We camped in Jacque's Aunt Alice's driveway for a few days.
Friday, we did important things, like laundry and paying taxes. Also,
we let the dogs get used to each other. Aunt Alice has six dogs, so when
Kasie and Barney were added to the group, we had quite a pack. Unfortunately,
both Kasie and Rusty wanted to dominate the pack, so they had a few tiffs
that required supervision.
Saturday and Sunday, we spent time in Northern New Mexico and the Santa Fe
area with the family. Unfortunately, David had a flat tire on the way to
Santa Fe, but the little donut spare worked like a charm. We walked around
the galleries of Santa Fe, visited the Georgia O'Keeffe museum, saw where
Uncle Ben was born and where Aunt Alice and Uncle Ben spent their honeymoon.
David recommended that we have lunch at Pasqual's in Santa Fe, which was
great -- it was only later that we found that Pasqual's was listed in Roadfood. David also took us to Ten Thousand Waves spa, and we spent a relaxing hour soaking
in a hot tub in the hills above Santa Fe.
We also went to the San Ildefonso Pueblo, which is the ancestral home
of Uncle Ben's family. We then drove to Bandelier National Monument up in
the mountains near Los Alamos where we saw the ruins of the ancient mesa-top
and cliff-side pueblo in which those people lived centuries ago before they
moved to San Ildefonso.
We took a very interesting hike up and down the cliff faces along the Tsankawi
Trail, and we able to see and crawl into some of the caves and other places
in which these people lived. This hike made us very interested in the history
of the peoples of the Southwest.
We also visited Chimayó, small town northwest of Santa Fe. David
recommended that we have lunch at the Rancho de Chimayó, which was
great -- it was only later that we found that it was listed in Roadfood. (Déja vu!)
Chimayó is most noted for the Santuario de Chimayó, a Catholic shrine of healing. Many people from New Mexico make a pilgrimage to Chimayó on Good Friday, often taking back samples of the Holy Dirt that is found in the Santuario. As it was Palm Sunday while we were there, it was rather crowded, but not nearly so as it would be the next weekend! Right near the Santuario we found a very nice example of the art form known as the "Low Rider". This particular one, formerly a Cadillac, had, among other things, all the stations of cross carefully painted along its sides. It was very elaborate, and all the more striking for being parked in front of an old adobe shed.
Sunday evening, Michelle treated us to one of Jacque's favorite meals
-- enchiladas with red chile sauce. Yum!! Elisha had taken a trip to a small
village in Chiapas, Mexico with a group from her school, to help build a
new schoolhouse for the people of this village. Elisha showed us pictures
from that trip -- which looked like it was really a very interesting experience.
We finally decided that we'd been in Albuquerque long enough and it was time
to head to our next destination. Because of the interesting things we saw
at the pueblos, we decided to head to Chaco Culture National Historic Park,
northwest of Albuquerque. Getting to this park requires driving 5 miles
of paved county road, then 16 miles of unpaved road. This road was wash-boardy
and rough in many places. We had many things shake around in the trailer,
and even had a cupboard door come off. 
However, we were well
rewarded by an isolated and beautiful campground, surrounded by mesas and
ruins from the Chaco culture. The sunset was particularly beautiful. After sunset we
watched bats flit around our trailer, and even caught a couple on film.
On the 15th we woke up to sunny skies, but by the time we finished coffee, it was
raining and the wind was pretty strong. So, we stayed holed up in the trailer
for the day, reading, working on the web pages, and working on a manuscript.
It was actually very relaxing. Since we didn't get to explore the park that day
and had originally planned to leave the next morning, we decided to spend an extra
night in Chaco Canyon.
Monday dawned bright and clear. The wind was calm and it was not so cold.
We wanted to ride our bikes, so we rode the loop road to many of the ruins, a
ride of about 11 miles. It was a perfect day for doing this. The ruins of
the Chaco culture (ancestral Puebloans or Anasazi) were exceptionally large, well-built
structures. The Chaco culture was a rather sophisticated culture that survived
from about 800 to 1200 AD. We had a great time looking at the great houses
and many of the petroglyphs that are found there. 
Monday night we drank a very nice bottle of
champagne (compliments of Vince and Bridget Gotz) to celebrate the great time we are having together on this trip..
