The Rest of New Mexico (5/11/11-5/15)

Pie Town


the museum and research center

After spending the night at Brantley Lake State Park up the road from Carlsbad - pretty, but windy - I drove north to Roswell. I expected a dorky, UFO-centric town but Roswell has every appearance of a prosperous, clean city. Rather than stopping and looking at all the alien crap, I snapped a picture of the "research" center. Hope they're learning shit in there.


west towards Socorro

West of Roswell the land rises and goes through some nice pine-covered hills. One of the towns you drive through is Lincoln, where Billy the Kid killed some folks and then escaped from jail. Things went downhill for the young lad soon after that. West of there is more desert all the way to I-25 and Socorro, where I call it a day.

very small part of the VLA

My next stop is Albuquerque to visit my good friend Scott. It's only Thursday and he has to "work" so I decide to drive west for the day to visit Pie Town. I had seen a show on PBS a while back that was documenting the Continental Divide Trail and the people walking it. The Divide goes right by Pie Town and so hikers stop there to rest and treat themselves to pie. Who could resist? Along the way you drive by/through the Very Large Array, which is Very Impressive.

the pie store

Next up is Pie Town. This is a two-store town and the one I had seen on tv is closed today. There is one other right down the road so I stop there; I will not be denied pie. I have a slice of chocolate cream with whipped cream and coffee and it's excellent. I want to buy an apple pie to take with me to Scott's and they have a warm one just out of the oven. Fair warning: they charge $25 for a pie. They're good, but not that good, unless you're a tourist who doesn't care, just this once.


Albuquerque


La Ventana

Pie in tow, I head north on a dirt road that takes me through wide open ranch land on the way to I-40. Lots of big sky with distant mountains. Back on a paved road still heading north you drive by the La Ventana Natural Arch. No one else is around and it's very peaceful to hang out there for a bit before moving on. After that, I get to I-40 east and it's standard, scrubby desert all the way to Quirky Town, with the occasional Indian casino along the way. No thanks.

Work day over, Scott calls and gives me directions to his house. It's great to see him after 5-1/2 years. We go back some 26 years, afterall. His 3 youngest daughters are there, Katie, Taylor and Tara (twins who have great singing voices). Scott grills up some good chow for everyone, the adults have a few beers, and we catch up for the remainder of the evening.

Scott, the Hulk and me

Rte. 66 marker

Friday morning Scott has a 1/2 day of work, but after that he gives me the tour of downtown Albu. including the historic Route 66 area where we have lunch and stop at the motel where they shot scenes of "No Country for Old Men". Later, we play 9 holes of golf at a local course (they're not nearly as crowded down here). The beer cart lady took this picture of us. Scott loves his Hulk head cover, obviously. Hope I don't have to wait another 5-1/2 years.





Taos
 

the Taos square

along the river to Taos

North on the interstate up to Santa Fe, which I only drive through. It's about 3 hours to reach Taos and the first thing I do is check out a campground about 5 miles outside of town next to a creek. Looks like it'll do the trick, so I head back to scope out the historic downtown area. If you are allergic to adobe or art galleries then you might want to skip Taos (and, probably Santa Fe, for that matter). Not that there's anything wrong with that. I happened to like Taos, even if I did sneeze a few times...it could have been the pollen. Had lunch on the square which was nice, albeit kinda expensive. My only suggestion is that they shut the square off to traffic, who needs it. Sleeping by the creek was great even if it did get down to 44 in the morning. Brrrr.

West to Colorado
 

different kind of home

view off the bridge

This drive takes about 5-1/2 hours to go 268 miles where I end up back in Colorado! More about that later. Heading west from Taos the first thing of note is the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Worth a stop and a walk out to the middle for snapshots. Shortly past the bridge are a number of homes, most of them partially buried in some energy-saving experiment, I guess. I snapped a photo of this one, not really buried, but typical of the fanciful designs. Very interesting.




north of Shiprock

great views in northern N.M.

the New Mexico map

West of here the land goes high with pine and aspen forests. Lots of aspen, must be a great drive in the fall. This in turn changes back to desert eventually as I drive on to Farmington and then Shiprock. I had thought to camp around here but the area is not attractive. Farmington has giant car cemeteries and multiple pawn shops. That's what I noticed, anyway. Shiprock is very dry and brown. From there it's north across the Navajo Nation to Colorado.