Evening, Campers!
It's Silver Cliche' here again. This is night three of three for our
Cochiti Lake camping experience at the Tetilla Peak Recreation Area.
Happy Mothers Day to all the mums out there!
A bit of blog news…
Thanks
to input from a Mr. CW in Vero Beach, Florida I have turned on the
comments feature of the blog (which I did not know was turned off).
You readers may now add and share your own comments to blog posts.
That
feature was used already by a Ms. PS of Maryland who placed a strong
vote for the Flowbee… for dog grooming.
Also,
in response to yesterday's post and my comments on chili, a Mr. DW of
Albuquerque wrote in to draw attention to one of the great debates in
New Mexico. I was familiar with the thought that many states have a
state song, or a state bird or even a state reptile. In addition to
the normal list of state-endorsed items, New Mexico has a “state
question”. Google “New Mexico State Question”… you'll see.
The question is “Red or Green”. It refers to the question that is
asked by waiters and waitresses at countless meals throughout the day and
throughout the state “do you want that with red chili or green?”.
The description on the web page of the New Mexico Secretary of State
indicates that New Mexico produced 99,000 tons of chili in 2000. My
reaction to that was: 1.) that's a lot of chili and 2.) that was 16
years ago and the start of a new century… do they only measure
chili production once every 100 years in New Mexico?
It's been a pleasure
to have three days without having to move the trailer. We have enough
capacity to stay three days in one place -- or even four on occasion
-- without refilling water or removing any either. Of course, we take
“Navy showers” (turn on water… dampen parts to be washed…
turn off water… soap up… scrub… turn water on… rinse… turn
water off) and we don't leave water running during dish duty, tooth
brushing, etc. It becomes second nature to conserve water when in the
trailer. I suspect residents of deserts or California have adopted
similar habits.
Today we spent
exploring Santa Fe (a city whose name means "Holy Faith"). It's about a 40 minute drive from the campsite. I
made early lunch reservations using Open Table at a restaurant called
La Casa Sena. This restaurant is located in a historic building – a
hacienda, technically – that is near the center of town. It
featured a spectacular courtyard. Lunch was a delightful,
three-course affair and a fitting tribute to the mother of my three
children. We both ordered Cesar salad, flatiron steak and the
“chocolate sphere” for dessert. The later was a triple threat of
brownie, chocolate mousse ball (a huge improvement over the boudin
balls we had in Louisiana) and chocolate cookie shaped like a snake, or a lightning bolt or something.
After lunch we
walked through the old parts of the city. Along the way we saw the
Cathedral of Saint Francis of Assisi:
And walked to the
Santa Fe Plaza that is formed by a ring of buildings including to the
north the Palace of the Governors:
Under the portico of
the Palace of the Governors were about 40 vendors of a wide range of art and
craft items from silver and turquoise jewelry to painted ceramics to
handcrafted spear points and arrowheads made from local obsidian
(really… we talked with the man who made them and he showed us the
tools he uses). All of the vendors appeared to be native American.
Their wares were displayed on blankets on the ground in front of
them.
Standing in front of
the portico under which the sellers showed their wares, I took this
panorama of the other three sides of the Plaza. The day was
alternating cloudy and sunny with temperatures in the 50's to about
60 in Santa Fe. We have a term for a day like that in Florida. We
call it “mid winter”. This picture is a raw (untrimmed)
combination of several frames. When I construct panoramas I generally
trim them, but this one seemed more complete to me in its raw form:
As we walked back to
the truck I caught a few more shots of Santa Fe.
Mrs. C' found a
lovely piece of local jewelry to add to her collection. She agreed to
model it for you and I share in below. (Note: In Santa Fe, it is
essential to bargain. Mrs. C' taught me that a starting offer of less
than 50% of the asking price may not get you thrown out of certain
shops in Santa Fe and may position one to get you a decent price on
local goods.)
If you've read posts
from this trip or our prior travels, you may know that I'm
increasingly focused on measuring my visceral reaction to places
using the “Silver Cliche' Authenticity Test Scale” (herein after
known as SCATS… no, that's not an accident). This is a ten point
scale where “1” is Jackson, Wyoming and 10 is (to this point)
Cabool, Missouri. Jackson, you may recall, earned its place as the
baseline for disingenuous towns because it was entirely recreated to
look like a town from a movie set but sold goods most of which had
nothing to do with the town it pretended to be including (in store
windows, mind you) a fake wolf fur bikini set including skimpy top
and bottom and a tee shirt that read “I pooped today”. No joke,
those items were for sale in stores with fake western motifs and
never used horse hitching posts out front. It just didn't work. At
least Walt Disney World winks and nods to say “we faked this, you
know” and advances higher than Jackson on the SCATS. Cabool ranks
high as does Jacksboro, Texas and many other small towns we've
visited because they pretend to be absolutely nothing other than what
they are and they are there as-is to serve the people who live there.
If Cabool had a tee shirt in a store window it might read “we
didn't give a poop today and we won't tomorrow and we don't care what
you think about that”. Authentic.
I was prepared for
Santa Fe to rank low on the SCATS. It pleasantly surprised me. There was
authenticity in the architecture with a very comfortable mix of
genuine old buildings (Santa Fe was settled in the 1610 and is the
oldest city among the 50 state capitals despite the fact that New
Mexico itself only became a state in 1912 and was the 47th
state in the Union). There was authenticity in the people we saw and
met, in the goods they sold and in the way they sold them. Clearly
this city is a tourist mecca, clearly many people who live and work
there are not from the region, but Santa Fe impresses the visitor
that it has accommodated them and serves them in great numbers with
as little disruption of its core values as it can manage. That's an
accomplishment and one that places Santa Fe closer to Cabool than to
Jackson.
So tomorrow we hitch
up and head due north. We'll pass Santa Fe and Taos , but don't plan
to stop in either, then enter Colorado and land in Del Norte to visit
Mrs. C's niece and her family. I do not plan to eat local in the
Rocky Mountains… I think we're joining a pizza party.
To the best
of my knowledge, Colorado does not yet have a State Question. If they
do, I'm thinking it might be “Medical or Recreational?”.
Good night from New
Mexico.
SC'
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