Woke up in Deming, NM

Since El Paso, we’ve been in familiar territory.  My Dad pastored in these parts – Santa Fe, Deming, El Paso, and Truth or Consequences, so we made a number of visits to the region in the 70’s and 80’s.  Three of my siblings graduated from Deming High School and Mom retired from teaching in this town as well, so the pictures will mean something to the family.  Driving westward from Las Cruces on I-10 we gradually gain altitude and enter a high desert plain accentuated with small groupings of mounds that look like the backs of some gigantic half buried reptile.  The interstate is smooth and straight.  The only entertainment is reading the many tourist trap signs: Wild West, Akela Flats, Butterfield Station, and The Thing.  Apparently you can get everything from moccasins to sport drinks at these place as well as “kids activities”.  Hoping to also find a restroom we stopped at one of these establishments.  It was closed and a fellow traveler, also looking for some relief was urinating in the corner.  We moved on, pulling into Deming for the evening.  We got a tip and a dollar-off coupon from the motel clerk and had dinner at Palma’s Italian Grill – Italian with a Mexican twist.  The pasta alfredo with grilled chicken and fresh green chilies was really good, I mean really good.  The next morning it took an hour but we finally found the little chapel where Dad pastured at 8^th and Birch.  It’s now an Episcopal church and the parsonage has been replaced with a new home.  Since we’re in familiar territory we decided to take time for something we hadn’t seen before and chose the eastern unit of Saguaro National Park near Tucson.  Ruth read and I took a much needed hike through the cactus.  Muscles eased and the road noise gone we proceeded to Phoenix for a weekend with Ruth’s sisters and family.  Ruth’s sister lives in Sun City Grande where the urban coyotes howl at night reminding the residents of this very tidy community that it wasn’t long ago this area was rattlesnake and prickly pear country.  A cheery smile, a cold Corona, and chips and salsa greeted us and we knew we were in the southwest once again. 

PICTURES: Deming High, The Old DemingNazarene Church, the Florita Mtns, NM Roadside rest?, Wind Power on I-10,  Cholla Cactus, Inside a Saguaro, Not your average Saguaro

Big Bend Country

PICTURES; Marathon, distressed ocatillo, Crane? On the Rio, The Chisos Mtns (2) Along the Rio west of Big Bend

When we left Happy Union and headed south, we stopped in Slayton at “one of Texas’s oldest continuing bakeries.”  Maple bars are dang good when they’re made fresh that morning!  Somewhere south of Lamesa (which is south of Lubbock) the row crop farms yielded to the increasing sand in the soil.  We were at the edge of the Chihuahua desert.  The scene would be the same the 300 miles down to the park and on into southern New Mexico: creosote bush, yucca, and prickly pear cactus.  About the time the desert started, the oil wells started too.  We were in the Permian Basin.  The center of this oil rich area is Midland-Odessa, the former town known as the hometown of George and Laura Bush.  Our destination for the night was Alpine, TX.  I always was curious to know what that place looked like.  Well, it the Chihuahua desert with hills.  The drive down to the park the next morning was a precursor to one of the most stunning national parks I’ve been privileged to witness.  It is in a class by itself, unique.  First the harsh wildness of the place gets your attention.  There has been such little rain that the prickly pear is withered and the yucca leaves are brown.  The ocotillo was turning yellow making me think I was witnessing a desert autumn but that plant does that during drought.  It’s not seasonal at all.  Second, the shapes of the mountain are unlike anything you’ll see anywhere in the US.  They come to needle points, mesas, columns, high bluffs and gentle curving mounds.  The Chisos Mountains form the crown jewel of the park and it looked like a huge fortress complete with turrets.  There are a lot of places to camp, both developed sites and primitive ones.  The park also has a lot of miles of primitive roads for the adventurous.  We camped down by the Rio Grande on a lawn of green grass under giant cottonwoods.  The temperature gage in the car hit 100.  By Thursday morning a cold front came in and we traveled all day never exceeding 64 degrees.  To the west of Big Bend is a huge state park.  The 50 miles from Study Butte to Presidio is the best roller coaster ride you’ll ever take.  Not only are the hills, drops and curves fun, the scenery is awesome as well. Leaving the park on Thursday, our destination is somewhere in the Deming, NM area so that we can make Phoenix on the weekend.

In West Texas

When you travel west on I-40 from OKC to Amarillo, TX, you gain about 2400 feet in elevation.  Oklahoma is pretty green but as you slip over into the Texas Panhandle the colors are muted.  What trees are around are short.  Thirty miles east of Amarillo the trees are gone and you enter a khaki-colored  two dimensional world that gives a whole new meaning to the concept of flat.  With week after week of 100+ degree heat, the land looks distressed.  Wheat is mature at less than a foot high.  Many cotton fields only partially germinated and stand vacant and there is a brown haze of blowing dust.  They had up to an inch of rain a couple weeks ago bringing the total since Jan. 1 to just over 3 inches.  It’s about noon and we noticed Palo Duro Canyon State Park close by so decided to find some shade and catch a snack.  Canyon??  An amazing thing unfolds a half mile from the park entrance.  Suddenly you find yourself perched on the edge of a 600 foot drop off.  You’re looking at the Texas Grand Canyon that extends southeast for some 120 miles.  A wonderful, unexpected, and welcome visual break. But our destination for this day is a dot on the map called Happy Union about 17 miles south of Plainview on state route 400 and a visit with my sister-in-law’s Mom. Happy Union is now a state historical marker and an abandoned building that used to be a cotton gin.  In its heyday during the twenties, Happy Union also boasted a school, store, grain elevator, and filling station.   Coming into Plainview one is confronted with the obvious question, “Is this location a view of the plains or is the view of the plains, plain (unadorned.”)  You guessed it.  The answer is “yes”.  We met Colline in Plainview at Leal’s for a yummy Mexican dinner and then headed down to her country place.  At first glance it seemed lonely down there.  The nearest neighbor is a half mile away but he honks as he drives by to let her know he’s watching out for her.  The wind begins to die down as the sun drops below the horizon.  A vacant house down the road is silhouetted against the evening sky and I have to say that a kind of peacefulness seemed to settle down.  While Happy Union is no longer a town as such, it is a community – a repository of memories and continuing relationships that make a place home.  I think the grit in the air had forged grit in the character of these good people.  On to Big Bend National Park.

OK-C

Pictures: Ginger, Zoo, Pops, Sunday Dinner, Jean and her pig Harold, Oklahoma Centenial sculptures of the great land rushes.

I think Oklahoma and Arkansas share a common imagination.  Listen to some of the town names in this neck of the woods: Blue Jacket, Clebit, Heavener, Smackover, Toad Suck, Ozone, Yellville, Joy and next to it, Romance.  Like an ocean wave sliding to an end on the beach, the eastern deciduous forests and southern pine forests of the south come to an end as we move westward toward OKC.  We’re in the plains again.  Or are we?  Is this the Midwest or the South?  Is this a farming or ranching area?  Some people sound like west coast people.  Some sound like they are from the south.  They get 20 below 0 weather and 110 degree weather.  Oklahoma seems like some sort of geographic, economic and social transition zone.  OKC has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country but in small towns in the hinterlands it’s pretty clear that the recession has hit.  Gas is cheap (3.19/gal) but the Family Dollar and Dollar General Stores parking lots are full.  My metaphor for the ambiguity experienced here is the picture of Ginger the dog.  Notice she doesn’t know whether to have her ears up or down so one is up and one is down!  Had a nice visit with Sister Carol and daughters Erin, Lisa and Jean.  Spent Sat. afternoon at the zoo and then to POPS a gas station and hamburger joint that stocks over 600 flavors of pop – things like Pumpkin Spice and butter beer pop.  Great burgers too.  Before OK was a state this area was known as the “Indian Territories”.  In 1830 Congress passes the Indian Resettlement Act which was to exchange Indian lands in the east for the “unused” lands in the west, Oklahoma.  Stopping at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee we heard the stories of the “Trail of Tears” endured by the Seminole, Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee and Chickasaw, all of whom were resettled in Oklahoma.  We bid farewell to our family here and move on to Texas.

The South - Some Impressions

Operationally defined for this trip, “the south” includes southern VA, Eastern TN, Northern GA, Northern and Central AL, LA and AK.  Why is this the south, you ask?  Well in all these places you hear the term, “ya’all”.  Texas I consider a different country.  And I’m not sure how to classify Oklahoma.  Admittedly, this is a 5-day whirlwind cruise through this area on both country roads and freeways but its hard not to make some observations.  Here’s mine.1.)The motorcycle of choice in the south is Harley-Davidson, 2.) Southern legislators are more adept at getting pork-barrel projects than NW legislators if the number of recently paved, currently being paved roads and road construction projects is any indication, 3.)Apparently, individual property rights are a big deal along with lax zoning laws.  Anything you can think of is built anywhere you can think of.  4.) There is a kind of solve your own problems mentality here, e.g. this sign soon after entering Georgia, “Thieves will be shot on sight”, 5.) They are also clear about what booze is for, e.g. another sign seen soon after crossing into Arkansas, “Buzz-Rite Liquor Store”, 6.) There is an alternative way to spell Utah.  It’s Eutaw and the town is in Alabama.  Eutaw is also the place where I got a lesson in the social system down here.  Upon entering town you see small low houses.  But on any hint of a rise the houses immediately quadruple in size, complete with huge columns, verandas and expansive lawns.  There just seemed to be an aura of dominance between the people of means and those with less.  The church buildings followed the same pattern. 7.) Speaking of churches, the Baptists procreate like rabbits followed by the United Methodists.  Baptists are everywhere!  I’m signing off as “Mr. Wayne.”  It’s a southern thing.

In the south - the trip

Pictures: Cades Cove, Primitive road (2), Crossing the Mississippi at Vicksburg, Miss Beth, Black Bayoo (2), Hot Springs, AK (2), Mt. Magazine, AK

The arc we took through the south started with Great Smokey National Park.  Due to traffic, it took two efforts to gain entrance.  The second day we made it and entered the south west part of the park, driving up a beautiful canyon (bumper to bumper) to Cades Cove.  The cove is a high mountain valley once settled but now a historic feature of the park.  Entered a loop drive (bumper to bumper) and finally opted out of the traffic and headed down a dirt road that appeared to get us out of the park.  It did, on a one way primitive dirt track that would make the west central mountains of Idaho proud.  It took an hour to go 8 miles and we ended up on US 129 – a motorcyclist’s paradise.  This road was race track smooth with high 20 mile an hour hairpin turns.  In the 20 mile section we traveled there (through beautiful woods) we saw no less than 75 motorcycles coming toward us.  And on 4 of the more dramatic curves, photographers were taking pictures that the cyclists could order online.  I didn’t check to see if our Subaru was included.  Had some good BBQ at Bradleys in Sweetwater, TN.  We had to make time to get to our niece Beth’s place in Monroe, LA so we resorted to the freeways and just pushed on for a couple days skirting Birmingham, AL.  Thinking back to the early 60’s and the “line” that was drawn in that city by civil rights activists, it somehow seemed wrong not to stop and acknowledge what happened there.  But Birmingham simply was bounded by a manicured freeway and beautiful trees and we swiftly slid by.  Spent two days with niece Beth in Monroe (that’s Mun-row).  Was introduced to fried catfish and gumbo and my first ever bayou (see pictures) – all great experiences.  Ya know, I always wondered why Beth would head off to such a far and different kind of place, she being from the North West and all.  But it was gratifying to get acquainted with the community of faith she is a part of and teaches for.  She’s loved and well cared for.  It speaks well for the value of Christian community.  And one more thing.  Did you know that the US Gov’t through the National Park Service has been in the spa business since 1832?  That’s right!  Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs AK has been leasing the site to private spa businesses for decades.  We toured a 1920’s something spa house.  Amazing!  The hydrotherapy equipment looked like something out of “One Flew Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest” if you remember the scene of “washing down” the Indian fellow.  On to Oklahoma.

Heading South

We headed for Shenandoah National Park after DC on a beautiful clear day.  The plan was to take Skyline Drive (in the park) and the Blue Ridge Parkway down to Smokey Mountains National Park on the No. Carolina/Tennessee border.  The weekend traffic on those roads and the distance precluded doing all 470 miles so we would get off and take the freeway for awhile and then get back on.  While that was disappointing we did get to see enough to be blown away with the beauty, the views and once again the fall colors.  A lot of apple orchards in VA so we’ve been enjoying fresh picked apples – juicy, cold and crisp.  Otter Creek Campground gave us a good night’ s rest as well as an informative interpretive program with the park ranger on nocturnal animals in the park.  He kind of looked like Ichabod Crane – gaunt, bent, with Abraham Lincoln eye brows.  So we are in the land of gaps (passes) and hollows (ravines).  Moving into southern Virginia and Tennessee, it just seems poorer here.  We did witness some of the recent tornado damage from the freeway.  What a mess!  Moteling it tonight.  Ruth is catching up on the BCS standings.

Pictures: Entering Shenandoah Nat'l Park.  Scenes and colors along the parkway

DC Addendum

Earlier on this trip I went off on what I called the “culture of extravagance or abundance” in the US.  I think I attributed it to living in  a land  with a lot of resources.  I noticed that same theme in some of the exhibits in the American Museum of Art and the Museum of American History and the quotes from de Tocqueville and Muir.  The history museum exhibit that examined the roots and implications of the American Dream – sometimes realized, sometimes not, tied that part of our national character to the abundant resources so apparent in our earlier history.  Generations of immigrants came to this country searching for the dream.  One wonders about the “dream” considering the current state of the economy, the shift to a service rather than manufacturing economy, and living in a time driven more by scarcity than abundance. The darker side of our culture of extravagance was underscored in the “America at War” exhibit.  The exhibit walks you through the war of independence, the wars of expansion (1812, Indian removal, Mexico), Civil War, Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan.  I found it chilling to realize that downside to abundance is the need to protect it.   And protecting our interests inevitably results in war. Our national character – born in abundance, bathed and protected in blood.  I’ll be more cheerful future posts.

DC

I’ve seen this sky before.  The clouds form an impenetrable grey sludge that keeps the daylight hours in a kind of perpetual dusk.  It was in Gettysburg and its here too.  Looks like the color of political gridlock.  I think DC needs more sunny days!  We arrived in Rockville some 15 miles outside of DC around noon on Wednesday, found our hotel and decided to take a reconnaissance trip into the mall area to see if we could figure out the subways and navigate the area.  Success!  A 10 minute ride in the hotel shuttle to Metro and then 35 minutes to central DC is all it takes.  We’ll focus on the Museums over the next 60 hours.

THE CAPITOL BUILDING:               Look closely, the two houses have a stained appearance in contrast with the central part of the building.  Hmmm…..

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY – the Race Exhibit: “Race, as a concept is a recent idea, only a few hundred years old.  It is based on the exercise of power and differential economics.  It does not make useful differentiations between people.”

NATIONAL BOTANICAL GARDENS: “By 2015 it will take an earth 1.6 times as big as ours to sustain humanity at our present level of consumption.”

NATIVE AMERICAN MUSEUM: “Being an Indian is not about being part something; it is about being a part of Something.” (Hopi)  “The Earth and myself are of the same mind.” (Chief Joseph)

AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM: I learned that bike mechanics can change the world – Wilber and Orville Wright.  I think I would make a good bike mechanic….

HIRSHHORN MUSEUM: (2 and 3 dimensional art): “Our earth is made of layers of destruction and reconstruction made by man and nature.  We are generation and generation of layers.  We landed on this earth with the lights of comets across the universe.  We are small light made from mysterious energy.  I cannot forget that everyday.” Grazia Toderi (Commenting on her video art exhibit)

FREER ART MUSEUM:  In the beginning, man went forth each day- some to battle, some to the chase; others, again to dig and to delve in the field…until there was found among them one, differing from the rest, whose pursuits attracted him not, and so, he stayed by the tent with the women and traced strange devices with a burnt stick upon a gourd.  This man…this dreamer apart, was the first artist.” James McNeill Whistler (he liked languid and pensive women models)

AMERICAN HISTORY MUSEUM: “…so many lucky men restless in the midst of abundance.” de Tocqueville 1835

AMERICAN ART MUSEUM: The whole continent was a garden, and from the beginning it seemed to be favored above all the other wild parks and gardens of the Globe.”  John Muir 1901

Pictures: The "stained house and senate, Library of Congress, National Gardens, American Indian Museum, Lunar Landing Module, and yes, George Washington looking like a Greek God.  The statue didn't go over well in the 1860's and ended up in the museum