Go West Young Man

 Go West Young Man

By Lou Pastina

After a beautiful summer at the beach, I thought it was time to get back to the desert. Yes, as much as I love Rockaway, the ocean and the waves, I truly love the southwest desert. The mermaid and I love Arizona, Sedona and the Grand Canyon region, but we wanted to try something different this time. So, we went for the first time to New Mexico. But we learned quickly that if you want a direct flight, there are few options to choose from, which meant a late-night flight west, and then a red-eye home, but we were determined, so we bit the bullet and pulled the trigger.

We flew into Albuquerque and stayed in Hotel Chaco right next to Old Town. We booked a walking tour of Old Town and learned a great deal about New Mexico. First off, the state has only two million people living there, and it’s known as a minority-majority state. That is, the majority are minorities. It is different politically than its neighbors Texas and Arizona, mostly democrat vs. republican. It is mostly Hispanic, and not because of illegal migrants, but because of its history. Let me explain. The indigenous who lived there had communities for centuries called pueblos, and each had their own governing rules, in some cases languages, and markets. When the Spanish came looking for gold in the late 1500s, they granted these communities land grants from the King of Spain. When the indigenous kicked the Spanish out, Mexico came in and set up shop. But first the King granted land grants to the Spaniards who colonized the area. But here’s the interesting thing, both Mexico and the United States honored the land grants both then and now. So, some of those Hispanics have been living here for almost 500 years with land passed down through the centuries based upon land grants from the King of Spain! There are almost 20 indigenous pueblos between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, each with their own sovereign governments and they too have land grants. And those land grants differentiate those indigenous from the native Americans who were forced marched from the east out to the desert. And the Puebloans are also different in that they were originally farmers who worked the same land and not nomadic hunter-gatherers. Fascinating history they don’t always teach in school.

While we were in Albuquerque, the balloon festival was happening. We had tickets but you needed to get there by 3:30 a.m. so we opted for the Hotel Chaco rooftop at 6:30 a.m., and we were treated to hundreds of balloons floating over the high desert. Pretty cool stuff. We started to head north after the festival, stopping at the Petroglyph National Monument, home to literally thousands of ancient Puebloans petroglyphs. And the hikes were easily accessible, as were the petroglyphs. The drive to Santa Fe is quick, roughly an hour and a half. Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico, and the adobe style architecture is literally written into their laws. We took a tour of Santa Fe too, about three hours to cover the whole town by foot. We were struck by two churches in Santa Fe, the first Saint Francis of Assisi, which is a big, beautiful cathedral with a statue of Kateri, the indigenous saint. The second was Mount Loretto, and although no longer officially a church, houses a staircase that was built by a mysterious carpenter using wood that cannot be identified with any from this earth. It is a spiral staircase that has no nails, cement, no connection to the walls. It is believed to have been built by St. Joseph himself in response to prayers.

We also took a guided tour to Ghost Ranch, the area where Georgia O’Keefe painted many of her masterpieces. It is a working ranch for painters and an active conference center. It was also used as a backdrop for the movie “City Slickers.” Our drive also took us past Los Alamos, which, in addition to being the birthplace of atomic discoveries, is also a working laboratory for over 15,000 scientists today.

Probably the thing we enjoyed most was the endless mesas, plateaus, red rocks, desert, cactus, and wide-open skies. One thing you need to consider if you visit is the altitude. Santa Fe is at 7,000 feet above sea level, a little different than Rockaway. That means you need to stay hydrated because you will definitely feel it. We had several moments of unexpected serendipity during our trip. The most surprising was meeting an old colleague from work who moved there to paint, only to discover that both she and her husband had been college professors at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, the mermaid’s alma mater. They were teaching there when the mermaid was there, which meant that all four of us were there together at the same time over 40 years ago, unbeknownst to any of us at the time.

Now that summer is over, it’s time to get out of town and discover some new things about life! Hope to see you out there!!

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