Chilly In Santa Fe

It’s Wednesday and I’m in Santa Fe. While it’s chilly here is way warmer than I’ve had it the last few days. I left home on Monday morning just ahead of heavy rain and wind in the Denver area. I travelled south to Walsenburg, CO and then across La Veta pass and into Alamosa, CO. Just before getting to Alamosa I saw an ugly looking cloud bank ahead of me and by the time I pulled into the Safeway gas station in Alamosa it was snowing  pretty hard. My destination was about 50 miles south of Alamosa but out in the boondocks on a primitive Forest Service road and I thought long and hard about continuing…..but I did.

By the time I had gotten that 50 miles south the snow had disappeared but the primitive dirt road I needed to traverse was very wet and slippery/muddy. My original plan was to go about six miles on this road but I chickened out and after about a mile I pulled off on a flat spot right next to the road. They say that “discretion is the better part of valor” and in this case it saved my butt. On Tuesday morning when I drove the rest of the way to the area I was going to search I realized that if I had gone much further I would have gotten stuck big time. I dodged that bullet but there was no way to dodge the cold and wind. For two days the wind blew at a steady 15-20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. Last night the temperature got down to 19 degrees and the high yesterday was about 40.

The wind and temperature made my metal detecting search for remnants of the west fork of the north branch of the Old Spanish Trail somewhat challenging. Besides the wind and cold, digging artifacts was difficult because the ground was frozen until about noon. In spite of the conditions, I had a great time. I only saw two other vehicles in two days. The area I searched is private land and has been used as a cattle stop over until very recent times. That meant that the area was loaded with modern trash. I spent a lot of time digging up tin cans, barbed wire, fence staples and all manner of modern stuff. I didn’t find anything that would date to the 1830-1860 time period but I did find artifacts from the 1880ish time period. The picture below shows a piece of a wood stove with a patent date of 1879. I also found a hand forged  carriage bolt which probably would date to the late 1800’s. On the other end of the spectrum, I found a 1960 penny. So I didn’t find anything in the era I was looking for but in searching for that stuff I found something a lot older.

While on the north side of the property I saw a few prehistoric basalt lithic flakes and thought it was interesting that with all the modern activity in the area there was still evidence of prehistoric natives to be seen. In the afternoon I went to the south side of the property much to my surprise I stumbled on a large prehistoric quarry.

A prehistoric quarry is an area where the ancient natives came and collected rocks that they could shape into tools. In the southwest those rocks can be chert, quartzite, obsidian, jasper or a number of other minerals including basalt. This quarry was a deposit of basalt and covered a very large area. The ground was littered with rocks that had obviously been broken or knapped by man. The ancients didn’t make tools at this site but they obtained the raw material to take with them and at some later point when they needed a tool they would flake off a piece from a “core” and make whatever they needed. From the size of the lithic scatter this site was probably used for thousands of years.

What a great surprise! I spent most of the afternoon wandering around looking at all the scatter and marveling at the fact that some of the stones I picked up were last held by a human being maybe 10,000 years ago!

When I got back to the trailer I tuned in the weather forecast and found out that the temperature was going to get even colder in the next few days…..a low of 9 degrees on Wednesday night.

Long story short, I decided to head south to a lower elevation and warmer temps so this morning I packed up and drove to Santa Fe. I’m staying at the Trailer Ranch RV Resort until Friday morning when I’ll head out to meet up with Guitar somewhere between here and Canyon de Chelly.

Tomorrow I’ll go into old Santa Fe and do some exploring. Tomorrow evening I’m thinking of going to the old La Fonda Hotel because a famous local Western singer is performing in the bar.

Bill Hearne is famous throughout the Southwest and has influenced many country and western performers like Lyle Lovett and Chuck Pyle. I saw him perform once in the Denver area and always wanted to see him perform on his “home ground”. His performance starts at 7:30 and I think I can stretch my normal bed time a bit and see him perform a couple of sets.

There’s still lots of adventure left so check back in a few days.

Thanks for visiting.

Old Spanish Trail PIT – Part 2

It’s Friday evening and  the Old Spanish Trail project ended at about 3pm this afternoon. For the three days since my last report we have been tramping around sage brush plains and Ponderosa Pine forests searching for any evidence of the Old Spanish Trail. This particular piece of the trail was used between 1694 and the mid 1800’s but it’s exact location is yet unknown. Oh, we have a pretty good idea of the general area but the specific piece of ground that served as the historic “Interstate” remains elusive.

Three days and we probably searched about 4 square miles. We had no problem finding evidence of 100+ year old logging operations and even older railroad crews cutting trees for railroad ties. The area is also littered with prehistoric Native American rock tools, arrowheads and flakes but evidence of human activities in the 1694-1860 time frame were almost non-existent. I say “almost” because today, the last day of the project, we had the find of the week. One of the group located a Spanish spur rowel. The rowel is the round thing at the back of the spur and the design of this piece is relatively easy to place and sometimes date. The rowel that we found today is definitely a Spanish design and it is hand forged so it’s pretty old. How old exactly can’t be determined without some laboratory work.

The other artifact we found that possibly is of the target time period is a piece of a metal arrowhead. Originally the Native Americans made stone arrowheads. After contact with the Europeans, the Native Americans obtained metal and made metal arrowheads. Later still, they acquired firearms but the metal arrowheads were used from the 1700’s to the mid 1800’s. Take a good look at the picture above. Now consider that 20 people searched about 4 square miles and found these two pretty small artifacts buried in the ground…Amazing!

We worked hard but the sheer beauty of the country made the trekking and digging and wind very worth while. Did I say wind? Yesterday the wind blew HARD. Hard enough to knock you off balance if you weren’t paying attention. The weather shamans said that there were gusts of up to 50 mph and this time I believe them. The Ponderosa Pine forest helped dent the wind somewhat and some of the time it was warm enough that I stripped down to a T-shirt. The wind could not dull the smell of the sagebrush. The wind could not lessen the beauty of the blossoming Pasque flower. In short, the wind was a minor inconvenience in an incredibly beautiful place.

Metal detecting is hard work. It’s more intense than just walking and looking at the ground. You swing the detector left and right while walking and listening for the magical beep that means you need to get on your knees and start digging.. Swinging takes energy and muscle power that  I don’t/didn’t have to last the whole day. I kept it up however, and after six hours of swinging I had a pretty sore arm, (note to self: need to exercise arms more!) but the experience of holding an artifact in your hand that a person, a human, held in his or her hands 100 years or more ago in the same exact spot is …is…I don’t know how to describe it. It’s almost religious.

OK, getting too deep here. It was a wonderful week. I had the opportunity to explore an area of the country that I had never seen before. I was able to meet a lot of great people including a teacher from Australia, a retired Naval aviator, a policeman from California and a lot of other retired folks like myself. We didn’t find positive proof of the trail we were searching for, but we helped the Forest Service narrow the search somewhat. I’m hoping that the Forest Service will repeat this project next year because I really think we were close to finding that positive proof. If they do repeat the project you can bet that my name will be on the application list.

Here’s some more pics of the trip……

 

 

I’m home for a week then it’s off to John Martin Reservoir to work with the Colorado Division of Wildlife but more on that later….

Thanks for visiting.

A Long, Hard Week

This is the week to have my existing kitchen counter tops removed and replaced with granite. As the post title says, it’s been a long hard week. The photo at the top of the post shows the “before” conditions. There was a mixture of laminate, tile and granite counter tops with a tile backsplash. The granite on the island in the center of the kitchen was installed about ten years ago and is not a very high quality granite. Everything else is original to the house which is going on 15 years old now. The plan is to remove all the counter tops, backsplash and sink and replace with new high quality granite tile backsplash and a new granite composite sink.

The contractor arrived punctually first thing Monday morning to begin the demolition. I was amazed at the efficiency of his men in the removal of both the existing counter tops and tile backsplash. They also removed the sink. The entire demolition only took a couple of hours and I thought that this was going to be a snap!

A snap is exactly what I heard Tuesday morning at about 3 am. The snap was followed by the sound of running water! I raced downstairs to find water shooting out of the uncapped hot water pipe that was previously connected to the sink. Water was everywhere. The sink is directly in front of the window on the right in the picture above. Water was all over the floor, the walls, the ceiling and the window. Panic took over as I raced down to the basement to shut off the main water valve to the house. I’m guessing that the water flowed full blast for a period of about 10-15 minutes before I shut down the main valve. The Bride and I spent the next couple of hours sopping up all the water we could. We used every towel we had in the house….clean or dirty, and I must say, we have a lot of towels.

A pointed phone call was made to the contractor at 6am. To his credit the contractor dispatched a plumber immediately and both the plumber and the contractor were at my house in about 45 minutes. After the plumber replaced the ball valves for both hot and cold water we investigate the extent of the damage. It was clear that water had gotten beneath the wood flooring and had run on top of the sub floor to a small carpeted area adjacent to the kitchen. Fortunately there appeared to be no damage to the ceiling in the finished basement below. The contractor assured me that he would repair any damage caused by the water. It would take another day for the extent of the damage to become apparent. Nothing further was scheduled in the home for Tuesday as this was the day the contractor was cutting and preparing the granite at his shop.

On Wednesday the contractor arrived bright and early to install the countertops. By Wednesday morning it was also possible to see the effects of the water on the hardwood floor. The water between the hardwood floor and sub-floor had caused the hardwood to cup severely. The contractor consulted with his “floor guy” and I started searching the internet for information about cupped hardwood floors. It appears that if the cupping does not get any worse it will be possible to sand the floor down once it dries completely, and refinish it. The contractor again reassured me that he would be responsible for the repairs. The granite install took all day but it turned out beautifully if I do say so myself.

Thursday was supposed to be the final work day and the day that the tile backsplash was installed. This day only one worker was sent to accomplish the task. He worked slowly and methodically and by about 6 pm completed the tile. About the time he finished up the contractor appeared with his “floor guy”. The floor guy confirmed that he could sand the cupping out of the floor provided it got no worse and since it had been two days since the flood, he didn’t think it would get worse. We set a date for the second week in May to sand and refinish the floor.

I am totally thrilled that the contractor has stepped up to the plate and accepted his responsibility without a whole lot of threats from me. If the refinishing job turns out all right the contractor will get a stellar recommendation from me.

The bad news is that I will have to alter my travel plans to accommodate the refinishing of the floor. I will still leave this Sunday and do my Forest Service Passport in Time project in New Mexico for a week but I will have to come home immediately afterwards. Once again I will have to cancel my trip to Canyon de Chelly which I had scheduled for the week of May 10th. This is the second time in 3 months that I’ve had to blow off a trip to Canyon de Chelly.

This will be the last post for at least a week as the location for the Forest Service gig is quite remote and there will be no internet connection. When I return I hope to have some fantastic stories to tell so keep tuned!

Thanks for visiting.

Winter’s Last Gasp?

This was the scene when I got up this morning. Another spring storm is blowing through the mountains and across the eastern plains. Just one last reminder from Mother Nature that she is in complete control and even though most everywhere else spring is in full bloom, only SHE will decide when we can put away the ski parkas and snow blowers!

She has been teasing us over the last few weeks but as the weeks pass the teasing becomes more bearable. Three weeks ago we would have three or four days of winter weather with one or two nice days. The situation now is that we get three or four days of nice weather followed by one or two of not so nice.

This system will be long gone by this afternoon and by tomorrow there will be absolutely no trace of the snow you see in the pictures here. It’s a little different in the mountains however. They are getting anywhere from a foot to two feet of snow out of this…..and that’s the way it should be. That’s why God made mountains. They are supposed to get huge quantities of snow which equates to water for us down in the lower elevations. Colorado weather is a marvel. Look at the pictures above and then look at the prognostication for the rest of the week.

If you remember from an earlier post, during the last storm my snow blower self destructed and I had to order a very expensive piece of small plastic to get it back working again. Well I received the part and installed it and everything appears to be working fine. Even though this snow will be gone by this afternoon without any help from me, I think I will fire up the snow blower just to be sure is works. It would be a bummer next fall at the first big storm to find out that the snow blower isn’t working right!

On the household front, The Bride and I are preparing to have our kitchen upgraded with granite countertops. We have lived in this house for 14 years now and still have the original Formica countertops which we have never liked. We have spent the last six weeks or so looking at different materials for both the countertops and backsplash. The sheer number of possibilities is truly amazing but The Bride finally has found a combination that she likes and we will meet with the contractor tomorrow to finalize the project.

I’m currently refining some of my travel plans for next month. On my last trip to Arizona I had planned on visiting Canyon de Chelly (pronounce canyon de shay). The same Mother Nature I referred to in the beginning of this post had other ideas however, and I never made it. This destination has actually been on my “to do” list for several years but it’s pretty remote and the weather window for a pleasant trip is pretty narrow.

During the first week of May I will be participating in a Passport in Time project just west of Taos, NM. That’s about half way to Canyon de Chelly from the Denver area. So, my current plan is that after the Passport in Time project I’ll continue south and west to Canyon de Chelly and spend two days there before heading back home. The weather should be perfect by then and the rest of the summer is already pretty well booked up with other adventures so I’m thinking this is a good plan.

Thanks for visiting.

Researching The Old Spanish Trail

My last post describes the Passport in Time project that I will be involved in during the first week in May. We are to search for evidence of the Old Spanish Trail that passes through the Tres Piedras area of New Mexico, about forty miles west of Taos.

The use of this “trail” goes back thousands of years and probably was first a game trail. The Native Americans following the game used it. The Spaniards were no dummies and when they wanted to go north they used native guides that knew the existing trails. They were followed up by the American traders and pioneers.

In some cases the trail was abandoned when other, more modern roads were made available. In some cases there is no sign of the trail because of the “progress of civilization”. Farm were tilled over it. Reservoirs flooded it. Modern roads were built over it. It will be a real challenge to find tangible evidence of the portion of the trail we are looking for.

That said, about three years ago I wrote a post about Ruth Marie Colville, an author and historian whose passion was locating and recording old trails like the Old Spanish Trail. In that post I mentioned that I had acquired a copy of her book “La Vereda” which documents to travels of Don Diego de Vargas in 1694 through northeastern New Mexico and southeast Colorado. Vargas’ expedition, searching for food for the beleaguered Santa Fe colony, covered much of the East and West Forks of the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail.

Last night I dug the book out and after reviewing some of it realized that it describes much of the area that we will be searching in May. The East Fork of the North Branch goes through the Taos area and most of that portion of the route is now on private land. A lot of the West Fork of the North Branch, which runs north and south about forty miles west of Taos is on Forest Service land and that is where I’ll be in May!

This project is a little unusual in the fact that we will be using metal detectors to help us find relics of the trail. There’s a love/hate relationship between metal detectorists and archaeologists. Archaeologists sometimes regard metal detectorists as low class, ruffian, pillagers….and that would be a mild description…of cultural resources. To their defense, there are some detectorists that fit the description but most are as interested as the archaeologists in discovering and preserving historical artifacts.

When used properly, the metal detector can be a wonderful and powerful tool to the archaeologist. One of the best examples I know of is the metal detecting survey of the Little Bighorn Battlefield. Another good article is here. Metal detectors are an efficient and cost effective way to survey a large area in a relatively short time. In my project last year we surveyed several miles of potential trail and uncovered hundreds of artifacts. When an artifact was located it was left on the ground where it was found and an archaeologist noted the position on a map, recorded all the information about the artifact and then decided whether or not to “collect” it or not. If it was not collected it was reburied in the exact spot at which it was discovered.

Three years ago when I wrote the post about Ruth Marie Colville, I said that someday I hoped to be able to personally walk the trail she described. Little did I know that I would eventually have the opportunity to not only walk the trail but hopefully add to the knowledge that Ruth spent 30 years in gathering!

Thanks for visiting

First Passport In Time Project for 2010

I received word yesterday that I was accepted for my first Passport In Time (PIT) project for this year. I'm excited about this one! Last September I did a similar project near Gunnison, CO and had a great time. We found lots of artifacts including a museum quality, 1850's era, uniform shoulder board (epaulet). Read about it here.

Here's the official write up for this project...

Metal Detector Surveys of the Old Spanish Trail in Northern New Mexico

NM-3885
May 3–7, 2010

Must commit to full session

Volunteers for this PIT project will work with F.S. staff to conduct systematic metal-detecting surveys of segments and traces of the Old Spanish Trail in northern New Mexico. At present, these elements of the Trail have only been partially identified. Research on this historically import trade route is an ongoing, multi-agency project in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California. One goal of this research is to identify which routes will be managed as Congressionally designated historic trails. The project will also help to provide important information for interpreting the Old Spanish Trail and its role in the trade and settlement of the American West, and will allow visitors to experience a direct connection to this aspect of the nation's cultural history. Most of the Trail segments will be within approximately 40 miles of the village of Taos, a town with a rich history and culture. Join us for this unique experience in one of New Mexico's most beautiful settings!

Number of openings: 20

Special skills: Must understand and be able to perform leave-no-trace camping and field hygiene techniques; must be physically capable of hiking several miles per day in moderate to rough terrain in a variety of weather conditions; previous experience with GPS systems (possession of one is a bonus!), digital photography, and/or archaeological survey helpful, but not required; knowledge of metal artifacts from the first half of the 19th century (Mexican and Territorial Periods) in the West also helpful, but not required; metal detecting experience preferred, but not required - please indicate on your application if you own and can bring a metal detector

Minimum age: 18 years old

Facilities: Primitive camping at site locations; other camping facilities (developed and undeveloped) available within the project area; Taos is a full-service community with a range of motels, B&Bs, restaurants, and other amenities; volunteers responsible for lodging or personal camping equipment, food, and water; transportation to and from a designated meeting site will be provided on a limited basis by F.S.; personal vehicles capable of dirt road/off-road travel helpful

Nearest towns: Taos, ~40 miles

I have been researching the Old Spanish Trail for the last several months and it will be very cool to visit spots on the ground that I read about in first hand accounts from the Spaniards and American pioneers.

Thanks for visiting.

Volcanoes, Arches & Immigrants

Today was a day to visit several widely spaced attractions. My plan three weeks ago was to come through this area and visit Acoma Pueblo, El Malpais National Monument and El Morro National Monument. At the time I thought that I would camp at either of the two National Monuments which both have campgrounds. With the snow that has graced the highland areas that plan would have been a bust and as it turns out that I really lucked out with staying here at the Acoma/Sky City Casino. Not only are the accommodations pretty nice but it is a central location that makes seeing the other things pretty easy.

This morning at about 8am, I started for the El Malpais Conservation Area....It gets a little confusing here. There is an El Malpais National Monument and an El Malpais Conservation Area. The Conservation Area is administered by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and the National Monument area is administered by the National Parks. The areas are adjacent but in some places you can't easily get from one area to the other.

Anyway, I started with the closest, the BLM managed area which is on the eastern edge of the whole complex. This area is much less known and travelled of the two but to me that's a plus. The area includes a huge lava flow, New Mexico's second largest natural arch and a very little known pueblo excavation. I spent about three hours in this area and I don't think I saw more than 10 cars in the whole time.

The lava flow comes from numerous extinct volcanoes that spewed their stuff over 100,000 years ago. I'm guessing that there are several hundred square miles of this stuff and it's all fascinating. It is clearly a lava flow. The curled and misshapen rock is still black with the consistency of cake frosting pushed through a pastry bag. Vegetation still struggles to gain a foothold even after 100,000 years!

La Ventana Arch is classified as New Mexico's second largest natural arch. It was beautiful but it was also a bit of a disappointment to me...not because it wasn't beautiful but because it was deep in a shady canyon that only saw a brief bit of winter sunlight and the snow was so deep that it was not possible to climb up to it. I was really hoping to climb up into the arch and take some pictures from the cave behind the arch. If I've learned anything this trip however, is't to make the best of what you've got so I enjoyed the view from a shadowy distance.

This eastern side of El Malpais also has a minor pueblo excavation known as the Dittert Site. It's not well know or publicized. If you want to visit, you have to go to the BLM visitors center and ask for directions...which I did. The volunteer manning the center was a local Native American who had a lot of archeological experience in the area and we had a great conversation. He gave me directions and said that I should have no problem reaching the site in my truck. It was really isolated (way out in the sticks) down a primitive road (translate=mostly 4 wheel dive road).

When I got to the last turn off before the "primitive road" I started thinking that if I had a problem with the truck I could be in big trouble. The closest human was at an isolated ranch about 3 miles away. I got within about a mile of the side when the road got pretty muddy and boggy. It didn't take me to long to remember a guiding principal of backcountry travel..."Discretion is the better part of valor". That principal has kept me out of deep do-do on quite a number of occasions so I yielded to it and turned around short of my goal. My consolation was the utter isolation of the surrounding area. I'd bet that there were not 100 humans living in a one hundred mile radius of where I turned around. I enjoyed that as I drove back out, twenty five miles to I-40.

That completed the eastern part of my day's adventure. Next was El Malpais National Monument and El Morro National Monument which was about 60 miles from the morning's start. El Malpais National Monument features not only a great area of lava flow but a unique chance to walk into a lava tube. A lava tube is a tunnel in a lava flow. Check here for the scientific description of how they form.

Unfortunately, the sixty mile drive to the west side of El Malpais also brought me up another 1000 feet in elevation. High enough that I was back into the snow zone. Two feet of snow on the ground meant that I would have to miss the lava tube experience so I headed farther west to El Morro.

The snow there was just as deep and I was disappointed that the trail to the ancient pueblo was closed. The trail around Inscription Rock was open however and it proved to be the highlight of the day. It's not too often that you can see personal evidence of living human beings that stretched over a several thousand year time period, side by side but that's what you get at Inscription Rock. Ancient people left pictographs on this massive rock. The Spaniards left their marks too, starting in 1605, and then the American pioneers followed leaving their marks as well.

While I love the ancient evidence of people I must admit that I am equally fascinated by more historical items. I can relate more personally to the carvings on a rock that someone from Baltimore, Md. passed this place 150 years ago or a railroad man looking for a route for to California. Fascinating stuff!

Check out the picture to the left with the black arrow pointing to the date of 1636 and directly below that date are pictographs of bighorn sheep recorded at least 1000 years ago!

After Inscription Rock it was back to Bivouac and making plans for tomorrow. Another weather system is making it's way into New Mexico and Colorado so I just might have to bring this trip to a close and head home....stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting

Catching Up From New Mexico

It's been a busy couple of days and nothing has been constant, especially the weather. You name it, that's what the weather has been, except tropical. It's rained, snowed, hailed, been sunny, windy, semi-warm and any combination of those. On the whole though the weather has been colder and darker than sunny and warmer. The Bride and I adapted howeve,r and managed to "go with the flow". We used the nicer morning times to visit outdoor attractions and when the the weather became less pleasant we did indoor stuff like museums and shopping.Some of the highlights were Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma Well. I especially liked Montezuma Well which is much lesser known than the castle but is equally fascinating. This huge 470 foot in diamter limestone sink hole contains a lake that maintains a constant 76 degrees. Ancient peoples have inhabited the area for well over 1000 years and numerous ruins line the cliffs and rim of the sink hole. There were at least five or six other ancient ruin sites that we didn't have the time to get to so darn it I guess we'll have to come back sometime.

On the indoor front a highlight was lunch at The Cowboy Club. This is an historic dining venue right in the middle of Sedona. It claims a history which includes being the "go to" place for numerous Hollywood stars who visited while working on movies in the area. While eating buffalo chili on a cold afternoon I could see in my minds eye The Duke, Randolph Scott and numerous other western stars "bellying up" to the bar. By the way, the buffalo chili was excellent.

Five days passed entirely too quickly but Wednesday morning did arrive and I had to take The Bride to the Flagstaff airport for her trip back home. I still marvel at the weather change in just 30 miles. As we climbed in altitude what was a tiny patch of snow here and there became a full two feet or more of snow everywhere. The Flagstaff area looked like they got at least eight inches of new snow since I picked The Bride up on Friday morning. In spite of the additional snow in Flagstaff I was still able to bring Bivouac into the airport parking lot, park for free and see The Bride off before heading east.

I ended up in Holbrook, AZ. Wednesday night. I had originally planned to stay at the Elks Lodge in Winslow but there was a lot of road construction in the block around the lodge and it was just impossible to get in with the trailer. Holbrook is a classic Route 66 town with lots of great old businesses and 50s-60s era signs. It's also the gateway city to the Petrified Forest so rock shops and petrified wood shops abound. I've been to Holbrook once before this trip but on both occasions I was pressed for time and couldn't explore like I really wanted to. I promised myself this time that I would be back to give the town the time it deserves.

While researching last night, possible stopping places for tonight, I stumbled upon a winter special at the Acoma, Sky City Casino/Hotel and RV park. The special offered a "buy one get one free" deal for full hookup RV spots for....$15.00....with tax $16.42. That included electricity, water, cable TV, internet connection and sewer. That's $8.22 a night for full hookups! It that wasn't enough, one of my intended stops was the Acoma Pueblo which is only 12 miles south of the RV park. Done deal, sold, I'm staying here for two nights.

I rolled in here just about 1 pm and after a late lunch drove to the Acoma Pueblo and was just in time for the next to last tour of the day. This place is...is, what can I say, if your are interested or intrigued in the history of ancient people in the Southwest, it's a must see. Ancient people and the Spaniards met each other here in 1540. That's almost 500 years ago!! The pueblo is still very much alive with numerous full time residents and even more part time residents. People who live here do so without any of the modern conveniences. There is no electricity, water, gas or even sewer system. People that live here have to have a special reason to endure the primitive conditions. If I have learned anything from my time in this part of the country is that Native Americans really do dance to the beat of a different drummer. They have a philosophical view different from most European people and it is very interesting to see the difference first hand.

Tomorrow I'm off to see two other geographical attractions, El Malpais and El Morro. Hopefully there will be some blue sky to enjoy it by.

Thanks for visiting.

It's been a long two days. Wednesday morning turned off very foggy and cold with a not so clear forecast. I figured I'd better do something to get out of Las Vegas or I might as well register to vote in the local elections.

The problem as I mentioned was the ice on the roof of my slide outs. There was an inch and a half in a couple of places. Unless I could get rid of that I wasn't going anywhere. I was desperate. At about 8 am, I backed the truck up to the big slide out, put the step ladder on the tail gate, got a tea kettle full of warm water and went to work trying to dislodge the ice.

Warm water worked pretty well. That with gentle persuasion with a broom managed to clear all the ice...after about two hours of effort. After that it was a matter of packing up, hitching up and heading south.

Driving was difficult not because of the snow but the fog was intense until just south of the Pecos...Dontcha' just love the southwest talk..."south of the Pecos". Robert Duvall, eat your heart out!! Anyway, it was true. After crossing the Pecos River the fog finally broke and I started to descend in altitude towards my goal, Alamogordo. Along the way the clouds broke and I actually saw the sun for an extended period. I could feel the stress oozing away.

I got to Alamogordo at about 2:30 pm and set up camp at the Elks Lodge. After unhooking Bivouac, the first priority was to gas up and get the truck washed. In New Mexico instead of spreading salt or magnesium chloride on snowy roads they use a red clay type dirt that absolutely will turn a white truck to red. I was told by some locals that it will also take barnacles off a battleship. An early dinner and a couple of drinks at the Lodge helped drain the residual stress...that is until about 7 pm when it started to rain big time! It continued to rain hard, off and on all night long. I had tow thoughts..#1, thank goodness I'm out of Las Vegas because the rain would be snow there. #2, please let it stop by morning...and it did.

I was hitched up by 8:30 am and headed for Sierra Vista, AZ. This was a trip of almost 300 miles. My longest with the new rig and a good portion was going west on I-10 in the face of a pretty good head wind. All I can say is that it was long and hard but I pulled into Sierra Vista at about 4 pm.

Now you kinda' hafta' wanna' go to Sierra Vista to get there. It's not somewhere that you just "drop by". That said, I have been to Sierra Vista before...almost 40 years ago as the guest of the U.S. Army I attended the Southeast Asia Orientation Course (translate, get ready for Viet Nam) at Ft. Huachuca. The Fort is the reason for Sierra Vista's existence.

At that time Sierra Vista was a very small town with only two or three streets of businesses. From what I saw driving in, a lot has changed. I saw just about every chain retail establishment that you see in a large town anywhere else. I'll have to check it out more tomorrow.

I'm now ensconced at the local Elks Lodge and will go to the Cowboy Poetry Gathering on Saturday.

Thanks for visiting.

Still In Vegas

What started out as a one night stopover has now stretched to three nights. It was cold and ugly all yesterday and I knew I'd have a problem today. I could see a lot of ice on top of both slides and without some way to get that off I couldn't close the slides. No slide close...no go south! My hope was that it would warm up today or at least the sun would shine and maybe melt the ice. No such luck. First thing this morning the sun came out and I got my hopes up for about a half hour. That lasted about 45 minutes and it clouded up again and got colder. The top of the slides have a rubber roof so anything I do had better be gentle or I would have another...and much more expensive problem.

The slides are about ten feet off the ground so it's not an easy thing to clean them off. I borrowed a step ladder from the Elks Lodge and put it in the bed of my pick up truck and then backed the truck up to the slides. I was able to get off the loose snow with the help of a broom but there was a lot of ice under the snow. I didn't dare try to scrape it off.

While unpleasant the decision was pretty easy. I'll just wait another day. So I busied myself with some reading and a trip to the local Wally World. Around noon it had warmed just a little and I went through the ladder-pick up routine again. I was able to get most of the ice off one slide and about 2/3 of the ice off the other slide. If it doesn't snow tonight and it gets a little warmer tomorrow morning I'll be able to head south.

I only need to get about 100 miles south of here to get out of the freeze zone so if I'm able to leave tomorrow my goal is Alamogordo, NM. I was planning to go through Ft. Sumner, Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns, but I also want to be in Sierra Vista by Friday. To do that I'll have to skip some of my planned destinations. It's about 225 miles through a lot of back country so I'll need to be out of here by late morning if this is to work.

This afternoon I went to the local museum which has the distinction of having a Rough Rider Memorial Collection. What's with that you say? Well, it seems as if most of the Rough Riders were recruited in the Southwest and men from New Mexico provided all the volunteers for one full Troop of Rough Riders. In 1899 the Rough Riders had their first reunion in Las Vegas and the reunions continued until 1962....ergo the Memorial Collection.

I followed that up with a meander through the old plaza section of town which dates to the first Hispanic settlers in 1821. I have been to Las Vegas several times now and I'm impressed with the amount historical buildings that survive. Next time I come however, I'll hope for better weather.

Thanks for visiting.

What Came To Las Vegas Stays In Las Vegas...NM

I left the Denver area yesterday morning at about 8 am trying to beat the snow that was supposed to start there in late morning. This is my first trip pulling Bivouac any distance so I didn't want to have to deal with bad weather in addition to everything else. By the time I got 50 miles south it looked like it was going to clear up and I breathed a sigh of relieve. That sigh was short lived. I ran into off and on snow all the way south. Fortunately Raton Pass was one of the no snow areas but as I got into New Mexico the snow started to pick up again.

My goal for the day was Las Vegas, NM and I was hoping that was far enough south (280 miles) to put a damper on the snow. I arrived at about 2:30 and checked in at the Elks Lodge here. It's nothing fancy but it's a level parking lot with water, power and an internet connection. The price of $10/night certainly makes it worth while. As an added bonus, the Lodge was having a Super Bowl party with a pot luck dinner that I was invited to.

The weather was cold and threatening when I went into the Lodge but it wasn't snowing. When I left to come back to the trailer I got a nasty surprise. It was snowing pretty hard and there was already about 2" on the ground. The picture at the top of the post was taken a little while ago so as you can see it's not really a good day to travel. The forecast is for more snow today and tonight but only an inch or two of accumulation.

It didn't take too long to make a command decision to hunker down here for another day. Fortunately I don't have to be anywhere until the 19th when The Bride flies into Flagstaff so I'll just take each day as it comes. I think however that if I can get another 100 miles or so south the threat of snow will subside. With that in mind my ever so flexible plan is to head to Roswell tomorrow....We'll see.

Thanks for visiting.

Still Here

I normally don't go for a week without posting something but then again I'm normally a little more mobile and more active and have more to report about.

The foot seems to be healing well. Every day I can do a little more without pain. The last few days I have even driven short distances in the car. This was not only to "work out" the foot a little but just to keep me from going stir crazy insane.

In order to drive I took off the hospital provided "bootie" and wore an open toe summer sandal. That however, caused an unusual problem. The sandal had a strap at the front which is secured by velcro. Because of the bandage on my foot I had to leave that strap unsecured. The sandal is on my right foot....gas pedal and brake foot...and the velcro piece is on the right side of the sandal. Right side of the right foot and that just happens to rub against the carpet that's over the transmission hump. Sooo.. the first time I tried to move my foot from the gas pedal to the brake....my foot was velcroed to the carpet! I had to yank my foot away to get to the brake pedal. Fortunately it wasn't an emergency situation and once I realized the problem I just made sure I put my foot on the left side of the accelerator pedal so I wouldn't get stuck to the carpet again.

This is pitiful! Instead of writing about the interesting stuff I'm doing and seeing while taking my new fifth wheel trailer to great places, I'm writing about my foot being velcroed to the carpet in the car! Woe is me!

Well, Monday morning the stitches come out of the foot and the doctor said I'll be on my own. I can start returning to normal activity as I feel up to it. I'm so stir crazy that I'm now considering starting my New Mexico/Arizona trip a week from Sunday. That would turn the planned two week trip into a three week trip and allow me to circle down to the southern parts of NM and AZ. We'll see how I feel by about Wednesday or so before I make a decision.

This post is being written on the blogspot web site using their post editor. It's been a very long time since I've done a post this way. For the past year or so I've been using Windows Live Writer. For some inexplicable reason, all of a sudden, when I use Live Writer and try to enter an apostrophe in a word, the program crashes. It took me a while to figure out that it was the apostrophe because the program hesitated just a bit and the crash occurred after I had typed a few characters after the apostrophe. The only thing I can think of is that there is some type of compatibility problem between Live Writer and my Norton security program?

I use Comcast as my ISP and they provided free McAfee security software until this week when they switched to Norton. Early this week I zapped the McAfee and downloaded the Norton stuff. Ever since then I've had a number of little gremlins pop up. It's very frustrating. It seems that every time I "upgrade" I lose functionality somewhere....but then again if you're reading this on a computer, you have most likely experienced the same frustration. Oh well....

Thanks for visiting.

Tripping The Light Fantastic – NOT!

I had my foot surgery…or more correctly my toe surgery yesterday. My little toe on the right foot is now somewhat shorter than it was yesterday at this time. It’s hard to believe because it feels like it’s about the size of a dump truck! The fourth toe is a bit skinnier too but feels like a sumo wrestler. The doctor assured me that the shorter toe would not cause me to walk in circles but she did say that walking of any type for the next couple of days might cause me to fall on my face and writhe in pain. Judging from the way I feel this morning I believe her.

So, I’m ensconced on an easy chair in my bedroom with the computer in my lap, surrounded by books, remotes for music and tv, and a large bottle of vicoden. I Will Survive….(a great golden oldie from 1978).

To pass the time I’ve been working on plans for the maiden voyage of my new trailer. That will hopefully occur in about two weeks. My original plans were to do a big loop from here down through southern New Mexico across to the Tucson, AZ area, up to Flagstaff and back across northern AZ and NM to I-25 and then north to home. Part of the plan was to have The Bride fly in somewhere for a few days too. We did a similar trip last year and really had fun. Last year The Bride and Pic-E flew into Tucson to meet up with Guitar and myself. This year The Bride wants to see the Sedona and Prescott area.

After looking every which way at the map, I decided to scrap the big loop plan and go with a much smaller loop that would eliminate southern NM and AZ. Right now the first half of the loop is looking like this….

Leave Denver area and spend the first night in either Las Vegas, NM or Albuquerque. Then travelling to/through, Acoma Pueblo, El Malpais National Monument, El Morro National Monument, Gallup, NM, Window Rock, AZ, Canyon De Chelly National Monument, the three Hopi Mesas and down to Flagstaff where I’ll meet The Bride. From there we’ll spend two nights at the Grand Canyon and a night or two each in Sedona and Prescott before dropping The Bride off at the airport in Flagstaff for her trip home. I haven’t decided exactly how I’ll make my way home yet but I’ve got plenty of time in the next couple of weeks to research it. I would love to go north of Flagstaff through Monument Valley and the four corners area but seeing as how this will be in February, the weather could be an issue.

In other camping news we’ve made plans for two Circle The Wagons weekends with The Circle. The first on the July 4th weekend, we’ll all get together at Mueller State Park. This is a gorgeous facility not too far from Cripple Creek, CO. The Bride and I have camped here before. In fact, the picture on the left margin of this blog entitled “Training for Retirement” was taken at this park. The second event will be the third weekend in July at Pawnee campground in the area of Nederland, CO. I’ve never camped at this campground before but it is rated as one of the top 100 campgrounds in the state with five star views of the mountains and a beautiful alpine lake. The campground is at 10,400 altitude so it will be a break from the July summer doldrums along the front range.

My toes tell me it’s time for a little medication so I’ll end this here. Stay tuned for more.

Thanks for visiting.

Another Mile Post of Life

I began paying Social Security Taxes in 1964 and have paid them continuously until December of last year. That's 44 years by my count. Today I became eligible to apply for the return trip...so to speak. Instead of paying in I will start receiving payments in August of this year.

I decided to apply online and had some trepidations about that, but it proved to be a pretty straight forward and easy process. Let's just hope that it's not a black hole on the other side of the process and my application actually gets to where it needs to be!

While this is a milestone of my life, it's a minor one. A much bigger one will be when I receive the first check. At that occasion there will be a real celebration.

Not a whole lot else going on this week until Thursday. On Thursday I'll bring the RV to the house and start preparing it for our trip to Southeastern Colorado on Saturday. Once the RV is here I'll also try my new magic potion to try to remove the graphics from the side of the RV. I hope this works or I'm going to be in a world of hurt!

I searched all over town for the plastic razor blades I referred to in my last post, without any luck. Most of the people I asked looked at me like I was crazy. I finally found a source online and ordered some. I hope they arrive by Thursday.

There are a lot of things in the works for more adventures this summer and the calendar is filling up fast. Right now there are definite plans to go to Moab over Memorial Day. I have volunteered for four different Passport in Time projects between June and September. Each of the projects lasts five days but I won't know if I'm accepted until about a month before the event. One of these projects is an archaeological survey in Southern New Mexico, in September. If I'm accepted for this one it will take me two days of travel to get there. The Circle has also made plans for a Circle The Wagons camping event in a local state park in August. I'm also planning on a couple of fishing expeditions to the mountains in between major trips.

It looks like a busy but fun summer so stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting.

Adrift In The SouthWest Again - Conclusion

On this trip we saved the best for last. Of all the things we saw during our two week sojourn, Chaco Canyon was probably the most incredible and mysterious place of all. Readers will remember that I was first in this place a few months ago and at that time I knew I had to return not only for more for me but I really wanted Guitar to see it as well.

Chaco Canyon was the center of the Puebloan world from about 850 AD until around 1200 AD. Within this 10 mile long canyon and the surrounding mesas are over 120 archeological sites. This was to the Puebloan people what The Vatican, Mecca or Jerusalem is to modern religions today. Much of what was built over 1000 years ago remains there today. Much of it is still unexcavated but even those sites are grand and mysterious. Somewhere before 1200 AD the people and their culture moved away. The evidence is that some went north to Aztec, NM and Mesa Verde and after another 200 years they "disappeared" completely....at least to us.

Their society remains one of the great mysteries of the "New World". They were master builders and constructed buildings that were among the largest and most sophisticated in the entire world at the time of their construction. To build these buildings they transported millions of logs to the canyon from the mountains over 50 miles away....without the use of the wheel! They were star watchers and astronomy played a big part in their world. Their huge pueblo complexes are aligned on a true north/south direction usually with another wall that is aligned on a true east/west direction.

Chaco Canyon was also a meeting place of different cultures. Archaeologists can tell from the artifacts recovered that people from many different places and cultures came to Chaco. Copper bells and macaw skeletons from South America have been discovered in the ruins as has jewelry made of shells found only in the Pacific Ocean. Turquoise was found just about everywhere in the form of jewelry, fetishes and other implements.

In short this is a fascinating place....and it's not well known to the general public. It's also very remote, so except in the middle of the summer it's almost empty of tourists. My kind of place.

Guitar and I arrived around 1 pm on Thursday afternoon. After checking in at the visitor center and paying for a campsite we took the ranger guided tour of Pueblo Bonito, the largest structure in the canyon. After the tour we walked around several other ruins and looked at petroglyphs on the canyon walls.

Night came too soon....but it brought it's own opportunity. Because Chaco is so remote there is absolutely no light pollution in the night sky. It is a great place to stargaze which we did. This past Christmas I gave both Guitar and Too Tall - Two Timing a star wheel that helps identify constellations in the night sky. It was the perfect tool to use as we stood under the crystal clear night sky of Chaco Canyon.

Friday morning we started on a 5 mile loop hike that started at one of the ruins and continued up to the rim of the canyon and to two other large ruins. The weather started out clear but cold and both Guitar and I had several layers of clothes. By mid morning we had shed most layers and were quite comfortable. The picture above and to the left shows Guitar leaving an "offering" in one of the pecked basins we saw on the trail. These basins were "pecked" out by the ancient people and when many of them were discovered in the early 1900's they were filled with turquoise offerings. Guitar didn't have any turquoise to spare so he left a couple of copper pennies.

We packed a lunch and at noon, sitting on the rim of the canyon looking down on the remnants of a 1000 year old building we ate PB&J sandwiches and cheese crackers....It was a memorable experience.

All along the trail we found pottery shards. It is speculated that because so many pieces of pottery are found in this area and other ancient pueblo ruins, that they represent some type of offering where pottery is broken to honor the ancestors. This ritual is still done by modern Navajo and Hopi people.

It's an eerie feeling to hold a piece of pottery in your hand, out in the middle of nowhere, that you know another human held 800-1000 years ago. It's likely that you were the first to touch this piece of pottery since that individual put it there all those years ago. We didn't finish the hike until mid afternoon and then spent some time at the visitor center museum and made plans for the next day.

Friday night we did more stargazing and I did something I had been wanting to do since my last visit to this place. Readers might remember that after my last visit here I decided to learn to play the Native American Flute. In the intervening couple of months I have gotten a flute and can play it a little.

I brought the flute along with me on this trip so standing in the darkness with only the stars overhead I gave it a go. The campground was close to the walls of the canyon so the sound of the flute reverberated off the walls. The playing wasn't expert, but I imagine the ancient ones weren't always expert either....At any rate it was an experience. For me, a pleasant experience...I'm not sure about Guitar.

Saturday morning we decided to take one more short hike and then to head out of the canyon back towards the Denver area. This hike was listed at a little over 3 miles but by the time we got back to the RV my GPS said we had walked closer to 4.5 miles.

It was another great hike that led to a ruin on the mesa top and then through some spectacular scenery and ended up at a huge excavated kiva, Casa Rincondata.

We finished the hike right at noon and had a lunch of canned sardines and crackers before heading out of the canyon. The lunch was memorable too. It's probably been twenty years since I've had canned sardines. I used to have them regularly on my boat when fishing in Savannah and this lunch not only was satisfying in taste but it brough back pleasant memories of fishing on my boat.

The road out of Chaco had not improved in the two days we were there. It still took an hour to go the first 12 miles. We made it as far as Navajo State Park that afternoon and spent one last night on the road.

Sunday morning we started early and drove through Chama, NM into Alamosa, CO and then on in to the Denver area. We were gone two weeks and logged about 2300 miles on the RV. It was another trip of a lifetime....many sights, new friends and a new appreciation for the magnificence of this country we call ours.

After only a few days home I'm already scheming and planning for the next trip. Don't know when or where but it will happen..and soon. I have a few more stories to tell about this trip but I'll leave them for another post.

Thanks for visiting.