Taos Pueblo Dogs

I took this through the windshield, so sorry about the haze. These are some of the ultra-cool Pueblo dogs, lounging on the road out. These dogs are all over the Taos Pueblo, and someone we talked to said that all the dogs have homes, but they spend all day hanging out together on the main plaza, sacked out in the sun. They were all really mellow until some tourist brought a tourist dog, and then there was dog intrigue and the tourists had to put their dog back in the car.

Taos Pueblo

Well, sort of. The Taos Pueblo is a 700-year-old settlement continuously inhabited by the Tiwa people, and a National Heritage site. And it's really, really neat. However, they charge extra for cameras and I felt weird about taking photos anyway, since people still live there. Instead, Mom and I walked around, bought some crafts and some fry bread, and talked to people. The Pueblo is like a bunch of adobe apartment buildings, only ancient... though amended with modern things like glass windows and propane tanks. It really reminded us both of places we'd visited in Europe, how you'd have some astounding old building with tricycles in the yard, or a satellite dish. Anyway, I took these photos of: a cool tree-chair in the parking lot, some horses on the way back, and the golden aspens I just cannot get a proper photo of.

Rancho, New Mexico

Today we drove through Rancho, just beyond Taos, and I took these. The mural picture is one I really like for some reason. It's a very strange mural featuring a plow-pulling angel. We were on a quest for more violin rosin (I forgot mine at home). We were unsuccessful, but I did come back with a pretty great $5 lavender fedora, so that's good too.

Rio Grande Gorge, New Mexico

These are from the bridge across the Rio Grande, just west of Taos. You can walk out on the bridge and look down into the gorge and take pictures--but the bridge vibrates like crazy whenever a truck drives over it, which I think is normal, but was a bit unsettling. The Rio Grande is not so grande right now, in fall, but I think it flash-floods when it rains and gets really big.

More Earthships, Taos

We went back today and got to go inside the Visitor's Center. Apparently there are about 60 Earthships on the plains outside Taos, and they are hoping to build more. Those glass circles in the wall are the bottoms of recycled bottles.

Earthships, Taos, NM

There is a whole little settlement of these in Taos. An Earthship is a cool house design based on recycled materials (especially tires) and self-containment. This one is the Visitor's Center; the others are private houses. We got there after it closed for the day, though, so we might go back so we can see the inside. You can also see an Earthship (on an island off, I think, Georgia) in the good-but-really-sad film "The Ballad of Jack and Rose". The tires-and-mud wall is an Earthship-in-progress.

My Violin Is All Fixed!

My friend Brian kindly pointed out to me that I had forgotten to tell everyone the fate of my violin, which as some of you may know, I dropped and damaged after a gig on September 26th. (I tripped over the patch cord, and the violin fell right on the input jack and punched it through to the inside of the violin--this sort of injury being fairly common, apparently.) I had a party the next night and everyone there was very sympathetic and concerned, so thank you all. I ended up taking my violin to Jordan Electric Violins in Concord, and John Jordan fixed it right up for a very reasonable price. (Check them out at http://www.jordanmusic.com/.) It got a new input jack and a fancy new brass jack plate, which is stronger and looks better (all rad and steampunky) than the original wood plate. So big thanks to John Jordan, everyone who was so supportive, and thanks to Noah for driving me home after the gig when I was all stressed out.

Taos, New Mexico

This is Taos, where our cousin and little cousins (her kids) live; we're probably staying here through Friday or so. We had the good luck to be here during the Taos Balloon Rally, which happens every year. Mom and I got up at dawn, threw on some clothes over our jammies, and went out to watch the balloons. (Apparently, these are hot-air, not helium, balloons, and they ascend best when it's cold out.) It turns out that it's sort of hard to photograph hot air balloons so that they look right; it is, as Mom said, like trying to take pictures of the moon. Apparently, after the balloons all go up, they drift across the plateau and go down along the Rio Grande Gorge for the day. I think they are wonderful.

Highway 64, New Mexico

We stopped on Highway 64 on the way to Taos so that Mom could take a short nap after a particularly nerve-wracking nighttime drive where we almost hit two (2) separate groups of elk and one (1) family of mule deer within about two hours. Thanks to Mom's quick reflexes, no animals (or cars) were harmed. It was scary, although it was really cool to see wild animals so close. There was a hard frost that night (it got down to about 12 degrees, we later found out), and when the sun rose, there was frost glittering everywhere. These photos are from a frozen field, at about 8 in the morning. Northern New Mexico is incredibly beautiful, high mountains, flat plains, and golden aspen trees losing their leaves everywhere.

More Grand Canyon

The cool round building is the Watchtower, which was designed by an interesting architect named Mary Colter. She designed a lot of the buildings around the Grand Canyon (based on traditional Native buildings) and is a major influence on Southwestern Style. The Watchtower looks like it's 1000 years old, but it's really from the 30's. When I was at the Canyon I realized that I would have spent about $60 on film so far if I was using a film camera.

Grand Canyon Mules (and a raven)

These are not horses, they are the mules that people ride down into the Canyon (I would like to do this sometime, but it costs about $600 and you need to reserve in advance). The mules were sort of grumpy, but I petted one anyway. Later I found out I probably should not have, as they sometimes bite. But none bit me. A male mule is a "john" and a female mule is a "mollie".

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon was so amazing, we decided to stay overnight at the campground there and went back in the morning. There's a whole village there to support the tourists, with a permanent staff, a bunch of restaurants, even a school for employees' kids. The little figure in the second photo down is me, and I am standing on a little rock peninsula that sticks out over the drop. You cannot really see my expression, but rest assured that I was a weensy bit nervous. But I did it anyhow! FYI: please never bring toddlers here, most of the rim of the Canyon has no fence at all, and even the existing fences are 3-foot-high, token affairs that seem to say: This is the world's most famous Big Dangerous Hole in the Ground, if you fall off it's your problem.

Williams, Arizona

Dear Madam or Sir, may I suggest to you a most ideal location in which to get your kicks?

Route 66

There's no picture for this post, alas, but on the way into Williams, going across the desert, we narrowly avoided hitting a BADGER which was wandering across the road. This was doubly startling to me because I didn't even know Arizona had any badgers. We turned around to try to look at it some more, but it had already shuffled off indignantly into the sagebrush.

Williams, Arizona

Williams, on Route 66, was the sweetest town. We stayed the night here, in the Grand Motel, where the people were amazingly nice--actually, everyone we talked to was amazingly nice. In the morning, we walked around, and the woman who runs the local soaps-and-lotions place gave us homemade soap for free. Williams also has awesome Old West and Fifties buildings.

Chloride, Arizona

Mom and I stopped at a little roadside store, and I took pictures of their birds and donkey.

Hoover Dam

I don't mind telling you, this place gave me the creeps. It looked like the surface of the Death Star, all pylons and wires and giant looming cranes. Very impressive, to be sure. but I did not like it.

Warm Springs, Nevada

Mom and I stopped just outside Vegas for lunch, and we saw this bird hopping around and tweeting at people. A lady who worked nearby told us that his name is Skip, he's a desert blackbird, and he is a sort of mascot in the Warm Springs strip mall where we met him, and everyone there gives him crumbs. We thought he was pretty cool.