Artesia, New Mexico

Artesia, New Mexico is a different town. It is 1,696 miles from Seattle, Washington, and it is in the southwestern part of New Mexico. It is halfway between Roswell and Carlsbad. We planned it that way.

Artesia has a population of almost 11,000 people so it is not very big. The first thing you notice about it is the Navajo Refinery. It is the state's largest refineries that processes 85,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The second thing you will notice is amazing statues.

Artesia is not suffering much from the recession. Housing continues to climb....It also has a Speedway. The owner of the Artesia RV Resort where we are staying races dragsters. If you want to see a huge trailer, come look at his trailer. It must be 60 feet long all by itself.

It is warm in this area. Today it is over 90.

I discovered some different Yucca in this area. Or, maybe they were just HUGE!!!!

Oh, there is one other thing you might notice in Artesia -- when the wind is really blowing there is dust....

Goodbye Albuquerque, Hello Artesia

This is San Filipe de Neri Church in Old Town Albuquerque. Yet, another beautiful structure.

Albuquerque has rabbits and snakes decorating their highways. Highways 25 and 40 intersect almost in the downtown area.

Two beautiful totem poles (I think that is what you would call them even though they are not wood) create a gateway to Albuquerque on Highway 40. This is one of them.

Going from Albuquerque to Artesia was a long, long, long road with only three towns between the Highway 285 junction and Artesia which is about 140 miles. This is how those 140 miles looked. There was only one rest stop along the way and only a few places to even pull off. Whoa!

This is Vaughn, New Mexico which was about a quarter of the way south of the Highway 285 junction. This town was almost dead -- abandoned businesses and homes all along the highway.

There were about two trees between Vaughn and Roswell which is just before Artesia. This was one of them.

We were tired and happy to finally reach Artesia.

The Good News

Well, the good news is:

The camera has been shipped back to Nikon for repair or replacements AND I do have a backup camera.

The door awning was under warranty and Camping World in Albuquerque was able to get it and install it before we left.

The sparkling water wiped up just fine.

Bought a new program - Roxio Creator 2009 - and it has some updated features that will make my life easier when I am fixing photos for the website. I needed to update Roxio anyway because I need it for burning golf course photos on CD/DVDs when we send them a copy. So, I ended up with one program doing what it used to take two program and doing it better.

Hope, this means things are going to get back to love, harmony and balance! HA! Maybe, just maybe, this round is done!

Is Mercury in Retrograde or Is There a Prolonged Full Moon

It has been awhile, long enough for me to forget, when everything goes to he@# in a hand basket seemingly all at once. It comes in such a flurry it becomes a laughing matter.

Here's what I can remember:

My camera broke -- just would do a rolling picture of ????

Door awning motor died.

Spilled a whole glass of sparkling water on the floor.

Started to edit some pictures for the website and the ground fault circuit interrupter (had to google what that was called) by the sink blew and off went the computer, monitor, printer and a few other outlets...thus edited pictures not saved.

Started again to edit some pictures and the Microsoft Digital Imaging program decided to go to the Vista junkyard!

And, on and on.....

Santa Fe is a Real Cool Place

Lance wanted to go toward Santa Fe to see a golf course. We got there and it had snowed and the course was closed. We decided since we were so close to Santa Fe to go ahead and go there.

Whoa! Did not think we were that close to Cuba!!!! Also, we saw a sign pointing to Waldo...do you think we finally found Waldo?

On the way we saw signs to this National Monument. It was worth the detour. Nature has a way of creating such unusual and beautiful landscapes.

One place I wanted to go to in Santa Fe was the Spiral Staircase in the Loretto Chapel. It was the subject of a movie, Spiral Staircase, staring William Pederson (Gus Grissom of CSI) as the carpenter. There is a legend that the nuns prayed to St. Joseph for the staircase and this man (many believe it was St. Joseph himself) came and built the staircase with very little central support and supposedly of wood not indigiousness to the area. A magnificent piece of architecture.

Nearby, was the Georgia O'Keefe Museum. Could not sneak any pictures -- yes, they had guards all over there too. It was very interesting with pictures in different types of media as well as her quotes and history.



The one thing that stood out in Santa Fe was that most of the homes and businesses were adobe. Here is Office Depot.

Like Sedona, Arizona, Santa Fe is an artist's paradise. Every where you turned in downtown Santa Fe was jewelry, clothing, sculptures, you name it in Indian and southwestern motifs.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Say Albuquerque five times real fast....then spell it. Boy oh boy that took some doing! I think it should be spelled Albakirkee!

On the way, just out of Flagstaff we came upon Meteor City. Yes, it is the place where Jeff Bridges of Starman took off in his flying saucer. And, the cafe they were in was there too! But my camera died about then and not all the pictures were on the card.

The first thing we noticed heading into Albuquerque was a different rock formation than we had seen before. There were caves everywhere.

The other thing we noticed was the presence of the Indians in New Mexico -- Hopi - Navado, Mescaleros, Apache. This area is rich in tourquoise and silver.

Then another thing we had never seen before...miles and miles of lava rock. While we did not go to the El Malpais National Park here is what their website says about this area.

There is much evidence of past volcanic action in New Mexico, including the Capulin National Monument in the northeast, various lava plugs - inner remnants of ancient volcanoes - around Shiprock, and large lava fields around Carizozo, south of Socorro and west of Grants, together with various smaller areas. The last named is the largest, and most is contained within the El Malpais National Monument. The lava covers an area of 60 by 35 miles; I-40 crosses the northern margin, but the scenery is much better viewed from along NM 117 which runs south, through the monument. Admission is free and for 30 miles the road follows the edge of the twisted black lava deposits which stretch westwards to the horizon.

ALBUQUERQUE

Albuquerque is situated in a "bowl" with mountains every where.

And, a lot of the homes and buildings are adobe. Very, very different than the northwest.

Holbrook Arizona - Home of the Petrified Forest

On our way to Albuquerque New Mexico we stopped a couple of days in northeast Arizona in the City of Holbrook. Everywhere you look there is a store selling petrified wood and gems. The dinosaur theme is also prevelant.

One reason we always stay at least two days when we are on the move is because it gives us at least one day to explore the area. When you are traveling Highway 40 in this area you would never have believe just a few miles off the highway was this unbelievable display of nature's beauty. It seems to have no hills and is barren and grey. Not so...

This the the Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark.

There are pieces of petrified trees all over the park though people stealing piece amounts to as much a one ton a month. I could not believe it.

Near Newspaper Rock are hundreds of petroglyphs etched in stone.

While Highway 40 is a modern highway, the famous Route 66 parallels a lot of it. Route 66 goes from Los Angeles to Chicago or Chicago to Los Angeles whatever suits your fancy. Here is a bit of Route 66 history. We followed it from Flagstaff, Arizona to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The picture on the left is an Agate Bridge -- yes, an "agate" bridge. Whoa!