March 13, 2021 – Roswell; Georgia O’Keefe; and Hacer Santa Fe

The truth is out there!!!!!

Today we went to visit the aliens! Not really but we did visit Roswell, New Mexico. It was a three hour drive one way through the desert. As we pulled into town, we started seeing green alien signs and green alien statues outside of businesses – so cool!  We got there before noon and checked out the Visitor’s Center where we picked up a map. Most of the attractions were between 5^th and 10^th streets downtown so within walking distance.

I was wrong, kids, Roswell is the Gatlinburg of New Mexico!!!!!

We set off down the street, wandering in t-shirt shops and souvenir shops where there was a lot of fun stuff – alien key chains, alien blow up dolls, (Ed. Note – Not that kind of blow-up dolls!!!!) alien t-shirts, alien bottle openers – you name it, they had it. It was a beautiful day for strolling – mid-60’s, blue skies and quite a wind blowing. We went into the International Alien Museum where they laid out everything that happened from the night of the 1947 crash and the days following. It was a lot of information. Unfortunately, the museum was not following the state guidelines of monitoring the capacity of the museum and it became extremely crowded very quickly – so we decided it was time to leave. (Ed. Note – Holy Hell, people, we’re in the middle of a pandemic!!!!!)  The hubs had already purchased a book telling all about the crash from A-Z and we decided we could learn more from that than the museum FULL of people… (Ed. Note – I mean, seriously, a PANDEMIC!!!!  It ain’t gone away!!!!)

  

  

  

Just what you’d expect on Tatooine!!!!!!

We walked back to our car and decided to grab a bite to eat before leaving town. And here comes the WEIRD part – after we ate our lunch and were driving out of town, we noticed that the wind had kicked up even more and behind us in the downtown area was a HUGE dust storm. We couldn’t even see where we had just come from because of the dust in the air! It was crazy!

Drive-by is the operative word!!!!!

We decided to take a little different way back to Santa Fe so we could drive by the crash site at the Foster Ranch. We didn’t actually go to the exact site – you have to drive several miles through private property over very rough terrain. It is suggested that you have a four wheel drive vehicle and ask permission before going on private property but once you do, there is a marker at the crash site which is on public property. Anyway, we drove along that route and as we did the temperature dropped from mid-60’s to mid-20’s AND it began to sleet! Sleet fell for about 5 miles and then it got sunny again. About 20 miles down the road, it began to sleet – again for only about 7 miles, then back to sunny, blue skies! I’m telling you it was the weirdest weather changes I’ve ever been in in my entire life!

 

This can’t be good!!!!!!!

As we pulled into the our campground and came inside to our fifth wheel, we noticed the TV was pulled away from the wall, several kitchen drawers were open and the pantry door was partially opened. When we looked closer, we realized the kitchen slide was partially pushed in – sigh… After looking at the outside of the rig, we found a tree had uprooted in the heavy winds and was leaning on our slide. Not good! I felt so bad for our pups, Rosie and Alice had been here alone for about 10 hours after having crazy winds and a tree fall on the house – I’m sure it was pretty scary! We called the emergency maintenance number and thankfully they were able to get a tree service out after hours to get the tree off our rig. Fingers crossed that the damage is minimal. It has definitely been an eventful day!

And now for something completely different!!!!

Yesterday, we went to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in historic Santa Fe. It was fantastic to view the artwork displayed there and learn things about Ms. O’Keefe. She studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago but didn’t care for the idea of painting or drawing recreations or copying nature. She was later introduced to the idea of creating art based on personal style, design and interpretation of subjects. She produced charcoal drawings in 1915 that were total abstractions. She has been recognized as the “Mother of American modernism.”

We saw early pencil and charcoal pieces from the 1900’s. (Ed. Note – She has a pencil drawing of a skyline that I don’t think has more then 10 lines on the page that BRILLIANTLY captures the essence of what she was looking at – her ability to depict that so sparsely and yet completely is just remarkable!!!!) There are brilliantly colored flowered pieces from the 1920’s and some of her later work from the 1950-60’s. The displays told of her early start in New York with Alfred Stieglitz, who eventually became her husband. She eventually divided her time between New York and New Mexico beginning in 1929.

As she explored the Taos area, she collected old bones and rocks, arranged and painted them and the landscape extensively. When her husband died, she moved to New Mexico permanently where she lived until she died in 1986 at the age of 98. We even had a security guard tell us about a painting that looked out from the backyard of her home in Abiquiu and told us about the cottonwoods and mesas surrounding it. We’re hoping to go find the home before we leave the area. I’m looking forward to doing some research on her over the next couple of weeks. (Ed. Note – Probably the most fascinating story I’ve ever heard in a museum!!!)

 

Now THIS is Santa Fe!!!!!

After leaving the museum, we drove down Canyon Road, a very small two-lane road which is full of art galleries, many of which had sculpture gardens to walk through. There were some amazing sculptures – everything from animals to native Americans to cowboys to wind chimes. We strolled through many of them but my absolute favorite was full of twirling wind sculptures. They were amazing! Maybe one day, one of my kids will learn to weld and make these beautiful things for me 😊. (Ed. Note – They weigh too much to carry on the rig!!!!) (We’ll see…) Surrounding Canyon Road are cool adobe homes nestled throughout the winding roads. That is what I pictured Santa Fe would look like.

  

 

 

 

 

Did you buy anything?!?!?!?

Earlier in the week, I visited another yarn shop! Hacer Santa Fe is a combination fabric and yarn shop. Hacer means “to make” in Spanish. It states on their Home page that “we believe crafts have the ability to heal our minds, bodies, and souls.” Truer words have never been spoken. There was only a small room full of yarn but it was an interesting collection. Most of the yarns were American made of natural fibers. They carry Brooklyn Tweed, Woolfolk, Chasing Rabbits Fiber, Farmer’s Daughter Fibers, Echoview Fiber, Wool and the Gang and one from Norway, Sandnes Garn. I purchased Peer Gynt, a Sandnes Garn yarn made of 100% wool that looks perfect for colorwork (which I will be getting my friend, Lisa to teach me soon!) and is their oldest yarn – it has been on the market since 1938. It was a lovely shop to visit. (Ed. Note – That was a rhetorical question, of course you bought something!!!!) (HAHAhahaha!)