Discovering Eastern New Mexico

Discovering Eastern New Mexico

As you know if you’ve been following the blog, I’m a chile fanatic.  This time of year, everwhere in New Mexico is featuring Hatch Chiles, and Vicky has agreed to humor me by taking us to the annual Hatch Chile Festival this year. 


We’re staying for four nights at Caballo Lakes State Park just off I-25.  For the first 3 nights we almost have the place to ourselves.  We’re close to the lake, in an area with trees and open spaces, and with a full hook-up.  NM State Parks have to be the best value, with full hook-ups at the same price our would pay for no connections in a National Park.  There’s not a lot going on in the park, which is fine with us as we’ve come for the solitude.


The journey here was easy, passing the White Sands Missile Range and turning north just north of Las Cruces (which will be our next stop).  This is part of the Camino Real, the Royal Road used by the Spanish explorers.  We’re following the Rio Grande at this point.  Our first evening is a quiet one, exploring the park and looking (unsuccessfully) for the source of the deer droppings we see in the campgrounds.


We’re only about 20 miles from Truth of Consequences which, I discover, was named Hot Springs before adopting the name of the TV show in 1950.  I discover that Riverbend Hot Springs offers private tubs overlooking the Rio Grande at a reasonable rate, so we spend a relaxing hour in our own spa bath.  Vicky spends quite a bit of the time sitting on the deck between dips.  I also get out of the water a few times, but not as much as Vicky.  I will regret this decision later as I start to feel faint while taking my shower afterwards, but fortunately the nausea passes quickly.


There’s not a lot to do in “T or C”, as the 1,500 locals call it, but we do find a local restaurant with great chile cheeseburgers, and then spend the afternoon in the Geronimo Springs Museum.  This features about 15 rooms of exhibits from a pioneer cabin to historical features on the Apaches, and there troubles in the 19^th Century.  There’s a whole section on Ralph Edwards and the Truth of Consequences TV show.  In 1950 the show reached its 10^th Anniversary and Edwards offered to host the show in a town if it would change its name.  He was more than generous, becoming a local celebrity and visiting the town regularly for over 25 years.  The museum features mementoes of those years including a movie hosted by Edwards.  The movie includes a segment from the show, which I never remember seeing.


We enjoy a quiet day at the park, then decide to visit Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, which we saw on a sign off I 25.  It turns out to be 100 miles each way, so we are going to make a full day of it.  I check the gas tank in the car and discover we need to fill up first.  There are no gas stations near the park, but Vicky finds one at an RV park a few miles up the road.  I pull in and the price – over $1 per gallon more than anywhere else – floors me, so we decide to fill up at one of the small towns along the way.


The road takes us across the desert and up into the mountains – very scenic but also very twisty and in places narrow.  We take it easy and enjoy the journey, but by the time we come to the last small town that might have a gas station, we’ve decided that if there’s no gas here we’ll use Plan B and detour to Silver City.  We will up there and although we cold still go to the Cliff Dwellings, we’ll be too late for the ranger tour so we decide to check out Silver City instead.


This turns out to be an inspired decision.  We know ahead of time that Billy the Kid grew up here after his family left NYC, and right next to the Visitor Center is a log cabin.  Although it’s on the site where The Kid lived, his mother’s cabin was torn down in 1884.  This one was brought to the site by director Ron Howard for a movie shoot, and he donated it to the town.  So we’re still following the young outlaw!


But that’s not the big discovery.  Right behind the Visitor Center is “The Big Ditch”, a 50 foot canyon created in the late 19^th Century by major floods of the river which wiped out the town’s Main Street.  The story is that early settlers cut down all the trees in the high country surrounding the town.  This left an open channel for the spring high waters that had previously been absorbed by the forest, hence the devastation.


The city’s main street is now one block back from the Ditch, and armed with a pamphlet describing the history of many of the buildings, we spend a fun hour or tow learning about the “old west” architecture as well as some of the colorful characters in the town’s past.  Were also able to check out some of the stores and meet many of the friendly locals – they’re so friendly, in fact, that we’ll just leaving one store after 20 minutes or so inside when the owner turns up – we had the place to ourselves until then.


We enjoy coffee and another of those green chile cheeseburgers, then retrace our steps to the campground.  We’ve come so far west that we’re only 50 miles or so from Deming, which we’re visiting next week, but it would be along detour to go back to the park that way, so we get to enjoy the mountain ride again.  Don’t think I mentioned the 3 deer we saw at the highest point on the road on our way here.  Well, on the way back, the same 3 deer, who ran away when our car approached, are there again, and get to repeat the retreat!


Next morning it’s time to leave.  Just a short drive takes us to Las Cruces where we’ll spend the next 2 nights, but having settled into the campground there we hop in the car and head back up  I-25 to Hatch for the afore mentioned Festival.  Their advertising says that 30,000 people come for the 2 day Festival.  WE drive through the town passing many places where we can buy the local crop, and pay the $20 admission fee to the “Festival”.  Thanks, Vicky, for indulging me, but on reflection I wish we’d just bought some peppers in town.


The Festival is on the grounds of the local airport.  If the airport has runways or a terminal building, we don’t see them.  Nor do we see any source of shade, and it’s a hot day.  There are 2 performance stages.  We’ve just missed a ventriloquist at one of them, and the next act, a singer, is among the missing.  WE walk through the vendor area (lots of spices in jars and packets, as well as other stalls unrelated to the chile theme) and find the other stage.  There’s a food place next to the stage so we share an expensive plate of boring chile cheese fries while listening to an average Country Western band.


Time to return to Las Cruces, and I still didn’t get the chiles I wanted.  As we’re heading for the exit I do manage to get a large bag of hot peppers for $2 and a small bag of roasted chiles for $1.  So all is not lost!  But I did get to attend the celebration.  If we come to this area next year I think we’ll just come into town to buy the chiles and leave!


Our park in Las Cruces is pleasant and shaded.  We had planned to go to the Farm and Ranch Museum but many of the exhibits are outside and it’s hot, so we’ll save that for a cooler day.  We spend Sunday shopping for supplies and take in a movie, enjoying some quiet time.

White Sands on Earth, Exploration of the Moon

White Sands on Earth, Exploration of the Moon

It’s a short drive down US70 from Ruidoso to Alamogordo, but in coming off the mountain it’s a huge change in climate.  Temperatures are close to 100 degrees F but since we have 50-amp electricity we’re able to use the AC to keep cool.


There are two reasons we came here – White Sands National Monument and The Space Museum.  The “white sands” are actually gypsum deposits washed down from the neighboring mountains and ground into a sandy consistency.  We get our first view coming down the mountain and it’s awesome – a layer of white stretching across most of the vista, beyond the city of Alamogordo.  After settling into our campground we drive the 17 miles south of town to the Monument and head into the (air conditioned – thank goodness) Visitor Center. 


We learn about the formation of the sands along with the geological history of the area from exhibits, a movie and Brenna, a ranger.  We’re so excited about this place and about learning more that we talk to Brenna about volunteer positions and discover they’re available, especially during the summer.  We also find that Brenna is leading a “sunset walk” into the dunes that evening.  We’d been planning on joining that walk and this strengthens our resolve.


We drive into the monument.  The Visitor Center is right on the edge of the gypsum dunes and, even after watching the movie, I’m not prepared for the views of white “mountains” right next to the road.  At one point we stop and I try to climb one of the dunes.  Wearing just my sneakers I lose about 6 inches for every foot I climb.  People are taking plastic “sleds” and riding down the dunes.  It’s tempting to join them, but since it’s very hot and also bright with the sun reflecting off the white gypsum, I decide not getting a sunburn trumps sledding and give it a pass.


We continue to the end of the road (it’s a loop) and on the way back we both get out and walk up one of the smaller dunes and enjoy the views and the ambiance – like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

We’re back at the Sunset Stroll starting point by 6:30pm and enjoy a very informative hour long walk with Ranger Brenna and about 15 other people.  We go up and down several dunes, spotting animal tracks and trying to identify them, and learning more about the plants and animals that survive in this arid environment.  For me, one of the highlights is when Brenna makes us all close our eyes while she strikes the sand, making a hole no more than a foot deep.  In the hole is water, which we find out has been tested and is about 200 years old.  If you go down further you can find water that’s been there since prehistoric times!


The stroll complete, we drive out of the Monument and back to Alamogordo, where I enjoy an “only in New Mexico” Green Chile Lasagna for dinner.


Sunday is our day for the space museum.  It includes a Planetarium and Cinema where we start our visit by watching 3 presentations back to back.  Planetariums usually put me to sleep, but this one holds my attention.  There’s a show about the night sky.  The projectionist starts by showing us the parking lot where we just entered, and the sky above it.  She then advances the time and we get to watch sunset, moonrise and identify stars and constellations.  She’s even able to rotate the sky so we can see what’s behind us!  I’ve always felt that the people who named the constellations were either drunk or crazy as I can’t make out the shapes, but this show helps me identify many constellations.

Between shows we’ve able to see an exhibit of photos of various locations on earth taken from space, as well as descriptive photos of the Mars rover, an ingenious device that is sending back pictures of the surface of the red planet.


A movie on Black Holes takes us inside one, and includes an explanation of the Einsteinian physics behind them.  As Vicky says afterwards “I still don’t understand them” – I’m not sure anyone really does, but the movie was entertaining. 


But it’s the last movie that we both agree is the best.  It’s about the Apollo 11 flight – the first landing on the moon.  While, like us, you’ve probably seen pictures and even videos about this, this is the most comprehensive documentary I’ve ever seen.  It takes us from the beginning of the preparations, through the buildup to the launch, including shots of the three astronauts with the families they left behind.  We see the countdown and takeoff, and scenes from inside the spacecraft as it travels a quarter of a million miles.  We see the undocking of the lunar module and the moon landing, both from the point of view of the astronauts and from the command center in Houston.

The shots of the activity on the moon are familiar, but as they take off and reconnect the lunar module with the command module, I’m almost biting my nails even though I know there’s a happy ending.  It’s amazing how they were able to rendezvous, let alone connect these two small objects in the vastness of space.  Later we share the anticipation of the ground crew as communication with the capsule is lost during re-entry; watch as the recovery ship travels to the splashdown point in the ocean, which had been moved several hundred miles because of weather; and see the smiling astronauts exit the capsule after it’s brought onto the ship.


An amazing movie – in fact 3 great shows – and we haven’t set foot in the museum itself yet.  We raid the vending machines for lunch (there’s no cafeteria) and start to tour the exhibits.  We see everything from the earliest rockets up to the latest exploration ships, and also pictures and biographies of the pioneers – from Copernicus to the latest astronauts – who have been inducted into the Space Hall of Fame.  We’re able to experience take off in various types of rockets (much tamer than the real thing, I’m sure) and to try landing a space ship using a simulator.  Even on the simplest level we both manage to crash it.  I also get to try on a NASA flight suit!


One whole floor of the museum is devoted to the latest inductee into the Hall of Fame – Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek.  It includes some of the innovations from that show that have actually become real in recent years, as well as an explanation why some – like “Beam me up, Scottie” will probably never be possible.  We spend at least an hour just on this exhibit, and are the last to leave before the museum closes.


Tomorrow we move on, but there’s much more to see in Alamogordo.  We’re both going to pursue volunteering at White Sands, and look forward to spending more time in this area.

Cool Mountains, Fast Horses, a Kid and a Bear

Cool Mountains, Fast Horses, a Kid and a Bear

It’s only 70 miles or so from Roswell to Ruidoso, but the difference in terrain is striking.  Roswell is on the short grass prairie while Ruidoso is in the mountains.  Our main reason for coming here is to enjoy Quarter Horse Racing at Ruidoso Downs, the only place in North America that has separate tracks for quarter horses and for thoroughbreds.  In case you don’t know, quarter horses are actually whole horses, not just one fourth of a horse.  They are the staple mount of cowboys and ranchers and the name comes from the fact that they can run very fast for a quarter of a mile.


We discover that Ruidoso Downs is not just the name of the track, but also the name of a town separate from the village of Ruidoso where we’re staying.  (Isn’t it amazing what you learn from my blog?)  We’re able to get tickets for the Jockey Club, which gets us seats right at the finish line, with food and beverage brought right to our seats.  The quarter horse races are over in a flash (only 300 or 400 yards) but many of the 10 races are for thoroughbreds and are longer, and we spend an enjoyable afternoon watching the races and enjoying the mountain scenery around the track.


But there’s more.  The highway through this area is known as “Billy the Kid Trail” and we spend a day following it and learning more about young Mr. McCarty.  This is Lincoln County, and we visit the town of Lincoln where in the 1880s a war broke out as a result of a fight between the owners of two mercantile stores in town.  “The House” had been opened by Irish immigrants and the owners, Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan, enjoyed a monopoly and controlled the town’s administration.

Enter a young Englishman, John Tunstall, who opens his own store on the other side of the street a few blocks down.  It’s not long before Mr.Tunstall is shot and killed by a posse.  He’s guilty of nothing but opening a store.  His followers, including Billy the Kid, decide to seek justice for him, and not in a peaceful way.  The town gets to the point where it’s not safe even to cross the street in broad daylight.  Despite this, the only person who’s every charged as a result of the wars is young Billy.  He does get away but is caught and brought to the town jail after being sentenced to hang.


The Tunstall store still looks much as it did in the 19^th Century and I enjoy investigating every artifact while Vicky learns more of the story from a docent.  The other store (The House) which was forced to close, became the county courthouse and is also open to visitors.  It’s here where The Kid was confined, and we learn the story of his escape, killing two deputies as he left.  We even see a hole in the stairwell wall supposedly made by one of his bullets.


Despite the violence of the past, this is now a very tranquil and beautiful mountain valley and we enjoy the drive.  Also on this loop is the town of Capitan, famous as the home of Smokey the Bear.  In case you don’t know the story, in 1946 the National Park Service, worried about forest fires, invented a mascot – a friendly bear named Smokey.  He was just that – a creation of an advertising firm.  A couple of years later, firefighters working on a blaze in the Capitan mountains came across a small bear cub, badly burned, clinging to a tree.  They rescued him, originally naming him “Hotfoot”.  Vets were able to cure him and he was eventually transferred to the National Zoo in Washington DC where he became the “real” Smokey the Bear.  He was taken to schools across the country and became quite a celebrity.  When he died, his remains were returned to Capitan and he’s buried on the grounds of a small museum that thells his story, and that of his counterparts in other countries, animals who symbolize fire safety.


We only have a couple of nights in Ruidoso, but it’s definitely another place we want to return to.

Aliens are not Green, Navajo don’t belong in New Mexico!

Aliens are not Green, Navajo don’t belong in New Mexico!

A 200-mile drive today proves easy since it’s straight down US285 which is mostly a divided highway and could have been built by the Romans (almost no curves!)

It takes us through several New Mexico counties including Lincoln County, at the border of which are two 20 feet high cowboys watching each other threateningly.  I get out to investigate but there’s nothing written on them but the artist’s signature.  We’ll find out later that they were completed recently in memory of two brothers who were not the best of friends!  However, the placing is appropriate since Lincoln County was the site of famous wars in the 19^th Century, of which more later.


Our destination is Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico’s oldest State Park.  We’re pleasantly surprised not only with the location but the fact that we have a full hookup for the RV and the cost is no more than we’d pay for a basic site in most other states!  The lakes are not actually bottomless, but were named that by soldiers who were unable to find the bottom.  They’re sink holes!  Our camp site is very close to a lake, giving us excellent sunset views and a great swim, and we almost have the park to ourselves for most of our stay.


We’re 17 miles outside of Roswell, where a young farmer claimed that an alien spaceship landed on his property in the late 1940’s.  The town trades on this, with “aliens” everywhere including in the Visitor Center, and several stores selling alien paraphernalia.  Most of it is rather kitschy, to be honest, but we spend an entertaining couple of hours at the International UFO Museum, which tells the story of the Roswell landing and other alien encounters.  The aliens were small and hairless with large heads, but they were not green.


The exhibits are very persuasive and point to a cover up by the US government.  The farmer originally reported a crashed ship with 5 aliens, one of whom was still alive.  He retrieved a piece of very strong but pliable metal from the ship (there’s a sample in the museum) which six like nothing seen on earth at that time.  By the time the farmer was interviewed by the local radio station he had been visited by the military and refused to confirm the story.  There are sworn affidavits from people at the radio station alleging that they were told by the State Department and the New Mexico senior senator that if they continued to talk about this, they would lose their license “within 3 days”.

In fact, the story was kept secret for many years, and it was only when local residents started to compare stories told late in life by eye witnesses who had no connection with each other that it became clear that something had happened back in the 1940’s and the government didn’t want anyone to know about it.  That much appears to be true, but whether there really was an alien ship that crashed and the “cover up” was because, as one official stated, :we don’t want people to think there’s something we don’t know how to handle” or whether it was simply some secret government test (this was during the Cold War) is still a mystery since the data is still classified.


Leaving the museum, we find a shop with home made ice cream in interesting flavors like violet and (for me) raspberry habanero.  After a shipping expedition we have an early dinner – great steak with a sumptuous salad bar – at the Cattle Baron, the local outpost of a New Mexico chain.

We enjoy a quiet day at the park, and then use the car to retrace part of our journey to visit Fort Sumter.  This is famous for two reasons.  It’s the place where Billy the Kid was shot dead by Pat Garrett (who was not a US Marshall at the time, we learn).  The town has an interesting Museum where we learn the life story of W. Henry McCarty, the New York City boy who came west with his mother and stepfather and who became the famous outlaw.  As we continue to travel Southern New Mexico we’ll learn more about the Kid, and visit other places where he lived.  This wasn’t part of our plan, but as with Lewis and Clark last summer, it seems we’re following his trail.  One thing is clear.  The Kid was certainly a vicious killer, but he was educated, well read, handsome and charming and was well liked by many who met him, including the local Indians who he championed.


While there might be two sides to the story of Billy, there is only one side to Fort Sumter, which is the reason we came.  We know from our time in Arizona that in the 19^th Century the Navajo were forced to leave their traditional lands and walk over 200 miles to the “Bosque Redondo Reservation “.  Fort Sumter (or rather the area around it) is the site of that reservation.  While the soldiers and their families enjoyed (relative) comfort in the fort buildings, the Navajo were forced to pitch their tents in an area where nothing would grow.  As we found, summer temperatures can top 90 degrees, and we heard that winter brought biting winds and snow.

Many Navajo perished on the walk, and during the 2 years they spent at Fort Sumter.  This was an “experiment” conducted by one General James Cameron and his willing assistant Colonel Kit Carson.  The general was eventually replaced and the Navajo were “allowed” to go home.  Many more died on the walk home.  To make matters worse, the Mescalero Apache from western New Mexico were also forced onto the same reservation.  These people, form two totally different cultures, were forced to live together.  The Apache actually escaped one night and made it back to their homeland.


We learn all this from the excellent exhibits in the Visitor Center.  It’s not a part od American History to be proud of, but it IS a part of history to learn from.


We return to the campsite, stopping for another ice cream, and prepare for our short journey to the mountains tomorrow.

The meeting of cultures, where the Plains meet the High Desert

The meeting of cultures, where the Plains meet the High Desert

We have a short journey from Pojoaque, north of Santa Fe to an RV park near Pecos, just south of the
city.  The shortest route would be straight thru town, but since it’s the start of their annual Indian Market and the town is packed, we take the Relief Route (New Mexican for By-Pass or Ring Road) and make the trip in about 4 minutes.


The reason for this short stop on our journey to southern New Mexico (our new region to explore this year) is to visit Pecos National Park.  This is located right where the Great Plains (Prairies) meet the High Desert and was the ancestral home of the pueblo people, a highly sophisticated society who traded with the different nations (tribes) from East and West.  It was a true meeting of cultures, as evidenced by the wide variety of archeological treasures discovered during the last hundred years.  Items from the Pacific Coast as well as the Northern Plains have been found.


The settlement, consisting of two principal areas with large living complexes (now one story but originally up to 4) and several ceremonial kivas (underground pits), was surrounded by a low wall parts of which are still visible.  It sits in a strategic high position with sweeping views in all directions and the wall, which delineates the borders of the settlement, was not to stop invaders from getting in (they could have stepped over it!) but probably to shield defenders.


This was, as I said, a sophisticated society.  But the Spanish explorers and friars had other ideas.  There don’t appear to have been a lot of battles in the area, but there was obviously a concerted effort to convert the Pueblo people to Christianity.  There are remains, in varying states of decay, of three different churches on the same site, interestingly oriented in different directions.  One was largely destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt, when the various groups in Northern New Mexico successfully drove out the Spaniards for 10 years.  The others simply decayed over time.


The visitor center and the interpretive guide are full of interesting historical details.  We feel this area is worth an extended visit in efuture years.

The contemporary town of Pecos is quite small, but we have an inexpensive but tasty Mexican lunch (tacos for me) before visiting the historic site, and to cool down afterwards we visit Dairy Queen for the first time in years, reinforcing our belief that the best ice cream is found in local stores rather than national chains.t


This is a worthwhile stopover and tomorrow we head for Roswell to investigate the aliens many believe crashed there in the 1940’s.  Stay tuned!

Our annual Musical Culture Week

Our annual Musical Culture Week

We start by leaving the RV in White Rock and driving the car down to the Santa Fe Opera House for their weekly “Opera Insiders” session.  After coffee and donuts we meet Adam Franklin, the artistic administrator for the opera, who fills us in on his role taking care of physical arrangements and day to day needs of the opera singers and apprentices.  It’s not a part of the opera you would normally think about, but the talk, and ensuing Q&A session, is fascinating.  After the talk we’re split into smaller grous and given a backstage tour, including the costume and scenery shops as well as a view of the orchestra pits and the elevators used for entrances from the floor of the stage.  A very entertaining, and totally free experience, after which we drive back to White Rock, hitch the car to the RV, and move to our home for the next week.

It’s a short drive to Pojoaque so we’re soon settled into the RV park.  We drive the car down to Whole Foods in Santa Fe to stock up on essentials like bread, cheese and pate for tailgating before the opera.  We notice that what was a building site just north of the Opera House last year is now a new casino.  Not something that would normally excite us, but this one is advertising a jazz brunch on Sunday, sp we add that to our “to do” list.

After a quiet evening we do take in said jazz brunch.  It gives us a choice of entrée while listening to a good live jazz trio, and unlike many casinos, this one is bright and cheerful.  Vicky enjoys a Shrimp Cobb Salad” including huge grilled shrimp and what she describes as a great avocado dressing.  For me, an “only in New Mexico” Green Chile Eggs Benedict, with perfect poached eggs, runny-yolked just the way I like them, plus ham and the promised chiles, accompanied by great hash brown potatoes.

We relax for the afternoon then head down to the Opera House.  Today is “Apprentice Scenes”, a series of 7 or 8 fully staged opera scenes featuring the stars of tomorrow – young opera singers (and technicians) in their late twenties who have survived a rigorous audition process and who spend the summer playing minor roles in the mainstage productions and learning from seasoned professionals.  The quality is always excellent and we enjoy everything from Wagner’s Ring to the final scene of “Carmen”. 

But the highlight for both of us is a scene from “Gianni Schicchi”, past of a trilogy of one act operas by Puccini.  It’s a delightful comedy about a group of family members concerned that their deceased uncle has left his huge fortune to some monks.  They ask the title character to help them, even though some of the family believe he’s “beneath” them socially.  To make things more complicated, the youngest son is in love with Gianni’s daughter.  The whole thing, as presented here, is a rollicking farce, interrupted by the beautiful soprano aria O mio babbino caro (O My Beloved Father), where Gianni’s daughter is trying to persuade her father to help the family and let her marry.

For the next 5 days we’ll see a different opera each night, while enjoying the charms of northern New Mexico and visiting with our friend Michelle and her beautiful wolf Gracie.  Monday’s opera is “La Boheme”, which we’ve seen many times.  The highlight of this production is the staging – realistic Paris scenery, with each act set in a different season.  Seeing soprano Gabriella Reyes as Musetta enter on ice skates was definitely a special moment, and of course all the singing was superb.

Tuesday is Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte” (So are all women) a politically incorrect story about rogue who bets two young soldiers that he can prove that their beloved fiancées will be unfaithful if given the chance.  He forces each of the soldiers to woo the other’s fiancée.  The original setting called for disguise using masks, but his director uses almost a bare stage and no disguises at all.  As the plot progresses, one of the girls gives in immediately, while the other holds out until finally succumbing in the 3^rd act.  The ending is ambiguous and the music not Mozart’s most memorable, but it does provide another interesting, and fun evening.

Wednesday is a world premiere of “The Thirteenth Child”, by Danish composer Poul Ruders and American librettists Becky and David Starabin.  The plot is based on “The Twelve Brothers”, one of the less famous fairy tales published by the Brothers Grimm.  The music is modern and largely atonal with a few good melodies.  The first act, setting up the situation, dragged a little.  A king and his wife have 12 sons and she is about to give birth.  The king, who’s been convinced by a scheming regent from a nearby kingdom that his sons are planning to kill him, decrees that if the new child is a girl the boys will all be executed and the girl will inherit.  With mother’s help the boys run away to the forest, and of course the new baby is a girl, who also ends up being sent away.

The second act, in which the sister finds her brothers and everything ends up “happily ever after” is much more fast moving and kept us awake and rooting for the downfall of the villain.  It’s always an interesting part of the Santa Fe experience to see a new opera, and while this didn’t compare in quality with what we’ve seen in previous years (Cold Mountain, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs and Doctor Atomic) we definitely enjoyed the production on balance.

Leos Janacek’s “Jenufa” on Thursday is the highlight of the week.   I took my drama students to this opera in New Zealand and they were blown away.   This production doesn’t disappoint and Vicky declares afterwards that this is her favorite opera.  The heroine spends the first act worrying that her handsome fiancé Steva is about to be called up to the army, meaning that they will have to postpone the wedding.  This would be embarrassing as she’s pregnant and hasn’t told anyone.  Steva’s more homely younger brother Laca, who has loved Jenufa since they were children, tells her that Steva only loves her because she’s beautiful.  They get into an argument, which turns physical, and Jenufa’s face is cut (accidentally) by a knife that Laca has been using in his work.

Steva is not inducted into the army and turns up drunk.  He’s chased off by Jenufa’s stepmother but not before it’s become apparent that he no longer loves her.   After the intermission Jenufa has the baby and her stepmother, who has kept her secluded and told everyone she’s gone away, murders the child.

There’s a powerful ending that I won’t spoil for you.  If you’ve never attended an opera, like most of my students, this superbly crafted (and acted) drama, accompanied by lyrical Bohemian style music, will be a perfect introduction.  This provides a lot of post opera discussion for us, and will for you.

Our final operatic treat is Georges Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers”, which is new to us.  It’s another timely plot, involving two men who, when younger, had both been in love with the same girl.  To preserve their friendship, they both renounced her.  Then they went their separate ways.  Now, one of the men is the “king” of a group of pearl fishers off the coast of a (fictionalized) Ceylon.  The other man turns up at the same time as a mysterious “princess” who the pearl fishers believe will keep them safe from storms as long as she concentrates on her job and stays alone on a rock.

Of course, it’s the girl from the past, and things get complicated when she and the non-fisherman recognize and still have strong feelings for each other.  This is one of Bizet’s earlier works and doesn’t have the “timeless” music that characterizes “Carmen”, but it’s still highly melodious, and with a strongly dramatic plot, makes for another thought-provoking experience.  A great ending to our week of opera.

While I’ve concentrated on the musical evenings in this post, we also enjoy a relaxing day at the spa pools at Ojo Caliente, which I talked about last year, and a wonderful lunch with Michelle in Ciimayo, a restaurant in a 100 year old house with traditional Mexican recipes.  I had feather lite sopapillas stuffed with pork and spices.  They also give you plain sopapillas for the table with honey for dipping, in the traditional Mexican way.  Maybe I should have been born Mexican!

Theater, a caldera, a boarding school and bombs

Theater, a caldera, a boarding school and bombs

Thingamajig Players in Pagosa Springs entertains us with the musical “Jeckyl & Hyde”, based on R.L. Stevenson’s 19^th Century novel about a scientist who believes he can separate the good and bad parts of a person’s personality.  When his research proposal is rejected by a committee of academics he performs experiments on himself, producing the homicidal Mr. Edward Hyde, who proceeds to murder most of the committee.

The musical adds not one, but two romantic interests to Stevenson’s’ story – a girl who Jeckyl is engaged to marry, and a prostitute who he befriends.  Not exactly a happy “Rodgers & Hammerstein” type musical, but a very entertaining and well-acted production.  This is the second show we’ve seen from this company, and if you find yourself in Pagosa, I recommend you check them out.

We spend 4 days in the national forest campground, enjoying a couple of meals in town but otherwise just relaxing, after which we forge a new (for us) route to Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico, traveling through the village of Chama (one end of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad), where we savor huge (and delicious) hamburgers and fries for lunch at the High Country restaurant – another strong recommendation.  This route is much more scenic than the one we took last year.  We follow US84 all the way from Pagosa Springs to Espanola, NM, enjoying high desert scenery, and little traffic.

I get a nasty shock as we’re heading to our campsite at Bandelier National Monument – you can’t reserve sites there.  I probably knew this last year but have forgotten.  Vicky does know this but, as she puts it “It’s never full”.  Well, she’s right that it isn’t full, but it has no sites that will fit our RV. Unless you’re camping, Bandelier can only be reached by a free shuttle bus from the town of White Rock, but we’ve driven the 8 miles of winding, steep mountain roads to the campsite, and have to retrace our steps.  I’m not too gracious about this.  Fortunately, there are sites at the Visitor Center in White Rock with electric hookups, and we’re able to spend 2 nights there.

Next morning we get an early start to drive to the Valdes Caldera National Monument, where we arrived last year after closing time.  It’s a huge extinct volcano and they only allow 35 cars to follow the roads each day, so you have to get there early (or so we’d been told!).  On the way, after climbing up a steep cliff in the car, we pass a sign saying “Elk” and showing an elk standing still (as opposed to the deer signs that show them leaping!).  I comment to Vicky that I’ve never seen an elk standing in the road, drive round a curve and stop for – you guessed it – two elk standing in the road!  They unconcernedly walk off to join their buddies at the side of the road – some very impressive racks of antlers on the stags.  A great start to the day!

Turns out we’re car number 5 at the Monument and the ranger tells us they’ve never run out of permits so far this year as they re-issue them after people check back in at the Visitor Center!

The parking lot is full of cute prairie dogs which gives us an entertaining half hour, after which we do drive to the end of the road and back.  This takes us past some cabins (they were part of a ranch before the government took over the land), though the caldera to the point where we can see the opposite (north) rim.  We have the place virtually to ourselves, but meet ground squirrels, prairie dogs, a coyote, a hawk (very close to the road and not at all afraid of us) and perhaps most surprisingly, a herd of cows which, as we find out later, is left over from ranching days.

When we reach the end of the road a light rain starts, and as we’d seen forecasts of storms later in the day, we don’t stop long.  We make it back to the Visitor Center (sunny, of course) in late morning and visit with the prairie dogs for a time, then head down the hill  to Los Alamos for the second time in 2 years.

Last year we spent almost all our time in the Bradbury Museum, which details the development of the atomic bombs during World War II.  It’s fascinating, so we spent hours there, pausing only for lunch and a walk around the historic buildings.  This year we start with the National Park Visitor Center, enjoying a film detailing the inhabitants of the area from prehistoric times to the present day, and after a passable lunch at a Thai fast food joint we visit the museums in town, learning more about the pueblo people, the day to day life of the people in the days of the “secret city”, and more recent developments.  There are plenty of artifacts and stories.  In particular I’m fascinated by the history of the boys’ boarding school that was dispossessed in 1942 to make room for the scientists.  The boys got a superb education from recent graduates, and survived a rugged lifestyle including sleeping outside on the porch all year.  (This area has lots of snow in winter and very hot summers!).  Better them than me!  We also learn of fast friendships that developed between the pueblo people and the Manhattan Project staff – a great bridge across vastly different cultures.

We return to Quill and the RV in White Rock, and next morning take the short trip to Roadrunner RV in Pojoaque, north of Santa Fe, our home for the next 7 days as we enjoy the opera.  This post is getting long, so I’ll add start a new