Wow, a rocket out of Vandenberg Air Force Base left this amazing contrail in the late afternoon.
Bosque Del Apache NWR – Day 2
The Honey Doo Inn was attractive just because of the sign. Okay, that’s not 100% truthful, as the price is always a factor. If we are going to travel once or twice a month, we need to do so with the minimum of expenses. Staying in places like Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, off the beaten path is one way to combat high lodging prices, and so that’s part of the attraction that brought us here.
Digging the Native American motifs on the old water tower.
And the funky display of thousands of CDs on the facade of this building.
While I’ve heard the joke about chickens crossing the road to get to the other side, I’ve not caught the one about the turkeys crossing the road. A rafter of turkeys had already crossed while this lone wolf stayed behind, keeping its eye on me, probably as a protection against me making predatory moves on his women.
We’ve reached the Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge outside of Socorro, New Mexico. Turns out there are not a lot of birds here right now, as their favorite time of year is mid-November through the end of January. It’s still beautiful out here along the Rio Grande River.
Giant red ants, obviously a giant-sized mutant that was caused by nuclear fallout from the nearby Trinity test site where the world’s first nuclear weapon was detonated back on July 16, 1945. What else lurks below the surface of the desert, waiting to emerge as monsters ready to devour humankind?
Nope, no birds here nor giant sandworms.
Snow geese awaiting our arrival. Little did we know on this visit that we were supposed to show up at daybreak for the giant fly-out or an hour earlier than this when they begin the fly-in. Hopefully, on a subsequent visit, we’ll be able to witness these spectacles.
Socorro is a relatively nice little place, though there’s not a lot left of this mile-long town that runs along the highway connecting Albuquerque, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas.
Luna, New Mexico: population one wooden cowboy and a mailbox. Next stop: Phoenix, Arizona.
Bosque Del Apache NWR – Day 1
You never know when spotting a small roadside Mexican joint whether you found that diamond in the rough. Most are mediocre, but on occasion, we fall into some of the best experiences. We didn’t make note of this particular place as being extra special and never went back, so while it might have been okay, it wasn’t an Ed’s La Casita East further down the road here in Globe, Arizona. Ed’s has a spicy guacamole we are in love with, but if we never try new stuff, we won’t discover new loves.
Roadside shrines often drag us in for a closer inspection, especially the ones that are ornately decorated and maintained, showing the love and prayers for those being memorialized out in the middle of nowhere.
By the way, we are on another road trip. This one is going east out on the 60 towards Clifton-Morenci near the New Mexico border. This is the Morenci open-pit mine that hauls out about a million tones of copper ore every day.
We’ve been traveling together now for about 13 years and still love one another’s company on these long journeys into parts unknown. This trip will last the entire weekend and will take us across the border to New Mexico with a few new places to mark on our map.
Hillsboro, New Mexico: population about 100 people.
If these places had seriously adequate internet service, they’d be the perfect place for Caroline and me to take up residence; that is, of course, until the connoisseur in me started begging for foodstuffs we wouldn’t find for 100 miles in any direction.
This is the Valley Cafe, and they had one of the best salsas we’ve ever had. I asked them for the recipe, and strangely enough, they gave it to me.
When in the world-famous Hatch, New Mexico, be sure to stop at any of the roadside chile stands and pick some up. Don’t worry about what you’ll do with them until you get home, and then start hunting for recipes to spice up your meals. By the way, is it chili or chile?
Boyce Thompson Arboretum
Well, how lucky are we here in Arizona that we have one of five locations in America that are fortunate enough to host the touring exhibition titled “Chapungu: Custom and Legend — A Culture in Stone”?
We are at Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Arizona, the temporary home for this beautiful art from Zimbabwe. The contemporary stone sculptors who create these Shona Sculptures usually have their work displayed on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe, at a 20-acre park. Roy Guthrie, who founded the Chapungu Sculpture Park back in 1970, set up this international showing of the sculptures to promote this stonework.
Spread out over the grounds of the arboretum are these incredible works, many of which are bigger than life.
Shouldn’t every city on earth have some small garden park with a few dozen of these on display? We need more art.
This makes me wonder where else people are making a type of sculpture that none of us know about. While almost everyone in the West knows Greek, Italian, and Egyptian art, how many of us know if other places in this world have similarly surprisingly inspiring works of art that don’t find their way to Western eyes?
There’s something about the eyes of these sculptures that either looks inquisitive or loving, which I find very appealing.
Embracing the rising sun, looking to the sky for the affirmation that life is indeed beautiful. While this sculpture is essentially fairly simple, its expressiveness speaks volumes.
Oh yeah, and then there are nature’s sculptures here at Boyce Thompson that also draw us in to appreciate their inherent beauty.
Seeing we were already outside of Phoenix, why not head down to Giorsetti’s Grocery Store in Winkelman and pick up some fresh tortillas? It is only 32 miles south of Superior, and we still have a good amount of sunlight left.
Enjoying the drive, we let the car continue taking us south until the pavement ran out, and we found ourselves on Cascabel Road, driving in the general direction of Benson, Arizona.
Not in my wildest dreams did I think we’d run into ostrich out here in the middle of the desert, but sure enough, here at the Bull Canyon Ostrich Ranch in Cascabel, that is exactly what you’ll find.
We’re still out here on this long dusty road but will soon rejoin civilization.
This is our turnaround point at the old railroad depot turned visitor center in Benson, and as you can gauge from the long shadows, we are now late in the day. It will take about 2.5 hours to drive the 160 miles home. All in all, this has been a spectacular day, and we consider the experience of seeing the Zimbabwean Chapungu Sculptures firsthand a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Drove up north and then east of Flagstaff for a visit to Walnut Canyon National Monument. The cliff dwellings were once inhabited by the Sinagua people, but that was about 1000 years ago. Today, they lay in ruin in the cliff walls. The nearby Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments are also considered early Sinagua locations.
The Arizona Black Walnut tree makes a home here on the floor of the canyon about 350 feet below the rim above. In all, there are more than 380 species of plants in the canyon. Unfortunately, the trails here are on the rim and down to the ruins; as far as we can find, there are no trails that venture into the canyon adjacent to the dwellings for us to familiarize ourselves with the local flora.
And then I learned why there are no other trails: it’s because there are other cliff dwellings nearby that are off-limits to tourist-type visitors, which makes sense as, even though the percentage is low, visitors tend to also travel with an element intent of destroying or leaving their mark on native treasures and artifacts.
A microcosm of the Grand Canyon is on display here, with the rim made up of Kaibab Limestone; below that is the Toroweap Formation, and Coconino Sandstone is the bottom layer. If you know what to look for, all three layers are visible here.
Stoneman Lake in Coconino County is one of just a few natural lakes in Arizona, although it’s not a large lake in any sense of the word. This is how we spent our Sunday.
Camping in Arivaca – Day 2
Ricky is on the left, hidden in his hoodie, Arturo Jr is holding the water, and of course, you all know my wife. Arturo is out of the picture fetching more stuff for his incredible hot breakfast feast he’s about to cook up.
We are out here scouting hunting locations for the guys who have a permit to grab a javelina.
Where would you go, hang out, find a friend, and something to eat if you were a peccary living in a desert with predators after your ass?
Picacho Peak is kind of redundant like an ATM machine because Picacho is Spanish for Peak, so Peak Peak State Park is a bit weird. This shark fin rock is famous for being one of the sites of the westernmost skirmishes of the Civil War. Seeing this means we are traveling north or south on Interstate 10, and seeing we’ve been down south the last two days, I guess you can deduce what we are doing.