"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

May 25, 2008 The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture is located on beautiful Museum Hill TM at 710 Camino Lejo off Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We spent the afternoon there at 2008 Native Treasures Event. Some hundred and fifty artists representing 40 tribes and Pueblos come to showcase and sell their pottery, jewelry, glass, painting, sculpture, carvings, textiles and other art. Items were museum quality and the prices represented that. We met Carol Naranjo who creates red willow baskets, and pine needle baskets. She shared with us her techniques and encouraged us to continue exploring the craft. The museums were free because of the event so we enjoyed each of them. The Here, Now and Always tells the story of the Southwest’s oldest communities. As we walked through the halls of Ancestors, Cycles, Architecture, Language&Song, Plants&Animals, Exchange, Survival and Arts we learned that together past and present make a cycle, a circle that travels in a straight lin...

May 23, 2008 Happy Memorial Day Weekend Woke up at the Holiday Inn Roadside last night. We did more internetting. How do you like the new map we found for the blog-see below? We also started a Facebook page, thanks Nicole for sharing that with us! By the way we love seeing the pictures of the grandkids on Nicole’s site and Jennifer’s site is up and running too. We found gas at $3.85 with a gas price search on the Internet. Prices here around Santa Fe and running $4.00!!! The city park was a nice place to spend the day until it got too windy. Then we found the Best Buy and scheduled next week to have a new radio and speakers put in the Roadtrek.

May 22, 2008 It was raining when we got up this morning here in the Chibola National Forest. Today is a good day to drive. We packed up, had our coffee and drove up to the Red Canyon Campground to dump our trash. It is snowing up here!!!! Then we started down the mountain and north to Santa Fe and civilization. We looked back and sure enough the mountains are covered with snow. We followed route 337, a great road through the forest that goes down the mountain with switchbacks and wiggles (sports car road) to Tijeras where we picked up route 14 north. That took us across the San Padre Valley and into the foothills. The mining ghost town of Madrid is trying to be an artsy town. They have the Engine Theater, Mining Saloon, shops and eateries. Great destination point for people in the nearby cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Cerrillos is another ghost town making a go of it as a tourist stop with a glass bottle shop, antique shops, beautiful church and lots of art studios housed in histo...

May 20-21, 2008 We spent a few days parked in the Cibola National Forest with the tall pine trees surrounding us. We set out the hummingbird feeder when we hear the little creatures flying around, but none came to the feeder. One morning, however, one landed on the window of the Roadtrek!!! He sat there a few moments, enough time for us to get a good look at her as she turned her head quickly looking around, then, she flew off. There was a woodpecker, the Hairy that could be heard most of the day pecking away in search of bugs. Little Brown Birds, we refer to them as LBBs, fluttered around. One bird, a Meadow Lark we believe, sang to us each morning and evening. Vultures soared just at dusk each night looking for a place to roost for the night. A Stellar Jay squawked at us each morning. The only other animal we saw was the dark black-eared squirrel. We took several walks around the area dirt roads. Dusk one evening we put our headlights on and went on a night hike up to the top of the ...

May 19, 2008 We got up and walked down to the Quarai mission ruins and walked around. The church stands tall open to the sky, the kivas are set into the ground. Both are places of worship, one for the Christians and one for the Pueblo Indians. We are in the small pines now, more intimate with the hills to one side and the vast valley on the other. We made our way a few miles into the Cibola National Forest. First we checked the campground, but there was a fee and no amenities so we found ourselves a spot just down the road a ways in a primitive site.

May 18, 2008 We left Socorro, NM first taking I25 south a few miles then turning east on route 380. It was a beautiful sunny day. The smell of the desert, creosote bush, filled the air. There are no clouds in the white wash of the sky. Once again we crossed the Rio Grande River, here it is fast flowing and wider than along the Mexican border with Texas where it is shallow and you could just step across it in many places. We past the Trinity Site, the first atomic bomb test site. They give tours twice a year of the barn where it was put together and the base where it was tested. Yes, the soil is still radioactive, but they say you collect no more than if you were having an e-ray. The road is straight across the vast valley of grassland where cattle graze. Then came the sandy soil and dunes covered with grass, sage brush and a few yuccas. Finally we climbed up through the pinyon pines to 6700feet and then drove back down to the valley on the other side. Several species of hawks have bee...