Welcoming Whinnies in the Epicenter of Southwest First Nations People

 We got up fairly early and headed to the tourist area of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The area is lovely.  There is lots of statuary, which is always good for me.

There is a little park and green space that's cute.

Many carvers/sculptors have shops in the area.

I love the benches with children reading.

The adobe architecture is all over the tourist area and kind of spattered around the rest of town.

The big draw for me was in the Loretto Chapel.  This church was decommissioned long ago, but if you pay your admission fee of $5 per person, you can still buy and light prayer candles inside.  The confessional is just for show, though.

The draw is this staircase.  It's called the Miraculous Staircase and there are significant mysteries surrounding it.  The most well known is that it is a spiral staircase with two complete spirals and no nails or other visible means of support.  There are also questions about the woods used and who built it.  Legend says that after the church was built, the only access to the second-floor choir loft was by ladder.  After prayers and purchasing sacraments to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, a man appeared with a donkey and tools and built the staircase.  After completion, the man disappeared and could not be found to be paid, even after placing ads in the local paper.  Regardless of the truthfulness of the legends, it's a very lovely staircase.

This is a picture of a picture of a choir actually using the staircase.

After finishing in the chapel, we headed on down the road to the west.  Our next stop was Chaco Canyon and the Chaco Culture National Historic Park.  You will not stumble onto this place by accident!  It is waaaaaay back into the canyon!

Soon after turning onto the numbered country road, the welcoming committee came out to see us.

Bruce was under the mistaken impression that I stopped putting him on dirt roads when we left South America.  Oh, how wrong he was!  It didn't take long before we left the county maintenance area.

We passed by the Horse Thief Campground.  We initially thought it just said, "Welcome Horse Thieves"!

And we crossed a huge wash.  Apparently, you can't get into or out of the park when it storms.

We saw more wildlife as we drove on by.  Bruce and I joked that it probably wouldn't take long for me to make friends with much of these wild animals!

We finally got to the park and paved roads!  This picture is of a formation in the canyon, but you can see the pavement on the edge!

The visitor's center had an awesome map with a relief of the canyon.

The park is dedicated to the Chaco culture, the ancient culture that is believed to be ancestral to most if not all of the local Native cultures.  These are believed to be the First Nation.  They apparently had a very well defined and  complex area.  Trade is known to have occured as far as central Mexico.  The buildings that have been excavated were huge.  The site we toured is the largest one and the best preserved.  Back in the 800-1100s, this was one of the larges great houses.  It was at least 4 stories and had over 600 rooms plus 40 kivas (a circular men's ceremonial room).  Kivas are still used by the Hopi.  This was a massive site.

This is a Kiva

On the way out, we were bid a fond farewell.  I know we could be friends if I spent more time in the area!

With the sweetest of goodbyes, we headed on up to Farmington, NM, for the night.

Head West (Again), Old Geezers!

Time to leave Hot Springs and head west.  We're not young men, but we still headed west.  This was mostly two days of driving.  No stops were planned, but . . .  

Ft. Smith, Arkansas, has some nice murals.

Okema, Oklahoma, is rather proud of being the birthplace of Woody Guthrie.  Not many people are drawn to him anymore, apparently.  The town was extremely run down.  Woody Guthrie Park was in pretty good shape, though (except the busted out window in the building on the left).

We also slid by Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City.  For some unknown reason, they felt a lighthouse was needed on this relatively small lake.  The lake is 3.8 square miles and 29 feet deep.  I can't imagine the need for a lighthouse!  But, there it sits!

There are some things we want to do in Amarillo, but those will wait for a different trip.  But, while we were driving past, we decided to revisit the Cadillac Ranch.  The last time we stopped by, it was snowy and slushy, and the field was a muddy mess.  I was also in a CAM walking boot.  So, we just took pictures from the fence and went ahead.  This time, it was a sunny day with boring, cloudless skies, but the path to the cars was dry.  The cars, themselves, were in a puddle, so they couldn't be reached to paint.  Some differences from the last time is that people were spray painting the street and the Jersey barriers.  Some people were even spray painting the ground!  There was a guy outside the gate selling pendants, magnets, and other things made with paint chips preserved in resin.  While walking around, Bruce happened upon a huge, rock-sized paint chip and put it in his pocket.  Part of that chip will be going in my shadow box.  I might shave some off and do some of my own magnets or pins or something!

Some people have started a locks of love type thing on the fence, but one person put their shoes over the fence.

Even the garbage cans have been tagged!

This paint is peeling off and cracking away.

This paint just slid down to the ground.

We thought about seeing if the Slug Bugs were still around, but learned they were on the other side of Amarillo, and we didn't want to drive back through town just to come back where we were.  So we continued west until we caught sight of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico.  

We pulled into Santa Fe for the night.  Next to our hotel was the Flying Tortilla restaurant.  That sounded like a name we had to try.  Bruce had the New Mexican Tortilla Burger, and I had the Sopapillas Rellenas.  They were good choices!  Bruce said he liked the green chili better than the red, so he regretted going Christmas.  I thought they were both great!

The adventure starts in earnest tomorrow!

Total Eclipsing in Hot Springs!

For the eclipse, we decided to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Back in 2017, we talked about going down to Bruce's favorite place in the world for this eclipse, Mazatlan, but being in Biloxi instead of Washington, we decided to just make it a stop on the way home.  Having not seen Hot Springs National Park and Bruce having talked a lot about wanting to go to Craters of Diamonds State Park for several years, Hot Springs was the winner.  Besides, remembering the traffic from the 2017 eclipse that we had no real plan for, we planned this one.  To avoid eclipse traffic, we decided to spend four days in Hot Springs.  We could get there before any of the big traffic started coming in, do the national park one day, the eclipse one day, and the state park one day.  That would fill our time in Hot Springs.  I also had been practicing with The Baby (my big 150-600 mm lens - see early Uganda posts to see how she got that name) on how to shoot the sun with my camera because I wanted some good shots.  I had special filters for both cameras, built hoods to hold those filters so they could be easily removed at totality, and practiced astro photos on both the moon and the sun.

So, feeling confident, we were ready for the eclipse.  And during transit, the filter for The Baby's hood got damaged.  It got a crease in it.  I tried my best, but I could not get a replacement in time.  Knowing I had the Lumix for backup, we decided I would try to see if The Baby would focus through the damaged filter, and that I would just do my best.  If I couldn't get good shots this year, there's another couple of eclipses coming up, just not in the US.  I have been known to ride airplanes at times.

So, we got checked into our hotel and went to dinner.  When traveling, we tend to look for unique names of restaurants and then check the reviews.  The Purple Cow was the winner.  They have this purple ice cream pie that I wanted to try.  So, I ordered dessert first to make sure I had room for it!

It wasn't bad.  Just purple colored vanilla ice cream in an oreo crust with whipped cream.  The rest of the food was really good, too.  We learned that slicing a boiled egg and putting it on a sandwich adds another layer of yumm.  The South of the Border soup was also very good.  It's a modified chicken tortilla soup with a very tasty broth, and adding the cheese takes it a step further.  The restaurant was an excellent choice.

The next morning, we decided to do the national park, so we got up a bit early and headed to town.  For the most part, Hot Springs National Park is a nice hiking park.  There are very well-groomed trails throughout with both cold and hot springs up and down the mountain.  

The park and the town abut right up against each other and you get to see it all, the pretty and the ugly, right next to each other.

We drove up to the top of the mountain where the Mountain Tower is.  I can't believe I took a picture of a picture of the old tower, but neglected to take a shot of the tower itself!!

The views from the top of the tower were wonderful, even though it was rainy and cloudy, which was not boding well for tomorrow's eclipse.  The weather reports and the Windy app were all reassuring me that the skies in Hot Springs would be fine, though.

Hot Springs National Park is named after the springs that come down from the three small mountains.  The rain falls on North Mountain, Indian Mountain, and Hot Springs Mountain and seeps into the ground going so deep under the Earth's crust that it is heated by pressure and radioactive decay.  There is no volcanic activity under Hot Springs to heat the water.  The Ouachita Mountains (of which these mountains are a part) just have so many cracks and fissures that the water gets pushed out in particular places before it has the opportunity to cool.  

The park, iteself, was a bit underimpressive.  The highlight of the park is Bathhouse Row, a row of old bathhouses that runs along the edge of the park, right along Central Avenue in Hot Springs.  Some of these bathhouses are functional and can take walk ins.  Some of them have been converted to restaurants or bars.  One of them functions as the park's Visitor's Center.  Bruce wasn't feeling well and parking was impossible, so he dropped me off in front of the Fordyce Bathhouse and went back to the hotel to rest.

The National Park Visitor's Center is in the Fordyce Bathhouse.  While it is not functional at this time, it gives a great rundown of how the bathhouses work and has preserved what they looked like back in their heyday.

This stained glass is central to the ceiling of the men's bath hall.

There were several private rooms along the perimeter of the men's bath hall.

This statue of Ponce de Leon accepting water from a Native woman is central to the men's bath hall.

Similar to a steam room, but for a single person.  They called it a vapor bath.

This was one of the earliest physical therapy rooms.  

Men's exercise costumes of the period

Women's bathing costume and a therapeutic bath designed for people with significant mobility issues.  Note the straps and pulleys that were used to raise and lower them into the bath and to help move them into and out of the room.

Women's exercise costumes

The gymnasium

The tanks and mechanics of the hot springs

This is a glassed in area a so you can see the water from the spring below.  

After touring the Visitor's Center/Fordyce Bathhouse, I wandered around town.  I checked out the stations at the Eclipse fair and stopped in at various shops to see if I could find a new filter for The Baby, but was unsuccessful.

This is the main walking entry to the park.  The Fordyce Bathhouse is the brown and white building on the right.

   

This fountain is a hot spring fountain.  The water is definitely hot!

This waterfall is also hot!

I liked this storefront for artisinal soaps and candles

Even Smokey the Bear was there!

It's a cute town.  It didn't take long to walk the few blocks of the tourist area and see it all.  Dinner was at the Blue Monkey, where we got enough for tomorrow, too, so we didn't have to fight eclipse traffic.

The next day was THE DAY - the total eclipse of the sun.  The morning was spent making sure both cameras, filters, and hoods were crystal clean, and the settings were right.  When it came time, we moved the car around to the side of the hotel I wanted to watch from.  I tried to use The Baby, but focusing through the creased filter was impossible.  So I put the Lumix on the tripod and started up.  It took a few shots to be able to get it focused right.  But, after that, everything went smooth and great.  We just sat in our chairs using our glasses to watch the eclipse.  Periodically, I'd reach over and press the shutter button on the camera (with a two-second timer because I'm too cheap to get a remote, though that situation might change at some point soon).  It was fun watching it with the solar glasses without my prescription eyeglasses.  My double vision made the eclipse even more interesting!

As the sun got more hidden by the moon, it began to get dark and cooler.  The birds started acting like they were bedding down for the night.  Street lights started coming on, too, which was unfortunate.  In 2017, we were in a rural part of Oregon, and it got pitch dark at totality.

At totality, I took the filter and hood off the camera.  I missed the diamond ring effect, which flashed as I was taking off the hood.

After totality, I put the hood and filter back on and took more shots as the moon moved past the sun.

The following day, we were planning to do Craters of Diamonds State Park, but it stormed again.  Rock hounding in the mud simply didn't appeal to us, so we'll just have to come back.  Instead, I learned how to make a composit photo of my eclipse pictures.  

We planned to eat at a German restaurant that a friend who I served in Germany with said was authentic, but it was closed because they had special hours during the eclipse.  Their normal hours are, like any respectable German restaurant, closed on Sunday and Monday.  But, because of the eclipse, they were open those days and closed on Tuesday.  So, we'll just have to eat there when we come back to go rock hounding!  'Tis now time to go west!