a snow day

Our leaving was delayed due to a snow storm. The fireplace was nice, the snow looked nice from the window. But.....two days of mud, towels on the carpet to keep muddy paws from ruining the carpet and nothing to do. Internet not working, cell phones not working, tv not working. Thank goodness we had kindles.

A nice trip but very glad to get home.

Puye cliff dwellers

A storm was coming in but we decided to make a go at seeing the cliff dwellings. By the time we got there it was windy and very cold. The tour was two hours up a very high hill. We opted for pictures from the bottom.

Pecos National Memorial Park

This park was recommended by someone at the RV Park. Glad we took the drive. A pleasant surprise. I have been reminded many times how much the Catholic church tried to control the native Indians. Guess it goes back to my way is the way and might makes right.
Indians lived here centuries.

Who knew???

Hmmmmm what is that smell?

Where they grew some of the crops

Trash, hundreds of years of indian garbage.

Checking out a kiva (ceremonial room).

Calvin going down...... Charlie says, I'm not goin' down there.

Calvin coming up.....

and then.....the spanish mission.

Remains of the rooms where the indians were kept while learning to be catholics

and next to the 'dormitory' was a turkey hatchery.

hitching post

Take the high road and then the low road

There are two roads to Taos from Santa Fe. The low road and the high road. One takes you high the other follows the Rio Grande river, mostly low. We took the high road towards Taos and the low road back. Lots of little villages on both roads.

On the high road.

On the high road we went by a little mission that was built around a well with 'holy dirt'. There were crutches, back braces etc in a little room adjacent to the room housing the dirt well. Apparently people from all over the world come to get a little bag of holy dirt. One of the women here at the camp told of three healings for herself and her husband using the holy dirt. There was no charge and no one is turned away. The well was about 12-14 inches wide and there were two small scoops in the dirt for people to use. A sign requested no pictures of the dirt well.

How is this for a back yard??

And a front yard?

Following the Rio Grande river home.

Trip to Santa Fe area

On the road to Abiquiu

OLD Town Abiquiu

I talked to an old man in Abiquiu who is a self proclaimed historian of the town. He and his brother were raised there and worked for Georgia O'Keeffe starting at around 5 years of age. Ms O'Keeffe took a liking to the brother and taught him to paint. He now has a gallery in Santa Fe. Napoleon Garcia, said he always complained that no one knew how much they did for 'the artist' and what she did for the village. She was one of them. One day, someone said 'well,you should write a book', and so he did, The Genizaro and the Artist. The two boys had a hard life. Not accepted by the mother or father's families, or the villagers because the parents were not married and the father deserted them when they were babies. Sleeping in abandoned building, going hungry etc. Napoleon worked for O'Keeffe until a couple years before she died. He had 10 children, all educated and all but two live near Abiquiu.

Area near the Ghost Ranch. My heart is smiling

About 13 miles of one way dirt roads following the Chama River, some high (very high) and some of it right next to the raging river is a monastery. Since it was there and we was there we decided to ck it out. We thought it was years past and unoccupied. Wrong! Very much occupied. One of the priests graciously gave us a tour. Beautiful view from the chapel. Paned glass windows at the top looking out at the red rocks behind the building.