Travels in the 2nd half

http://www.postersofsantafe.com/images/products/419l.jpg 20 years ago, The Amazing Ms. D and I bought this magnet. when we visited a few days ago we found out that Santa Fe style is still in full force, but we also found a lot about Santa Fe that we really liked. The Santa Fe Museum of Art The Santa Fe Museum of Art  More than anything this museum may be the heart of Santa Fe. The museum looks like it is an old building that has been refurbished, but its history is much more interesting. New Mexico became a state in 1912. By 1915 some of its biggest boosters and brightest minds were worried that its traditional culture was disappearing. Traditional adobe houses were being torn down and replaced with newer brick buildings, and you thought gentrification was a new phenomenon. So some of the civic leaders developed a plan for to save the center of town. They wanted to build a cultural center in the adobe style to serve a model. They commissioned a set of plans ...

Twenty years ago The Amazing Ms. D and I took our first vacation together. It was a two week trip to the Southwest. This year we are getting the chance to retrace some of that trip together. The Turquoise Trail The first part of this trip is taking The Turquoise Trail . This is a fantastic day trip from Albuquerque or Santa Fe (about 150 miles round trip). What drew us 20 years ago was the chance to see the ghost towns of Golden, Madrid and Cerrillos.   Well things have really changed in 20 years. None of the towns are ghost towns anymore, and there are some really interesting places to stop, shop and eat along the way. Madrid NM Madrid is a former coal mining company town. The mine operated through the 1950's and provided major amounts of coal to Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project. When the mine closed the company tried to sell off the entire town, but was unable to. So the town was abandoned and became a ghost town. In the 1970's the started selling off individual...

The last leg of my journey on Route 66 was from Gallup to Albuquerque. The is a lot to see on this leg, but I rushed to meet The Amazing Ms. D ,who was flying in to Albuquerque for a writers workshop. Therefore I only had time for one thing. I chose El Malpais National Conservation Area ( here). El Malpais El Malpais (literally - The Bad Lands) is large area of basalt rock from the lava flows of  many volcano eruptions around 3 million years ago. Lava flows fill a rift valley that stretches between the Zuni and Acoma Pueblos. The valley sits between large sandstone bluffs, several hundred feet tall. Looking out over the valley from the Sandstone Bluffs you can see how the lava flow filled up the entire valley.  The black areas are the basalt from the lava flow The sandstone forms a sharp contrast to the valley below   Mt Taylor - The source of the lava The Malpais NCA is also the home to larges natural bridge in the United States - La Ve...

Today was the shortest distance I have driven so far, but it took the longest time. There was a lot to see along the way. Flagstaff AZ I was last in Flagstaff 20 years ago. It was a dismal depressed town in which nothing was happening except around Northern Arizona University. Today it has a bustling life. A friend of mine said they hated it because they felt it too touristy. Yes its economy is based on the tourist trade, but the town is not the tacky tourist trap of tee-shirt shops and fast food. In the past 20 years the town of Flagstaff has totally redone the downtown area. Let's start with the centerpiece - Heritage Square: Hacky-sackers learning how to juggle benches made from train wheels Artwork in the square  Heritage Square has replaced a dirt parking lot and has become the center of hanging out and spending an evening outside. Diagonally across from Heritage Square is the Weatherford Hotel. This hotel dates back to 1897 (see its history...