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Journals: Week 9 (June 11-17, 2007)
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our tent, and settled in to update this
website. It rained most of the night, and though there were dark clouds looming
everywhere in the sky, there was a hint of sun behind a few clouds. Most
importantly, it wasn't raining... that is, until a few minutes ago! Though the
picnic area is covered by a nice tin roof, it doesn't account for gale force winds driving
the rain underneath the roof from the sides. So I quickly packed everything up, and
now, here I sit, in the van on the passenger side, hoping the battery to the laptop holds
out while I write this entry. (Of course, now, ten minutes later, it looks like the
rain has stopped - things sure do happen quickly around here! But it's still mostly
cloudy, so before I decide to get comfy under the picnic area, I'll wait and see what the
weather has in store over the next ten minutes. Besides, it's a bit nippy out there,
at about 55 degrees - didn't someone tell New Mexico it's June already?!
University of New Mexico-Taos. The rain had stopped briefly
as we walked around the Pueblo, noticing the architecture (homes and other structures made
from earth, water, and straw) and the people (about 150 people live on the Pueblo full
time, with about 1,900 living just outside of the Pueblo, since the Pueblo itself has no
modern facilities like electricity or running water), walking into various shops.
Most of the items for sale are made by the residents of the Pueblo; we met Isabel and her
grandson Edward (whose Indian name is "Aspen Mist"). Edward, who is 13
years old and going into the 8th grade, paints Pueblo scenes onto greeting cards.
Says it takes him all of 10 minutes to create each one. (Speaking of 10 minutes, the
rain has stopped and there are more patches of sun, but since clouds still dominate, I'll
continue to write in the comforts of the van until further notice!) Edward's mother,
who wasn't in the shop, made much of the other items in their shop, like jewelry, pottery,
and baby moccasins. Since we're on a budget, we bought one of his cards. Of
course, our budget did not preclude us from spending almost double on some authentic
mud-oven-baked bread and pumpkin cookies, made daily by an elderly tribal woman (we didn't
catch her name). She said she gets up at 3am every day to bake her goods, and good
they were. And I thought I got up early! There are many wandering dogs
at the Pueblo, very tame and mild-mannered as they walked alongside various people,
looking for food, no doubt. However, rules of the Pueblo say not to feed them,
probably to avoid a dog riot!
The
rain persisted yesterday, though by the time we finished grazing through the Plaza, there
was a break, so we walked back to van completely dry. Earlier, Elena had read about
a place about 20 miles away that had some live music (which she mentioned in her last
entry). We decided to check it out. 
how
much we enjoyed Michael's music, sort of a cross between country and folk (I think his
voice bears a slight resemblance to Kenny Rogers). There was even a place for folks
to dance a two-step in front of Michael, which many did - Elena and I did manage to get
out for one slow dance (my two-steppin' steps are a little shaky). We spoke with
Michael after his first set as he talked about one of his four CDs for sale, "Sight
and Sound." This CD has songs (award-winning, by the way) he wrote that were
inspired by various paintings from local New Mexican artists, all of which are pictured
and explained in the liner notes of the CD. He was kind enough to autograph the CD,
which we bought, and even take a picture with us. Darn nice, that Michael
Hearne! Check him out if you get a chance.
across
the country with her husband? Well, this was the couple: Jim and Kristi from
Atlanta, GA. As we were intrigued by their story, they were also intrigued by
ours. They have been traveling for about three weeks and plan to cruise through
September, or as long as the money lasts. Jim is an aspiring actor with experience
working in the radio industry, and Kristi is a "retired" dental hygienist (as
in, she's done it for 12 years and doesn't want to do it anymore). They've been
married about three and a half years, and we came to learn that they are very friendly and
spiritual people. We talked at length about each other's cross-country-tour
experiences so far, comparing notes about places and people, all agreeing that most places
were pretty incredible, and that most people were friendly and accommodating (with a few
exceptions to both, of course). They had recently come from Santa Fe and would
likely be heading out for Colorado Springs the next day. We said goodbye, saying we
might see each other the following day before we each left Taos for our next
destination. Elena and I headed out for lunch.
we decided to take a drive to the Taos Ski Valley, an area we'd heard was
beautiful. By chance (or was it? Hmmm...), we stopped back at the campsite before
heading out to the ski valley. For the few minutes we were there, I happened to run
into Jim, who was getting a late start to his day (it was about 1:00 at this point).
We started talking again and he asked if Elena and I wanted to have dinner with him and
Kristi that evening; coincidentally, Elena and I had talked at lunch about asking them to
share some s'mores later that evening. Anyway, we made dinner plans and, after our
drive to the Taos Ski Valley and a short stop at Arroyo Seco (where we met potter Scott
and his girlfriend jeweler Katy), we ended up sharing a great meal at the Taos Pizza
Outback restaurant. Afterward, Jim "interviewed" us on video about our
trip, and we eventually did the same of him and Kristi later on. Jim even shared a
short-film of his that he wrote and directed; we watched it in the campsite's short-film
viewing room (a.k.a., the laundry room). An impressive effort and an obvious labor
of love, we appreciated Jim sharing his film with us. When his first blockbuster
feature film hits DVD, I'm sure his 13-minutes short-film will be one of the special
features of the disc!
(remember
the civil engineer/part-time campsite staffer?) stopped by for a brief goodbye (pictured
here on the left) and a recommendation for some scenic views on the drive to Santa
Fe. We then walked to Jim and Kristi's campsite to say goodbye to them. We
found Jim talking with Evan (and his dog, Yogi), a resident of Malibu, CA who has been
living out of his camper for three-and-a-half years with his girlfriend of six years; they
were taking some time to travel and had arrive at "our" campsite the previous
day. When Kristi returned, (she had been getting ready), she (and we) learned that
Evan is a massage therapist. Before Evan left, Kristi innocently asked him for some
professional advice about some pain in her upper back. The next thing she knew, he
was giving her an "alignment," and the next thing we all knew, he was giving us
ALL alignments! Fortunately, he appeared to know what he was doing, and we seemed to
feel better after each of our alignments, if not a little weaker from being flailed around
like a rag-doll! Evan also recommended a place called Ojo Caliente, an extremely
small town that was known mainly for one thing: its hot mineral springs. It was
about an hour from Taos, and just an hour away from Santa Fe, which was in our general
direction. He said he and his girlfriend had just come from spending about a week
there and it would be well worth our time to check it out. We all said goodbye as we
headed in our different directions.
There were several springs there, including
iron, arsenic (yes, arsenic!), soda, and mud! Also included were saunas, both dry
and wet, which, of course, were both enjoyed by us (it was like a sauna in there!).
All of the springs were hot and relaxing as the sun shone down and a consistent cool
breeze prepared us for the next hot spring. We both started with the mud spring,
though Elena enjoyed it a second time later in the day, hence the reason she's the one who
was captured by the camera basking (or baking) under a body mask of mud! There was
even a spring of Lithia, from which you can drink; it's supposed to help with depression,
though it tasted very metallic, which made me quite depressed (you see the irony?!).
As the sun began to dip beyond the cliffs rising over the springs, we decided to call it a
day- a wonderfully relaxing and tranquil day. There's nothing like an afternoon at
some hot mineral springs to wash away all of the stress of a once-in-a-lifetime
cross-country driving trip, I always say. But seriously, if you're ever in Santa Fe
or Taos, you should try to get to the mineral springs at Ojo Caliente. As Evan said,
you won't regret it.
especially when we go several days without updating. We're
trying to allow ourselves time to soak in these experiences without feeling too tied to
the technology we've brought with us. At the same time, we really want a special
record of this trip, so we can look back on the trip when we are settled and far away from
this time in our lives. By the time the trip is finished, we should have this
balance figured out just right! 
food at the Famous
Plaza Cafe (more like a diner). Then we walked over to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum,
which was really wonderful. We watched a short film about her life and her
paintings; it turns out Georgia loved New Mexico for its colors and amazing landscapes,
mountains, deserts, rivers, and gorges. Nature was her true inspiration for her
paintings, and she sought to give to the world her abstract interpretations of how nature,
a flower for example, when you look at it, becomes your world for that moment. We
saw many of her most famous works of art, and got a few interpretations from a museum
guard. He told us that Georgia always painted something she was looking at or had
seen, no matter how non-objective or abstract it might look. He pointed out a few to
us and explained what they represented: a the head of a violin, the lights from the city,
the "life of water"- things we would not have seen with our eyes, or known
without this extra fact. We were grateful the guard took the time to share this
special information with us as we browsed the exhibits.
Francis of
Assisi. This is one of the oldest operating Catholic churches in the U.S., and has
several interesting sculptures outside. We weren't able to go inside, as it was
locked, but we were able to get a few nice pictures of the outside with the sunset just
beginning. 
As
we walked around the top of the hill taking pictures, Jonathan met a couple, Sandra and
Charles, who were having a sort of pre-burial ceremony for their cat Chloe, who had just
passed away. They carried Chloe in a box, wrapped in her favorite pink sweater and
blankets, surrounded with wild flowers. They told us Chloe had died only three hours
ago, and that they believed the soul does not leave the body for three days (based on many
different spiritual and religious philosophies). So they were taking Chloe out for
the sunset, to help themselves let go of her, and to help Chloe release her spirit.
Although it may sound kind of "new age-y," it was very sweet and you could tell
these two really loved their cat. They were kind enough to recommend to us a few
places to eat and visit in Santa Fe, including the local Zen Buddhist center, which we may
check out tomorrow. Upon Sandra's request, Jonathan took some pictures of Chloe and
the sunset to send to them, and we decided to head back since it was getting cold, and a
bit late. 
three museums on our four-day museum pass. We
decided to leave our motel close to downtown Santa Fe and try some camping here. We
were ready to leave our motel, but not necessarily ready to leave Santa Fe. The
campgrounds are very nicely landscaped and we have a nice area for our tent. Except
for menacing clouds all afternoon and evening, and a prolonged lightning show last night,
the rain held off and it is currently sunny, hot (with minimal humidity, which is very
nice), and beautiful. We woke up this morning to the sound of extremely loud locusts
that are camouflaged expertly in the trees that surround us, Apparently these guys do this
every seven years. (Figures the seven years happens to be up now as we're camping
under their watchful eyes.)
their
campsite right next to ours. Matthew and Elizabeth are on a road trip heading to
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as they will be getting married there on 7/7/07. Matthew is a
recent law school graduate and has secured a job here in Santa Fe clerking for a justice
of the New Mexico Supreme Court (hence the reason they're here now- they're scouting out
apartments for their ultimate relocation in a few months). Elizabeth is a doctoral
student who's just starting her dissertation; she'll be getting her Ph.D. in
philosophy. We ended up sharing some s'mores last night over a fire that was built
by Matthew without the help of the small "starter logs" we had been using
previously. (Apparently, we were remiss in reading the warning on those starter logs
that say not to cook with them due to the chemicals. I was wondering why that third
eye was growing in the back of my head!) Turns out Matthew was a long-time boy-scout
and knows how to build a fire from scratch- no newspapers, no lighter fluid, no starter
logs. It was a good education for Elena and me, so we now know how to build one at
our future campsites. We talked into the evening, getting to know each other's
stories, and will likely share some more campfire stories tonight.