each other. we moved in all our stuff, pam getting the loft and me the downstairs bedroom. we spent the rest of the evening chatting and looking at linda's scrapbooks of her trip to alaska. she also had one of her trip to hawaii as well as a family one with lots of pictures of her family and friends.

it was a very full day, but a good one!

cortez to 4 corners-beauty in untold places-wednesday 6/21/06

we really didn't have any idea about what to expect from four corners, other than both of us had decided we wanted to go there. we had been told that there was nothing there, and in fact, that was true. there was nothing if you were looking for something...but we were just going to stand in four states, and we got an unexpected bargain in the process.

dropping out of cortez down to the flats of this area was breathtaking in a lot of ways. when i saw the first butte, i pulled the car off the side of the road to take a picture, the first of many i kept taking of...nothing! but the nothing was something. it is hard to describe how desolate it was, but it was beautiful. when we turned on the road to go to four corners, the road stretched out flat and straight in front of us, and there were almost no cars and absolutely nothing on either sides of the roads except dry arroyos and buttes. the array of colors went from pinkish red to black to white to tan. it was almost like a colored moonscape, and the sky was blue as far as you could see.

the entrance to four corners is at the top of a little hill after you come up from a little dip in the road. you turn off onto a gravel road and then you drive up to it. around all sides of the actual monument thing are booths filled with navajo indians and others selling their wares.

pam and i had our pictures taken doing all the silly stuff you would do there and then we separated. she went off to shop (she bought an ankle bracelet) and i went off to steal rocks. well, i did feel a tad paranoid as i walked off into the four different states with my camera. i went first to colorado and took several pictures of that view, which i gained by walking about 20 or 30 yards beyond the booths and cars parked behind them. in colorado i developed a process of theft...i would descretely bend down and pick up a rock, and then another, and then i moved on to the next state, which was utah.

rocks in pocket, i took some more pictures, noticing that there actually seemed to be a difference in the landscape, and in the rocks. i started looking for utah rocks that would be different from colorado rocks. while walking back from utah, i decided that i needed to stash the geology in the car, and opened up the trunk and tossed them in. there were a few indians looking at me at first, but then i moved on to arizona and repeated the process...and returned to the car with the booty, again.

by the time i got to the new mexico perimeter, i had decided that i hadn't gotten enough rocks from colorado, so i went back over there and swiped some more. my final gesture was to number them, bag 'em and tag 'em and toss them into the car trunk, with the watchful eyes of navajos on me. at that point i think they were likely wondering what in hell i kept going back and forth to the trunk for...i tried to look cool, but i don't exactly escape notice with my wild hair and large body! in any case, i finally caught up with pamela, who had at this point stopped everywhere looking at stuff for sale. i checked out a few of the booths, but didn't buy anything. one thing i did hear, though, was the navajo reservation radio station that we had been told about. it was interesting listening to the language being spoken.

i had hung a little combinations whistle/compass/thermomether on the mirror when we took off on this journey, and when we got in the car to leave, it was registering 120 degrees despite the fact that we had left windows cracked! i am not sure i have ever been in that type of heat before, but i was amazed that neither of us croaked! i was dry heat, and the only affect seemed to be on pam's eyes and both our noses. we lived to shop another day!

we left four corners and were still amazed at the landscape as we were leaving. i popped in the nicholas gunn CD with the indian music on it, and it made for a very peaceful and relaxing drive out of the desert.

i was running out of gas, and we stopped at a truck travel center on the ute reservation. i was on a quest for fritos, which had become the everyday 4pm snack. while in there, i found a dime and a penny, the first money i had found in awhile! more angels! i saw dill pickle sunflower seeds and bought a bag for austin to take home (they were pretty good and he didn't care about them one way or another, so i have been eating them!) we gassed up the car and headed back from four corners through cortez and onwards toward pagosa springs. but first, we had to make a stop at one of my excentric garden spots...the arrows at mancos, colorado.

mesa verde - our excellent ancient adventure-wednesday 6/21/06

i happened to wake up just as the sun was coming up, and i took a picture of it. by the time pam got up, the sun was incredibly bright and we finally got a good look at where we were.

we went down to the visitors center for breakfast. pam was starving and ate while i went up to the visitors center to get our tickets for cliff palace and balcony house. we took off for cliff house, not really knowing what we were going to see or what we were getting into!

cliff palace is the most famous of these cliff dwellings and the largest one. our park ranger was a local boy, who told us all about the history of the dwellings. we learned that the ancient people were no longer called ANASAZI anymore. they were now being referred to as ANCIENT PUEBLOANS. apparently, the word anasazi is navajo for something negative, so i guess the park service decided to switch titles. it turns out that these ancients lived up on top of the mesa for most of the time they were there, and eventually came down under to the cliffs to live. it looks as if drought was the reason they went below, and drought which eventually drove them out of these mountains for good!

balcony house was a bit different, and certainly much more of a challenge. we had to climb 2 ladders, one of them 30 ft. up, to get to the ruins. the guide to this one was a girl from maine, and she told us a lot about the plants as well as the history. this particular set of ruins had several kivas as well as a room that had a petroglyph. i was fascinated by the fact that the logs that were used in building these dwellings were still here. they had not disintegrated over these hundredds of years! we had to climb out of a narrow tunnel to get out of this dwelling, and i wasn't sure i was going to make it! i had to take off the backpack, and pam got a picture of me as i emerged, triumphant, from this little prison! god help the tremendously fat person who tries that one...hey might end up stuck there!

we left balcony house and drove around the mesa top looking at pit houses and other ruins. we visited spruce tree house on our own, and it had a mock up of a real kiva as well as some incredible smoke and soot on the ceiling of the dwelling. this one actually might have been the best one of all of them. in all case, both pam and i were discretely snagging rocks during the whole park visit. we talked to a woman who was a special ed teacher from wisconsin, and this was where i learned that i have been pronouncing the word incorrectly. nothing like being corrected by a real cheese head! :) what was interesting about her was that she seemed to be doing all of the exploring alone!

both pam and i are on the same wavelength touring parks, which in this case, if you have seen one cliff dwelling, you have seen them all. one day in mesa verde was all we needed. by early afternoon we were out of the park and down to cortez looking for a place to eat. another walmart visited (i needed a memory card for the camera) and the name of a place to eat in town where we could get a salad (quest for greens!). we ended up at the anasazi restaurant, where pam got the best enchillada, this one cheese. there was a salad bar, thank god, and pam and i both got indian fry bread, my first experience with that. how wonderful! you eat them hot with honey. we carried the remains with us once again! after lunch (we got in the habit of eating b/w 2-3 pm every day) we headed out to four corners.

over the mountains and through the woods, to durango we would go...tuesday 6/20/06

everything i had read about taos made me think that it was going to be the beauty spot of new mexico. i actually didn't find it to be all that, and i don't think pam did either. it was fine, but not to die for.

we headed out of taos going west with the goal being to go through farmington, see the muffler man (cousin of the albuquerque lumberjack man), go to four corners and then check in our stuff at mesa verde, change and go to durango for dinner. right. we were about 4 hours late leaving taos, and had no idea exactly how long it would take us to get anywhere.

so we ended up going past the earthships on the way up into the mountains. these were pretty cool, and we took some pictures of them. we had looked into staying overnight in one of them when we were planning the first trip. we didn't realize until we went past them that those were the earthships we had read about. they were made of all sorts of materials: rubber tires, bottles, empty cans. they were all solar and most were built into the land somehow.

after we left taos, the first thing on our list to visit was the bridge over the rio grande river. it is a pretty deep gorge, and both of us were sort of scared shitless up on the bridge. the wind was blowing and i wasn't all that sure i wasn't going to get swept over the railing and down, down, down! pam took pictures of us with both cameras, and we got the hell off the bridge and headed up into the mountains, with the little car chugging slowly along. once we got over the mountains, we came down into chama, new mexico and ran right into the annual RIDE THE ROCKIES bike race which was going on. the leg we saw had begun in pagosa springs. this bicycle ride is the american version of the le tour de france. at this point we were hungry, but all there was in chama was a DQ, and it took forever to get served. pam actually left the car and went to the service station across the ways and got ice and returned before i ever got someone to take our order. however, the burgers we got were really, really good, so that made it ok.

we followed the road on west and ended up going through the jicarillo apache indian reservation. dulce is the pueblo center, and as we were driving through, i noticed gas for $2.81/gallon at the apache service station. i whipped the car around and went back for gas, and while we were there, we talked to pat, one of the mechanics, and another guy who told us we were 4 -4 1/2 hours from 4 corners. as it was 2 in the afternoon, we realized then we were going to have to go to plan b to get to durango on time for linda's surprise birthday dinner. pat told us about a shortcut over the mountains and around navajo lake dam that would take us to durango. it turned out to be a great choice.

we listened to a local station in dulce and they apparently were interviewing individuals who were running for the tribal council. we were both struck by the beauty of the land, and the poverty that was visible around us. pam wondered out loud about why these people could live here in this lovely place, yet have so little. this led to a discussion of the history of what white america did to the native americans a hundred or so years ago. basically, we picked the worst places and stuck them there. this reservation is just one of many that are located in lovely, spiritual places, which sadly also happen to be places where there is no industry short of the casinos, and therefore very little for the people to do as far as jobs are concerned.

as we crossed the rez, it became another one of those places that had a very spiritual vibe to it. we stopped at the edge and had our pictures taken by the rez sign and swiped some more rocks. i had to back up to get them. during this trip, the places that seemed to have the most peace attached to them were also places in the middle of nowhere. they were stunning in their emptiness.

we found pat's shortcut and headed to navajo dam, which was a startling blue color. there were some boats out on the water, and i drove down the center of the narrow 2 lane road that seemed to go over the dam. this apparently is a recreation place judging by the number of boats. we ended up in ignacio and then went on up to durango.

we were scheduled to meet linda and chuck and their friends at RANDY'S RESTAURANT. chuck had contacted us before we left and asked if we could surprise linda a day early on her birthday. there was another couple, ellis and caroline, who had driven from grand tetons national park just to be there for dinner! they were friends from the park service. rick and leslie were visiting chuck and linda the first part of the week at the condo in pagosa springs.

we ended up changing our clothes in a parking lot! this was pretty funny and another one of those things you laugh about, as each one of us took turns blocking out the view of the other while disrobing! we got to durango a bit early, and ended up in the first of several walmarts looking for eye stuff for pam. we also bought clip on sunglasses. pam had a tough time with the dry air and her eyes for the first few days. she also had some allergy problems. both of us developed "new mexico nosebleed" as our noses dried due to the lack of humidity.

linda was pretty surprised to see the two of us and we had a wonderful dinner, although it was expensive. you know you are in trouble when they bring you a menu and there are no prices on it! i settled on appetizers of coconut shrimp, spinach and artichoke soup and a salad. pam had beef tips and a salad. both of us had been looking for something green as an alternative to the new mexico carbs we had been eating at practically every meal!

we left durango around dusk and headed towards mesa verde national park, which was about an hour away. when we got to the park, there was no one there to take our fee, so we proceeded to climb up the twisty turnny mountains headed for the lodge. i think pam was whiteknuckling it the whole way as i whipped the car around those curves. at various points we could see down on the town of cortez below. we had some problems finding the lodge, and finally got there around 10pm. our room was one for the disabled, which we never did understand. it also had a king bed, versus, once again, the 2 doubles we had booked. however, you could have stuck 6 people in the king size bed, and pam sleeps in one place and never moves, so it was fine; i didn't kick her or disturb her.

we sat out on the balcony and talked deep brains for awhile. you would think after being stuck in each other's company for several days we would run out of things to talk about. i don't remember what we discussed; i only remember that it seemed to be deep brains stuff. we couldn't see what was out there in front of us, but the stars were out and it was very peaceful, again. it was a nice way to end a great day.

Taos - Tuesday, 6/20/06

i decided when i got up early in the morning to go and visit yet another mission. this one was called san francisco de asis. pam stayed behind to make herself beautiful.

it was such a nice morning. the church was almost within walking distance of the b & b, and it was surrounded by lots of small adobe homes. it was like a little village built around this old mission.

there were a lot of people beginning work around the church, and much to my chagrin, the door was locked. one of the workers came over and told me that the priest had gone to albuquerque and he seemed surprised that the church was closed. however, he offered to find someone to open it up so i could go in, and eventually a woman did come. while waiting for her, i took a number of pictures, and helped an older mexican man, mr. martinez, drag a big hose around to the front of the building. by the looks of things, they were doing a lot of landscaping and repairing. most of the people were either indians or mexicans. i didn't realize at the time that what they were doing was mudding the church. apparently, this church is one of the last ones in the u.s. that still has actual adobe on the outside of the building. the rest, according to louis, have stucco on them. once a year the parishioners "mud" the church, and apparently the priest takes a powder to albuquerque. i did get to go inside and it was very quiet. the walls are apparently 4 feet thick. because no one was there, i was able to take some pictures of the inside. i also took a number of pictures of the grottoes with saints in them, including st. francis and st. claire.

by the time i got back to the b & b, pam had made her way to the gourmet breakfast. louis had cooked up blueberry/banana/pecan pancakes. there were also muffins and fruit. louis and catherine came around and talked to us and that was where we learned about the mudding as well as the history of the hacienda and their backgrounds. they had been at martha's vineyard running a place before they came to taos. after breakfast louis showed us the water sluice in the middle of the hacienda and he told us about how you have to have water rights. apparently, up the hill water will be released, and louis has to go and open a gate (which he showed us), which lets the water through his property and down to the people below who need it. some people do not have those water rights, but they tap in anyway.

we packed up, and i drove pam by the church. by the time we got there, the parishioners had mixed up the mud in wheelbarrows and were up on the side of the church applying it. we left there and we went into taos looking for the desert blend store so we could buy some of the lotion. they weren't open yet, so we walked around the shops looking for jewelry and stuff. bought some tin art in one store, and we ended up in a jewelry store where we bought a lot of stuff. pam finally found a kokipelli slide. i also bought a little medallion of navaho silver and another one for meg. we also got our introduction to white turquoise here. we bought a pair of earrings to split for our 5oth birthday piercings. it was a good thing we got them, because i never saw any other white turquoise earrings for the rest of the trip. as a matter of fact, we didn't see a whole lot of it, as we were told it sold out fast. after the desert blends place opened up, we bought bottles of the lotion, which is made from all local plants. while we were there, the owner came in with a delivery. she apparently gathers all of the plants and has the actual lotion manufactured in albuquerque.

we left taos around noon, pretty far behind schedule, as we had hoped to make it to four corners that day. we didn't. but we had fun not getting there!

Taos...the adobe and pines b & b

after leaving chimayo, we wandered our way to taos. we went through TRUCHAS where they filmed the movie THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR. when we got to taos, we got lost, and then finally found the b & b we were scheduled to stay in, THE ADOBE AND PINES. it was a 200 year old hacienda turned bed and breakfast, and it was pretty neat. the owners, louis and catherine, were very nice. louis is a former chef and they had owned the b & b for 7 months. each room had terry cloth robes for guests and this neat shampoo and lotion called DESERT BLENDS. it was homemade in taos, and it was so wonderful we went searching for it the next day to buy.

we settled in, pam got in the hammock and read her book, and i sat on the veranda in front of the room pouring over books and information on the area. we went out to dinner late at a hunan chinese restaurant, and the food was pretty good. pam took some good pictures of the inside of the room, which was painted in some interesting colors. the door outside was painted blue, and it was a short door, apparently made for people of smaller stature, and not me. by the time i left there, i think the top of my head must have looked like a pineapple, as i kept wacking it over and over again! the room was really hot, and they had this weird stand alone air conditioner/heater/humidifier that insisted upon blowing hot air in the room. louis came by and fixed it for us, but it was still hot in the room. he explained that it would get down to 50 degrees that night, and things would cool off. they did. we slept with the door open all night. i didn't get cold. it was also kind of neat to actually be sleeping in a room and have the door wide open all night long and not fear someone coming in.

el santuaria de chimayo -6/19/06

el santuaria de chimayo is considered the little LOURDES of america, a place where people make pilgrimages in the spring, often on foot. it is here that miracles are said to be performed. the first miracle performed must be in just getting there. the chapel in literally in the middle of nowhere on a back road between santa fe and taos. (click on this link and it will tell the history behind the miracle of the chapel: http://www.archdiocesesantafe.org/AboutASF/Chimayo.html)

it was very quiet there, and very spiritual. when we first pulled up, there was a horse next to the parking lot rubbing his head against a sign that said " this is a sacred place. please respect other visitors' devotions." when we returned, he was still scratching his head, still in the same place!

as you walk up behind the chapel, you are struck by all of the things left behind by previous visitors. there many little crosses made of stick stuck along a fence by the creek that runs behind the church. there are many altars and a row of crosses made from what looked like river stone.

the chapel itself is very small. behind the altar is a small room with a dirt floor. in the center of the floor is a hole and a small shovel. those making the pilgrimage to chimayo are welcome to take home dirt from the chapel, as it is what apparently causes the miracles. both pam and i scooped up dirt, me a bagful to take home to my friends. there is an alcove there also with many shrines, some to those who have passed, many to the various saints. in that room also are the crutches, prosethic devices and other things left by those who have had miracles occur for them.

i had brought milagros with me for various friends and family and i found a statue of the virgin mary. i took each of the milagros and said a prayer for the person it was intended for, and then lay it at the foot of the statue. in santa fe, pam had found the only milagro (in a giant basket full of them) for eyes, and she left hers there as well for her mother, who will be having cataract surgery.

across the parking lot from the chapel sits another of the small food shrines i wanted to visit, LEONA'S. i had read about it on the internet, and leona herself was there. i had the posole, and hers was made with pork. both pam and i had a tamale burrito, which was the tamale wrapped up in a burrito and covered with sauce. once again, pam got something a bit too hot, but leona gave her some of this bread pudding stuff with whipped cream, which pam took with her. i had my picture taken, again, with the proprietor and the food was good.

when we left, i went over to the creek running behind the church and stepped into the water there and pulled up a couple of rocks to take with me. in a way, i think that too was healing for me, almost like a little baptism of sorts. the sun was out and it was cool and kind in the world and i was appreciative of the many gifts that had been given there to others, and was hopeful that i, too, would be gifted.

i was.

if it is monday, it must be sante fe...6/19/06

i like to think i am pretty good at directions, but i have to admit to being defeated by one road circling the plaza in santa fe. we did end up on the famed canyon road looking at artsy fartsy stuff and cool adobe houses...why not make an adventure out of a screwup? took some pictures of some interesting sculptures while looking for some place to get coffee. eventually we found our way back to the center of the turquoise jewelry universe, the plaza at the palace of governors.

the visit on the plaza was sort of a bizarre mix of the materialistic and the spiritual. before we ever got to the plaza, we went into our second of several missions, st. francis of assisi church. it was quite lovely, with a gorgeous font in the center of the church and wonderful alcoves and carved stations of the cross. we had been into felipe de neri church in albuquerque, and i had come to new mexico with the intent of somehow getting myself healed and cleaned up spiritually and physically. when i went into st. francis, immediately i went to the alcove to the right which was dedicated to st. anthony, the patron saint of miracles. i had brought milagros to new mexico with me, which are tiny little tin images that the mexicans use to ask for special petitions from the various saints. milagros are sort of strange: there is one of the leg, an arm, a hen, children, dogs, donkeys, and others. you pin the little milagros to the statues of the saints and hope for the best. i bought the milagros off of the internet the first summer i was in my house thinking i would use them somehow in decorating in my house, but that never happened. instead, i took them to new mexico. the first one i put in the hands of the baby and then the beggar at the foot of st. anthony's statue. however, the milagro kept falling out of everyone's hands. i finally just put it at st. anthony's feet and asked for help...and i really needed it. i noticed pam next to me lighting a candle, which i later found out she was doing for her mother, who is about to have cataract surgery. i felt a lot lighter after i left the church. i am still feeling that way. i guess my prayers were answered, and st. anthony is the patron saint of miracles....

after the church we walked past loretto chapel, but didn't go in. pam had been there last year with her mother, and i felt i had done my thing at st. francis. we wandered the streets a bit and ended up on the plaza.

i don't think i had been out of the car more than 3 minutes before i made my second jewelry purchase, which was a ring of nevada turquoise. saw it, bought it, and put it on. pam was intently pursuing kokopelli's while i was intently pursuing FRITO PIES. one of the places on my list of the bizarre places to eat was THE FIVE AND DIME GENERAL STORE on the plaza. i went in there and got my frito pie, which was a bag of fritos slit down the side and smothered in chili and cheese. COOL!...and greasy. i bought a lot of stuff in that place, including a couple more t-shirts. i almost bought austin a slingshot, but got a brain and decided i didn't need to bring home a weapon of bird death as a gift from new mexico. pam headed out of the store before i did, and suddenly i found myself on the sidewalk in need of a photographer to memorialize me and my frito pie. i managed to snag a total stranger to do the deed!

i followed pam around as she shopped for jewelry. she bought a really nice pendant and earring set of nevada turquoise. we didn't notice until later that it matches my ring! the earrings and pendant were cut from the same piece of turquoise. she also bought a silver guitar pick for carter and a ring with a pretty green stone.

for lunch i had decided to have a carnita at ROQUE'S CARNITAS which i had seen at roadfood.com and it was touted as a great local place to eat. it is just a little food stand where roque grills the meat and veggies on the spot. the carnita was wonderful, and roque himself was cooking. i, once again, had my picture taken with the food AND roque! pam and i sat in the center of the plaza to eat. i had read that the food was mucho messy, and that was the truth. we watched another guy eat his over the garbage can, and i pretty much took a bath in the juices - you could read the ingredients off of the front of my shirt...but it was wonderful! i managed to get pam to try it, although she was getting leary at that point of the possibility of losing her lips to the spicy food!

after leaving the plaza, we tried to visit another of the mission churches, but it was closed, so we ended up on the wrong end, again, of the road, we stopped at an allsups and got gas, ice, a cooler and drinks for the trip. pam gently directed me back towards town and we managed to find our way out. the road to taos runs through the pueblos, and they had painted and decorated the overpasses with art, which was kind of cool. we stopped at camel rock and had our pictures taken, and we drove over to the camel rock casino and pam took a picture of it. was the first of many casinos that we would pass on the trip. and after that we headed for espanola,taos and the mission el santuaria de chimayo, where miracles have been reported...

you, too, can listen to the soundtrack of "pam and ellen's excellent adventure"...

and then there was the music...

for every trip, there has to be music. it started on our first day when we turned on the local PBS station and got a shock. KANW is not your typical PBS station...and for the next couple of days we listened to new mexico music. that first day was father's day, so we spent many hours listening to dedications to the dead and living daddys. funny thing about friends...i had no idea that this type of music would appeal to pam. would never have given it a thought, and she seemed to enjoy it...a lot...and what else was amazing was the fact that this station carried so far. we listened to it until we were out of taos on tuesday and on to the jicarillo apache reservation. while we were listening to it they kept advertising albums of the music they were playing. when i got home, i ordered the most recent one and now i can sit in my computer room and listen to albuquerque's local mexican yokels singing hank williams tunes in spanish! in case anyone is interested, you can get the KANW music soundtracks here: http://www.kanw.com/store_music.html

once KANW became a static-y memory, we tuned into yet another PBS station somewhere around dulce, new mexico and listened to interviews of individuals who were running for tribal council on the jicarillo apache indian reservation. it was interesting to listen to them discuss the issues on the rez, and it seemed to give both of us reason to think about a lot of things, not the least of which is how lucky we are.

that station faded out, and we were headed out of the rez. i put on the first of the cd's i had dragged halfway across the united states to listen to. this one became the music-to-listen-to-while-exploring-indian-country cd. it is "the sacred fire" by nicholas gunn. it fit the landscape and the mood just perfectly, and we listened to it over and over until wednesday when we headed over to pagosa springs. more on nicholas gunn: http://www.nicholasgunn.com/

pam only conked out on me one time the whole trip, and that was in the stretch between durango and pagosa springs. i decided that this was a good time for me to pull out my homemade christian music cd, which i had wanted to listen to, but was too embarassed to do in front of pam. another sort of secret: i had become a closet christian music addict. however, there is something about admitting at my age that you are liking this kind of music that is scary. i should have known better and trusted her a little. things were going pretty well...she was asleep, i was humming along, and then we hit some sort of electrical vortex that sucked all of the energy out of the cd player. it just stopped on song 5. i was not a happy camper. and then i began to cuss. a lot. loudly. and then there was a construction backup of traffic, and pam was waking up to a car slowing down and the driver heating up. "DAMMIT! SONOFABITCH! SHIT! I WANT TO HEAR SONG FIVE!!!!" no small amount of irony there...cussing a blue streak because i can't listen to a christian music cd. we had plenty of time to fart around with it while waiting to get through the construction site and i got it to go again, only to stop at song 8...sigh. the interesting thing about this was that just prior to the cd dying, my cell phone gave one beep. i thought this was an isolated incident until it happened again with a different cd on our way back to albuquerque from pagosa springs. the only thing we could figure is that either aliens were trying to listen to christian music, god was testing my blood pressure at a high altitude, or there is some sort of weird electrical blackhole in the mountains of north central new mexico. in all cases, the cell phone beeped first, heralding the imminent departure of the music...

pam commented that she never knows the names of songs or who the artists are. so for you, old gal, listed below are those people on the cd. (i gave her the copy of the one we listened to on the trip.) one notation, however. the last song, "kind and generous" popped up in the shuffle of my ipod as our plane was descending through a thunderstorm into richmond. it was the final coincidence of many in the trip, and i pulled the headset off and handed it to pam so she could listen to the words, which pretty much summed up how i felt about our excellent adventure as it was ending.

You in Me - Big Daddy Weave
Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) - Brian Doerksen
Your Name Is Holy - Brian Doerksen / O'Connell
Trading my Sorrows - Darrell Evans
Now that You're near -Hillsong
Stronger Than - Hillsong
Come Now is the Time to Worship -Hillsongs
You're Worthy of My Praise -John Tesh
That's Why We Praise Him -Lisa Bevill/Maranatha! Singers
Ancient of Days -Northminster Church band
Lord, I Lift Your Name on High -Northminster Church band
Lord Reign In Me -Tim Hughes
I Want To Know What Love Is - Tina Arena
Grace Like Rain -Todd Agnew
Only A God Like You -Tommy Walker
Hallelujah, (Your Love is Amazing) -Matt Redmon
Kind and Generous -Northminster Church band

missing music: chuck's homemade mix of music from the day as well as "the little mermaid." i enjoyed being serenaded by the jerry orbach of the southwest.

MADRID (pronounced MAD-rid)! sunday, 6/18/06

first lesson in new mexico bar etiquette: never assume someone will wait on you just because you walk in or you look great. pam's good looks weren't enough to get anyone in the MINE SHAFT TAVERN to bring us a well-deserved beer and iced tea. we sat there like little stumps, looking around hopefully at NOSERING, the bartender and a couple of kids in black shirts who were lifting things off of tables, enough so that we assumed they worked there.

a description of the bar. it hangs on the side of the road, its back parked against a hill. it has a long front porch that you can hang out on to drink and talk and gaze at the touristas as they come in from the parking lot looking for adventure. at the end of the parking lot are a series of shops run by old hippies. we went into a few little stores on the return trip and talked to the owners, who seem to spend a lot of time sitting outside in chairs talking to each other and entertaining their dogs. dogs: everyone in madrid apparently has large ones that either wander slowly up and down the streets or sleep on the floors of their owner's shops! everyone(including the dogs) was nice, laid back, and seemingly content. madrid is apparently, as i said, the place where hippies go to die. according to one of the shop owners, that is really true. up on a hill somewhere out of town, many a hippie has taken his final big toke and is now residing in a graveyard that is described as being quite colorful. only the locals know about it, and according to the gal we talked to, you have no problems telling which section belongs to the local mexicans/indians/oldtimers vs. where the liberators from the '60's are buried. apparently a tie-dye motif is popular in that area.

what caused the deer-caught-in-the-headlights-look posted on both our faces? hmmm, let's see...could it have been the skinny, 60ish woman with the shaved head and skin tight red biker shorts? i couldn't decide if she was a chemo patient out for an afternoon ride or just a healthy buddhist nun looking for adventure. this place is also the home of the ponytailed 50ish male. i haven't seen that many longhaired men since lynyrd skynrd came to town. evidently, before they leave this earthly plain, the madrid residents gather in the tavern to celebrate diversity. besides nosering, there was also a little short dude with missing teeth and a hat who was grooving to jeff beck's album "blow by blow." (NOTE: apparently, a requirement to being a real new mexico resident is to forgo the use of teeth...more later.) there were an a few interesting possible lesbians. also note that children in madrid are welcome in bars, and that there is quite a bit of ethnic diversity and blended family action going on there. i kept wondering what would have transpired if pam and i had had our boys with us. perish the thought...

so we sat there awhile...a long while, as a matter of fact. now, when you first go into a restaurant or bar, it is pretty normal to sit and wait for a waiter to appear, right? you just assume that everyone knows you are there for a drink and that when someone gets free, you will be waited on. but after 15 minutes, when the clientele and the bartenders are looking at you, you start to wonder if you have a boob unloosed or a fly down. did one of us have B. O.? where are the menus? fortunately, we were rescued by ken, who had seen us from his perch on the front porch, and apparently felt pity upon us when he came inside and saw us sitting there. gee, do you think it might have been the neon signs blinking over us saying IGNORANT TOURIST? in any case, ken rescued us from dehydration by explaining that if you wanted something, you had to go to the bar and ask. no one, apparently, would be climbing over said bar to find out what we wanted. that done, nosering, the bartender with a HUGE nosering, dreads and a beard, brought me an iced tea and pam the beer she craved. ken parked at the table with us, and proceeded to fill us on on the local scene in madrid, new mexico.

ken said that he lived in the next town over, and by the looks of what he had on, ken was a painter, or at least for that day. apparently, people in madrid just live off of the grid, and money is no big deal. i asked him what people did for a living there since there was obviously nothing industrial for mucho miles. he made some wiseass crack about people moving there and living off of their trust funds, but the general gist was that people in madrid weren't exactly interested in money. judging by the lack of teeth, i would say he was right.

in any case, i thought he was there to pick up pam, but he just turned out to be a nice guy. so was nosering and the jeff beck one-tooth dude. the locals were the norm there and i was kicking myself for not haven worn my tie dye shirt that day...this might have just been the one place i could fit in...:)

after finishing our drinks, we hit the road again for sante fe, and as we passed out of madrid and its narrow main (and only, apparently) street, we noticed all the cool shops and a sign at the end of town over the road saying MADRID CHILE FESTIVAL. HOOHA! we would have to come back for that one, and we did...later.

dropping out of madrid and onward down the road to sante fe was really awesome. it wasn't that there was anything much to look at, because most of it was pretty desolate in a spiritual way. but then again, it did fill me up... it was early evening, the sun was coming down slowly, and the mountains and the land on either side of the highway seemed to be picking up some special light. we had on the KANW new mexican music that pam found on the radio, and both of us were zenned out! there was a real good vibe there, one that we talked about the rest of the week, and one we returned to.

the turquoise trail turned into cerillos road in sante fe and we found our hotel, THE PARK INN, in short order. after dumping off the luggage, we went out and settled on eating at a place called Tortilla Flats. pam checked out the enchilladas, again, and this time i tried posole for the first time. this was very good, and i developed a taste for it over the next week. this posole had beef in it along with green chiles and hominy. pam also got an order of sopapillas, which she didn't finish but carried with her around the rest of new mexico until it came to be eaten somewhere, i think, in colorado. and she said it was very good, even later...so there...

this was one of the few nights that we actually got separate beds. despite the fact that we booked double beds, no one seemed to pay much attention to it. we did switch rooms this night after they gave us ONE queen bed and a dead tv.

thus endeth our first night in new mexico!

the turquoise trail...a cactus...and a tavern- sunday, 6/18/06

on her way back to alburquerque last year, pam and her mother stopped at the MINE SHAFT TAVERN in a tiny town called madrid along the "turquoise trail" between albuquerque and santa fe. they had lunch and apparently a nice experience. one of the few things pam wanted to do on this trip was to go back there and have a beer. we did. more later...

we left albuquerque and the plaza and headed for the turquoise trail, which is a 50 mile stretch of old mining towns gone dry. that little excursion off the interstate turned out to be one of the best parts of the trip, both coming and going. it was my first glimpse of new mexico out of the city, and i was sort of on sensory overload...couldn't get it all in!

the first thing we did was put the little rental car to work climbing 14 miles up to SANDIA PEAK. this is where i learned about the D3 and D2 gears in a car...and not always with a lot of success. it took both of us to drive...me driving and pam telling me when i should shift. the car made it to the top and we climbed out, huffing and puffing, to the top. pam's feet had been trapped in a pair of her snazzy sandals all day, and were not cooperating...can you say "swelling" in spanish? we took some gorgeous shots from the mountain top, which was close to 11,000 in elevation. we also engaged in our first acts of subterfuge, for it was here that we began the quest for ROCKS. it is amazing how silly two middle aged women can act about picking up rocks, which is one of the free (hahahahaha) souvenirs i search for on every trip. on our west coast excursion in 1999, i infected pam with the "rock stealing" bug, so she too was picking them up on this trip. she, however, is smarter than i am. she picks up small rocks. i, however, must find ones that i can paint the locations on. the result? probably 50 pounds of rocks that i checked as luggage when we returned..(.and the feds actually went through the bag looking for...what?...) in any case, i was feeling quite smarmy when i returned to the car with the rock, which i was next joined by...a cactus.

a snapshot: driving along the trail, and ellen has seen REAL CACTUS growing on the side of the road...well, too many to just pass by. suddenly, pam finds herself on the side of the road going "huh?" and before she can react, i am on the side of the road to just grab a little prickly pear. it was intended to be a swift steal, but because i am a dumb ass, it took a little longer. i was not listening to pam, who was saying over and over again "YOU ARE GOING TO GET STUCK!" what i forgot was that i am blind. i couldn't see anything but the BIG POINTY THINGS and thought i would be clever and just grab between the big spikes. wrong. in about 4 seconds i was hopping around on the side of the road with about 6 million microscopic cactus needles stuck in my fingers and the cactus was still intact. not one to be deterred, i had to think quickly while screaming in pain and looking up and down the highway for the new mexico police who were looking for cactus thieves.

necessity is the mother of invention. i remembered that i had stuck a pair of my underpants into my pocketbook in case i got stranded somewhere or had an in-flight accident. before pam could yell HURRY UP one more time, i was back with the giant, parachute underwear, fighting the cactus, again. i still got stuck, but not as badly. pam was trying to take a picture of this, which didn't happen. too bad. for posterity's sake we would have had a picture of my posterior bent over wrestling with huge undies and a cactus.

in any case, i won. the big flat prickly pear is upstairs as i write this, still wrapped in it's brightly colored underwear package. i haven't decide yet how to extract it from the underwear. the two "ears" on top (which i named "thelma" and "louise") got snapped off and are now residing in a pot of soil on pam's porch in amelia.
ellen:1 cactus: 0