Final Post

We have been back from Maryland for five days now and this will be the farewell post. Our Santa Fe furniture arrived yesterday. We've been living in Oxford and going up to Denton every day to clean the house, unpack, garden and fix things that have inevitably come apart during our year away. We'll move up there at the end of the week, but may be back in Oxford for a couple weeks if we get some further house renovation done. We are looking forward to seeing all our friends here, getting settled into our home and new routine, and working on postponed projects. We already miss Santa Fe though and will still strive to find a way to live in several places at once! We hope to post future travel adventures here, but it will probably be awhile. Thanks for reading and keep in touch!

XC West to East

The furniture movers arrived promptly Friday morning and by 1 pm we were loaded up and on the road back east. Friday night we camped at Palo Duro Canyon State Park just south of Amarillo. Known as the “Grand Canyon” of Texas, it really was beautiful. We camped at the bottom of the canyon in one of several camp grounds. Colored canyon walls rose on either side and the bottom was intersected by small arroyos with lots of signs warning about flash floods.

Saturday we sped across Oklahoma’s back roads and into western Arkansas. In Oklahoma we stopped for a picnic lunch at Ft. Cobb Wildlife Management area. There is a large lake there surrounded by forests and homes. A friendly bulldog accompanied us on a walk on the red dirt roads that follow the lake shore. In Arkansas, the rivers were in flood stage and the first park we stopped at hoping to camp near Alma, AR, was closed. So we went to a nearby KOA instead. KOAs are always neat and clean with great restrooms. This one had lots of odd looking ducks that came around looking for handouts (see photo of nesting duck). We went out for dinner, and got very average Italian food. Unfortunately the Catfish Hole had a long line. It rained that night, but we were warm and dry in our tent.

It stayed cloudy as we kept mainly to Rt. 40 through AR. We decided to visit Graceland since we were going to pass right by it. The ticket pavilion is across a 4 lane street from the house and they ferry people over on small buses. You get an audio tour with your admission. The house looks like a modest southern mansion from the front, but is fairly small really. On the tour you visit the first floor, the finished basement and the outbuildings. The décor is extreme 70s. Green shag carpeting in the “living room”, called the Jungle room because of the color and heavy carved wood furniture (see photo). A mirrored rec room in the basement and another room covered in pleated boldly patterned fabric on the walls and ceiling. Other buildings contained Elvis’ dad’s office and an enormous trophy collection. From that collection you see the overwhelming influence Elvis must have had on the musical world.

Keeping with our musical theme, we made our way to Nashville, home of country music! We found a hotel near downtown and made our way over to the bars and restaurants in “The District”. After strolling around a few blocks, we had dinner at Ichiban, a very good Japanese restaurant. We were desperate for some good food and this was very satisfying. Afterwards we picked out a bar with a band. At most of the bars, the bands are visible and audible through a glass window facing the street. So you can walk along and choose where you want to go based on what music appeals. We ended up at the “Second Fiddle” and got a beer at the bar. The band was quite good and played a wide range of classic and contemporary covers. One band member’s fiancée was there with her sister, and the sister also sang a few LeAnn Rimes songs quite well.

The next day we drove to Knoxville where my high school friend Mary now lives. She took us to a good local chain restaurant for lunch and then we went for a short walk at a local waterfront park. Knoxville seems to be surrounded by rivers and lakes. Apparently boating is a big thing to do there. Fortified with goodies she’d made, we continued on to Abingdon, VA to visit my friend Quinn. Quinn is an artist, actress, and “cat wrangler” for a cat rescue organization. She and her current two cats greeted us (or at least one cat did, we never did see the other one). We went for a walk around the incredibly cute town of Abingdon. It would be a great place for a long weekend of theatre and hiking. Quinn fixed us a salad made with locally collected branch lettuce and pasta with homemade pesto.

Finally, on Tuesday we drove from Abingdon to Oxford, MD! We did detour off the interstate for a while and stopped for lunch in Sperryville, VA at a café in an old renovated church building. Arriving in Oxford around 4:30, we were warmly welcomed by my mom and dad and by Calla! Calla seemed to forgive me for having left her for a year, although I’m sure it wasn’t hard for her given all the attention she got while I was gone!

Battle of Glorieta Pass

Texans march through New Mexico Territory attempting to claim the southwest for the Confederacy. Union troops from Colorado engage them in battle between Santa Fe and Albuquerque enlisting a few poorly trained New Mexican soldiers. The Battle at Glorieta Pass proves a turning point in the war in the southwest as Union troops defeat the Confederate soldiers by burning their supply wagons forcing them to return to Texas.

Or something like that. This weekend there was a re-enactment of the battle held at Rancho Las Golondrinas, a living history museum near Santa Fe. The New Mexicans were represented by about 5 guys dressed in Mexican peasant garb (see photo of one captured by Confederate soldiers). They spoke Spanish and broken English during the skirmishes. The Union soldiers outnumbered the Confederate soldiers and were much more organized, but then the Confederate soldiers were the ones with the horses. Apparently neither army was particularly popular among the native New Mexicans during the Civil War. As an easterner, I never knew there were Civil War battles this far west. One person said it was because the Confederacy wanted the gold recently discovered in Colorado.

Las Golondrinas was quite impressive. There are historic buildings of several eras including 2 working water mills for grain and a simple molasses mill. People were on hand to demonstrate various crafts such as weaving, iron work, and bread baking in adobe ovens. They were quite entertaining with good analogies or contrasts with present day technology. The woman in the kitchen described grinding corn on a stone as "the aerobic upper body workout" for the women of the era. An acequia runs through the property watering small fields and an orchard. Sheep and goats are kept at the farm and probably other animals during the summer. The landscape is quite varied with small ponds, dry hills and enormous cottonwood trees.

On the way home we stopped to check out the "World Series of Trailer Roping". It turned out to be a team calf roping contest. We think the winner gets a horse trailer. It was a very local event with no stands for spectators, you just hang out by the rail or sit on the back of your pickup truck. It is not easy to rope a calf over the horns and back legs. Most teams failed but a few managed the impressive feat of coordination. There were some women in the competition so it wasn't completely a male dominated activity. The small food booth's menu was in Spanish mostly, but the announcer spoke in English.