Route 66 in Albuquerque

Leslie & I were out shopping in Albq this morning and afternoon, and after making some purchases at Jackalope's, the local gardening center, we looked for a Greek place to have a gyro at. Unfortunately, the two places we wanted to go to were closed and out of business. So we wound up driving down Central Avenue, which is Route 66 through the heart of Albuquerque, where we stumbled upon a nice Middle Eastern eatery called Sahara, a highly-reviewed little restaurant. (We had the shawarma beef & lamb combo dinner, which, of course, we shared.) And you would know this was Route 66 for sure, as there are many Route 66-era places left, including several historic motels and diners, that litter Central on both sides of the street. Some of them have been adapted for re-use, like the present restaurant that used to be the Jones Motor Company. One of these fascinating places is the Aztec Motel, which defies description. We stopped right next to the Premiere Motel in order to take a picture of the Aztec across the street. Let me provide you with a link to some of the other neon signs that remain. Hannah, I know you will be fascinated by them: Neon. Central is the southern border of the University of New Mexico, so of course, there are oddball shops and coffee shops and restaurants all along Central.

There are also several antique shops and malls on Central, so we walked through one large one for a couple of hours, then went on back to the Beelers' house for supper. Right now we are prepping for loading the car for the trip back to Joplin tomorrow. We plan to leave at about 6 am.

Taos, The Gorge, and Earthship Landing Zone

Today, May 30, 2008, was the best day of the vacation thus far. It was Leslie's birthday, too, and befitting for her, as the trip to the Taos Pueblo was a highlight. We got up and ate a none-too-satisfying breakfast at the Econolodge and set out for Taos, about 30 miles north of Santa Fe. We arrived about 12:30 and set out on foot for a tour of the village. We took lots of photos there, but cannot post up any of them now. The link with photos will have to do for now. We walked around there for about 2 hours, stopping into the little shops inside the houses. We bought Indian fry bread for a snack and bread baked in an outdoor oven, plus one or two little items of jewelry. The Taos artisans, who made all the products themselves, were very nice people. We just didn't want to leave the pueblo on a bright day, with deep blue sky all around and the mountains in the near-distance.

But we left and went back to Taos, where we toured the galleries & shops and ate Leslie's birthday lunch at Ogelvie's, overlooking the plaza, the town square, which is a park with band pagoda. We split a 1/2 pound buffalo cheeseburger there. While we were walking from shop to shop we got a call from Hannah. But because it was Digital Roam, which I had never used before, by the time I figured out how to answer, Hannah had to leave a voice message wishing her mom a happy birthday. They were at O'Hare waiting for a delayed flight to Nashville. Sorry we couldn't take the call, Hannah!

When we left Taos we decided to take the highway north out of the town, toward the Rio Grande Gorge bridge. It was yet another highlight. What a zen experience it was. We parked on the near side of the bridge and walked to the west side, pausing at several places to take pictures. The bridge is on US 64, which runs through Arkansas, so I stood in the middle of the road and took a picture of Taos and the mountains in the distance. I felt connected with Searcy and Augusta, Arkansas. Until we post up our own photos, these two from someone's photo site will have to do: river & bridge. Since we were there near the end of the day, half the gorge is in shadow, so the pics may not be as good as the ones I found on line. Another experience occurred while there: Kelly called to wish her mother a happy birthday, so Leslie talked with her for quite a while as she stood and viewed the gorge, the bridge, and the mountains in the distance. By this time I knew how to accept a digital roaming call, so that's why we were able to talk to Kelly, Hannah.

After we left the bridge, I decided we would continue north on 64 till we linked up with US 285 back to Santa Fe and on to Albuquerque. The sun was sinking lower now, but there was still enough light of day left. On the way back, another serendipity, as we stumbled across the community of Earthship Landing Zone, off to the right of the highway. (The picture at the header of Sangres.com is of Taos Pueblo, by the way.) Unbelievable! A small community spread out on the plain, of houses built of any and all sustainable materials, in strange shapes and sizes. There was even a visitors' center, but it was closed. We didn't feel free to drive the dirt roads into the community, but we did take pictures from the road. Perhaps the link provides better pictures than we will ever have. I discovered there is a real estate site for buying the land and the houses.

Since we drove away from Santa Fe, it took us about 2 hours to make it back to Albuquerque, getting back about 10:20. All in all, it was a fabulous day, one we will never forget. It started with ancient Indian pueblos and ended with futuristic dwellings!

Santa Fe & Beyond

It's Thursday the 29th, and we are in Santa Fe, at the EconoLodge on Cerrillos Road. We left Albuquerque around 10 this morning and arrived in Santa Fe a little before 11. We spent the afternoon downtown around the Plaza, which is a park with a band shell. On one side of the park is the Palace of Governors, the oldest public building in the US, which now has a museum of Santa Fe history and outside of it are Indian craftspeople and their wares, on the sidewalk. Vendors are all around and in the square, too.

We also toured the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi , the mission church of San Miguel--the oldest church in America, dating back to the early 1600's--the state capitol building, and the nation's oldest house in the nation's oldest neighborhood.

Since it's late, I am going to post this and come back perhaps tomorrow and finish it. We are going up to Taos on Friday to spend the day, then drive back to Albuquerque. Friday, May 30, is Leslie's birthday, so we hope it's a great day in Taos.

Until later....

New Mexico!

Today is Wednesday, May 28, and we have been in Albuquerque since Saturday evening, May 24. The first part of what follows I have already sent in an email message to family, but I am going to repeat it.

We got up at 5:00 on May 24 and showered and started to load (from within the garage, which was very nice), when a thunderstorm hit around 6, the time we were going to leave, and the tornado siren went off. Our plan was to leave at 6, but we wound up waiting out the storm and ate breakfast at home rather than on the road. We finally left about 7:15 while it was still raining. We ran out of the rain around Vinita, OK, then had good weather from there on. We had no trouble at all navigating through Tulsa and OKC. We stopped for gas 3 times, and each time the price was higher, paying 3.899 the last time. Leslie took over and drove about 300 miles of the trip, including through Amarillo. I took over at Tucumcari, our last fillup, and drove the last 175 miles in. The trip was easier than we anticipated, taking about 13 hours and 20 minutes, including stops, for 759 miles. We listened to the mp3 player from Clinton, OK on.

We stopped for gas in Clinton, where Leslie had lived until after kindergarten. We drove around looking for the old buildings she remembered, but we think they were torn down. Maybe on the way back we will have more information and look around some more.

The terrain changed in western OK and through the panhandle of Texas, until we started ascending toward Albuquerque. Even though Albuquerque sits in a plain to the west of the Sandia mountains, it's at 5000 feet above sea level. So it's also a "mile-high city" like Denver. We are going to take the tram up to the peak of one of the mountains, which is at 10,000 feet, perhaps this evening around sunset. The sky is a deep blue here, and today is brilliant, with low humidity. Tonight we should get good shots of the setting sun. There are lots of things to see around here, and to eat. Last night we went to El Pinto, a large and busy Southwestern restaurant. I would say Mexican restaurant, but the Mexican food around here is different from the typical chains. The Beelers (Mike and Carolyn) are the nicest hosts. They had to leave us Sunday for a wedding in Las Cruces, and they came back Monday morning late. We didn't want to go on another 250 mile trip the day after driving 760, so that's why we stayed. There was plenty to do today around here, anyway.

On Sunday we went to the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center in Albuquerque and toured the museum and ate lunch there. We also saw a group of Acoma Indian dancers dancing two "suites" of dances, one of which was the buffalo dance, the other of which was the rainbow dance. While there we had Indian fry bread with our lunch meal. Very good.

We then went to Old Town in downtown Albuquerque, which for me was something of a bust. It was mainly shops and galleries, but located in the original part of town, which also included the church of San Felipe and the central park.

On Monday we drove west of the city on I-40 to the Petroglyph National Monument, where we went on a 2 1/2 mile hike along the edge of Rinconada Canyon and viewed Indian petroglyphs from as far back as the 1600's, also mixed in with some Spanish & frontier settler carvings. Then we drove up to the Boca Negra Canyon and climbed up to the top of the hill on one trail and then walked two other trails, viewing petroglyphs on each trail.

When we finished we drove back to Alq and invited Carolyn & Mike, who were still on their way back to Alq from the wedding, to join us at the Indian Palace restaurant not far from their house. We had a great meal there. Then they took us out of town to the Tamaya Resort, where "High School Musical 2" was filmed. What a spread there!. It's along the banks of the Rio Grande, on the Santa Ana pueblo grounds. We walked a one-mile trail through the cottonwood trees (the busque, they call it), complete with a par course with exercise stations. Other than the trees and the river, there's nothing else out there on the plain, except for some rock formations and scrubby brush.

The next day, Tuesday, all four of us went to the z00/botanical gardens/aquarium, where we got in to all three on a combo ticket. We had a good time at the botanical gardens (not overly impressive if you have seen high-quality gardens elsewhere), the aquarium (not overly impressive if you have been to the Inner Harbor aquarium in Baltimore), and at the zoo (not overly impressive if you have been to the St. Louis zoo). Still, it was a nice outing.

We came back to eat a salad meal at the Beelers', then Leslie & I drove to the Sandia Peak tram and took a trip up the mountain to the crest for a view of the city at sunset. (What a sight, with Albuquerque in the valley below! It was clear, mild day, the weather perfect. Tonight the tram was closed due to the weather, especially the high winds, so we were fortunate to have gone last night. I took lots of digital pictures up there which I will have to post after we get back home. While up there we had coffee and cake at the High Finance Restaurant, which provides views out its windows. You can see the plain all around for nearly 100 miles. We could see Santa Fe's lights 60 miles away.

Today, Wednesday, Leslie & I traveled west on I-40 to Acoma Indian Pueblo, a really interesting trip. We had some trouble finding the place, but eventually we did, passing by many mesas on the way, plus impressive and sublime rock formations. You have to pay a $10 fee to take pictures on the pueblo, which I didn't do, so we have no pictures from this trip. Leslie has pictures from her visit on Labor Day last year, though. Acoma is the oldest continuously-inhabited community in the country, dating back at least 1000 years. We had a fried pie while waiting for the bus to come by to load us up for the trip up to the mesa. The mesa has about 300 people living on it now, without running water, electricity, or plumbing. There is so much to tell about our guided tour, including about our guide, whose English name is Gary. He was very good at leading us around and narrating the history and culture of the mesa and the Acoma people. Leslie & I chose not to ride back down but instead to take the steps carved into the rock a couple of hundred feet down the mesa. It was a nice descent and an easy walk back to the center.

Tonight we round danced. I found a round dance club that dances on Wednesday nights at a big square dance center, and Leslie & I went there at 6:30 after taking the Beelers out to eat at an Italian restaurant. There were only 8 couples at the center, but almost all of them were friendly. We especially liked the couple from Brooklyn, married for 61 years and Alq residents for the past 25 years, and a younger couple maybe a little younger than we are who have been dancing for 2 1/2 years. We danced from 6:30 to 9:00, then came back "home" to the Beelers' house. All in all, this was a great day, from start to finish.

Tomorrow, Thursday, we are driving up to Santa Fe to stay the day and night, and then on up to Taos on Friday. We'll come back to the Beelers' house on Friday late, probably. Friday is Leslie's birthday, so we've got to make the most of our trip to Santa Fe and Taos. We hear that Julia Roberts and Carol Burnett live in Taos. Maybe we will drop in to visit with them for a spell, if they are home. If not, we'll catch them next time!

That's all for now, at mid-week. It has been a wonderful trip so far. Once we post up pictures, you will be able to see some of what we have seen.

15 Minutes of Fame

My goodness! For someone who HATES attention, I seem to be collecting lots of it lately. I had another showing of my "Extreme Makeover: Joplin Edition" on Sunday afternoon, May 18. There were 55 people there to see it. Dale was my lovely assistant who set up the computer and projector, set up chairs, took care of the lights. Everyone said it was a great program.

Then Monday, May 19, was proclaimed "Leslie Simpson Day"!!! What a hoot! And not just by the Mayor of Joplin but by our State Representative, Ron Richard. Now how does one celebrate Leslie Simpson Day? Is there candy involved? Or flowers? Or does some rodent just emerge from the ground, see its shadow and go hide for 6 weeks? Yeah, that fits! Oh, too bad--that's already been taken.

Actually I thought the whole thing was kind of silly and surreal. It was nice to be recognized after decades of working without any thanks or recognition, letting other people get credit for my work. The curse of an introvert who doesn't like attention. Last night was kind of scary. I had to go up on the dais with the City Council. Our State Representative presented me a huge plaque and read a resolution by the State Legislature honoring me for all my work and proclaiming it Leslie Simpson Day. Then the mayor did another one. Of course, this was all televised, and lots of people were watching since there's a big controversy brewing over one of the council members who is in trouble for some ugly stuff he did when he was mayor.

Here are links to the Joplin Globe coverage of my program and the BIG DAY.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_139210052.html (Skip down to the end for my part, unless you want to read what the former mayor is in trouble for)

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_139211024.html

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_137184425.html

I survived

Six months ago I (Leslie) was asked to do a presentation about historic buildings at a Coffee Talk at the Joplin Public Library. I have spent all that time putting together an After...Before program that I called "Extreme Makeover: Joplin Edition." By the time I called a halt to it, I had over 300 slides in my power point program. I presented it yesterday. I am happy to report that I survived. I did lose 4 lbs. just from the sheer terror of speaking before an audience--a phobia it seems that just gets worse as I get older. But I had a great turnout (almost 60) and the program was well-received. In fact, I have 3 more showings of it scheduled, including another at the library on May 18. I hope I won't be as nervous next time, but if I can lose weight over it, that's a good thing!

I grouped my slides and named the sections after popular t.v. shows. Like "Biggest Loser" was downtown buildings that had been demolished. I had lots of photos of parking lots followed by photos of the beautiful buildings that once stood there. I also did a "What Not to Wear" section with horrible remuddlings such as the one shown below.

The Joplin Globe office building at 4th & Virginia. A Globe reporter was at my presentation. She said that they all refer to the building as "The Cheese Grater."

The same building when it was the YMCA.

Once More, Yardwork, 5-3-08

Another Saturday, another pair of sore backs Sunday. The weather turned out perfect for this kind of work. We started at 10:00 by going off to the city's recycling center to take our recyclables and get another load of free mulch. Back home, we started unloading it into the flower beds, then tackled leveling the ground for the future patio. Fortunately, Leslie's mother had loaned us her mechanical hoe, and it saved us a lot of pickaxe swinging. We dug deep up near the tree in order to level the area. Dale used the hoe and dug up the dirt, pausing often to pull up and cut roots. Some pickaxe work was required, but not nearly as much as it would have been without the mechanical hoe. The picture below shows Leslie finishing leveling the area. She used the hoe to pull the dirt that Dale dug up and put it outside the area, for a layer of topsoil on the other side of the concrete pavers in the background. The following picture shows the pile of tree roots that Dale pulled and cut up. For perspective, notice the green trash can in the upper right of the picture. This was a mess!
We finally finished at about 4:15. Another one or two Saturdays, and we will bring in some loads of gravel for fill.