Another State Capitol to visit...Santa Fe, N.M.
You notice right away the circular building, called the "Round House."
There is a reason for it being round.
It is fashioned after this design, the Zia sun symbol. It is also on the N.M. flag. The circle is the suns rays in four directions, four directions of the earth, the four seasons of the year, four times of the day, and life's four divisions of childhood, youth, adulthood and old age, all bound together in a circle of life without beginning, and without end.
The Zia believe man has four obligations: He must develop a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and a devotion to the welfare of his people. I found this very profound.
The State Seal illustrates the ancient myth in which the gods ordered the Aztecs to settle where they saw an eagle perched in a cactus devouring a serpent.
The motto "Crescit Eundo"...it grows where it goes.
This is the very center of the building which has four levels.
The Rotunda measures 49 feet in diameter and is inlaid with a turquoise and brass mosaic of the great seal. The skylight 60 feet above represents an Indian basket weave, the blue for the sky and the pink for the earth.
The flags of New Mexico's 33 counties encircle the area on the fourth floor, and art from artist's who live in the area are on permanent display on the third floor.
Following is some of the art as well as handcrafted furniture.
You can click on the photos to enlarge. The text talks about the painting. "Hoshonzeh" translated from Navajo means "Harmonious Way."
I especially liked this. A quilt made by 5th graders.
They were each given a piece of material to create their art.
It is called their Peace Quilt.
There is not a lot to say about the house and senate chambers and they are both pretty much the same, pretty boring in fact.
New Mexico claims the oldest as well as the newest capitols in the United States. The one you are seeing here is the new one dedicated in 1966. The oldest one was built in 1609 which we did not see as it was raining after our tour here.
And that concludes our tour.
Until next time...
Our luck has been bad ever since we entered the "Land of Enchantment."
First off was the problem we had with our new truck. That worked out...finally.
Next was a problem with a dripping air conditioner.
Here Wallace is up on the roof with me down below handing up things he needs.
After cleaning out the drip pan, the next step was to replace the gasket. It now works!!!
We met a very nice repairman at Central RV in Albuquerque who helped us tremendously. As a matter of fact, we could not have done this without his help. He just happened to walk in needing a part for another job he was on and while there we picked up conversation with him. He was a Godsend. His name is Dale Hanson and his number is 505-263-2255. If you are ever in New Mexico and need help with your rv, he is the person we recommend. He covers the whole state. I can't say enough about how accommodating he was, and it was FREE advice. AND, we just liked him...seemed like an honest, knowledgeable man.
Now no more dripping and we now have cold air once again. It is pretty bad being in 100 degree heat with no a/c. That worked out finally.
Now our Norcold fridge has gone out!!! I awoke at 2:30 in the morning smelling ammonia. I quickly woke Wallace and he turned off the fridge, we opened all the windows to air out. One good thing is, we have the fridge in the laundry room we can use until we can decide on what to do...replace the cooling unit (rebuilt) or a new one...buy a new fridge with a warranty, or replace it with a residential????
It gets better...I needed to renew my drivers license while we were in North Dakota and because I had renewed it online six years ago, now I needed to come to Texas or see an eye specialist. We decided to wait until New Mexico to take care of this matter. I went to an eye specialist here in Belen at a Walmart. After $90.00 he said I needed glasses (because I could not read the very bottom line on the chart). Now how many road signs do you see that is written that small? I do not need glasses to drive!!! So, we drive over 500 miles to Muleshoe, Texas...I go in, read the chart, I now have my license renewed....without needing glasses!!! What a jerk, he would not change his mind after conversing with him and because of him, we will never use Walmart's Vision Center!!!!!
My griping has gone on long enough...I am just getting angry again and I am sure you have heard enough as well.
Until next time...
WELCOME TO SAN LORENZO CANYON.
Part of our orientation was a trip to this beautiful area on the refuge.
The header picture was taken here in this canyon.
Would you ever expect to see anything like this here in this dry, arid desert? We didn't. Never heard about it either.
A little gem of a place.
Various layers of the sediment built up and tilted to form what is called "the bread loaf."
Okay, interesting...what is next?
Oh, big horn sheep. Will we see those?
Oh my, what is this, a canyon and we are on the floor of it.
We start seeing caves.
The beautiful red color is from iron oxidation.
It gets better!!!
Jeannine yells out, "there's one up there."
Our first look at a desert big horn sheep...a ram!
She says, "okay, where are the rest of you guys, I know you are up there somewhere."
We are glassing the place. I yell out, "there are two more down below him." It turned out to be a lamb with a ewe.
As we turn around to drive to the next place, I spot these two high upon a ridge.
This was pretty exciting.
I could have stayed right there, looking for more.
I wanted to climb up into this slot canyon to explore, but not enough time today.
There was a little trickle of water coming from somewhere in there.
I thought of Zion and the slot canyon there.
This is our header photo you see on our blog.
You just can't imagine how beautiful this place is without experiencing it, but maybe we have given you a taste.
This canyon is a place of chimneys, caves, towers, arches and hoodoos.
Wind and water have sculpted sandstone, mud and volcanic ash to form this wonderful place.
This will not be our only visit!!!
Until next time...
First thing Saturday morning, we wanted to explore. There are 3 trails from the visitor center and we wanted to do all of them...this helps with visitation.
This one is only a little over one mile with signs naming the plants.
There are nice benches for those who need a break. The tree is a one seed juniper.
We saw a few lizards and cottontails...no snakes!!!
This is the Nature Loop.
The visitor center and maintenance building in the background from the trail.
Sunday morning we start out early to do the Mesa Trail, we are headed to the little hills in the background. The Mesa Trail is 3.8 miles in length. The weather is nice, we think we can make it before it heats up.
Can you find the cottontail?
The first wildlife we see as it scampered across our trail.
We are on top of the mesa looking down on the facilities.
There are buildings for the UNM (University of New Mexico) where there is research going on, our visitor center, maintenance shop and where we live.
I just had to take my diamond willow walking stick with me!!!
Wallace just knows there is a bench up here somewhere. We found it eventually and sat for a spell...took in the surroundings.
The Rio Grande River flows through the refuge, the lush green in the background running North to South making its way to the Gulf of Mexico.
You can get a glimpse of where we are parked to the right of the photo.
We are making our way down on this nice trail.
You can't get lost as there are no trees to speak of, and you can see forever!!!
Off in the distance we see these big enclosures and several people milling around.
We found out later it is research about lizards conducted by the UNM.
I am delighted to see this collared lizard waiting for us near the end of the hike.
"Here's looking at you kid."
What a wonderful hike with some beautiful scenery with an ice cold watermelon waiting for us when we got back to our abode.
Until next time...
We left Valentine, Nebraska at 10:00am. We spent the night at the Wal-mart in Fort Morgan, Colorado. We left that next morning.
Our first view of the Colorado Rockies through the haze.
We came in on interstate 76 toward Denver.
Things were going well until we got to Las Vegas, New Mexico at 1:15pm.
We got a warning light on our NEW Ford 350!!! We pulled over in the town hoping to find a Ford dealership...not one there...not until Albuquerque, 70 ish miles further. Wallace phoned our mechanic in McAllen, Texas. He told us it needed a burn out. Oh, I did not mention it is over 100 degrees outside!!! We start out toward A town, the light is still on, I'm in a panic, we are needing fuel, took an exit that said there was gas. After about 20 miles on a narrow road, we find a diesel station that we had to back out of, finally got back on the interstate...to make a long story shorter, we get to
this nice park off interstate 40 West of Albuquerque. We were able to get a space, not knowing if it would be available while we have our truck tended to because they were closed by the time we arrived. We took the truck into the Ford dealership early the next morning, the first ones there. They shuttled us back to the park...we talked to the lady about our dilemma. She was very nice. We paid for another day not knowing how long repairs would take. At noon, Ford called saying it was ready, we were elated. We pick it up, get down the road about 10 miles and the light came back on!!! Finally, they did a burn out...it is now ready at 4:30. It worked!!! We stayed that extra day and chilled out.
We got to Sevilleta at 10:00am without any more problems.
Jeanine met us at the door and said, "Welcome home." Man it was good to get there.
We got all set up in this site, then went back to the visitor center to visit with Jeanine.
We are happy about our site and all feels well.
We had a couple of tiger salamanders in the water receptacle.
One of them looks like she may be going to have babies...I will keep my eye on them.
Anyway, we are here and set up in our site, at "home" for three months.
Until next time...
We left Sullys Hill at 8:15, August 2. As we got on the interstate 94, we started seeing motorcycles...headed for Sturgis S.D. Turns out, it is the 75th anniversary of the big gathering.
We found out they pay $100.00 for a tent space and beer is $15.00 a bottle!!! How wild is that? Motorcycles were everywhere...all the way to Valentine, Nebraska.
We drove through Pierre, S.D. and just happened to get a shot of the Capitol Building. No visit this time though.
We made it to Valentine, Nebraska where we stayed at the Wacky West RV Park. It is a Passport America park. It was an easy find...not much to look at but okay.
I really like this little town. It just had a good feel about it. It's the heart city!!!
We spent some time visiting Niobrara NWR. We drove part of the auto tour, but did not see much. The prairie dog town was pretty active.
We took the stairs down to get this picture of Fort Falls where we had to wait on a lady photographer forever to get out of the water for our picture. She climbed over the barricade...why do you think the barricade is there? Some people...she took her time and could care less about us waiting!!!
On the Fort Falls trail, we came upon the Niobrara River where we watched the people in kayaks...you can barely see them. There was a larger group of them just coming around the bend.
We left Valentine, another small town in America. Passed up Valentine NWR, but got this shot.
Now, back to my title.
From coteaus to sandhills. These rolling hills are created by blowing sand, and some of them were quite high.
They are the largest mass of grass-stabilized sand dunes in the Western Hemisphere. The grass is fed by the Ogallala Aquifer, which is the one of the largest groundwater sources in the world. It is a pretty amazing place.
Rolling on down the road as we head South to New Mexico.
We enjoyed our two day stay in Valentine.
Next time, we will stay here a little longer.
The second part of our journey is coming up next.
Until next time...
When I do a post, I let my pictures do the talking. This post is a mixture of things for the month of July...picture wise, without mentioning prior posts. So, here goes...
Another favorite shot is of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, male and female, coming together to share in the suet.
The woodpeckers are eating us out of house and home!!! Especially now that there are little ones to feed...and the little ones are coming in now on their own. What a joy to sit and watch these beautiful birds while learning more of their behaviors.
While Wallace is off mowing, I am making bungees.
We have needed these to hold down the kayaks on the trailer and securing garbage bags in several trashcans. Colleen does not like to see the bag flapping outside the container and neither do we. Problems solved!!!
This is the old entrance. It is pretty with the old lichen covered stones.
We still mow the area because there are trails with one vault toilet.
Wallace's chainsaw certification comes in handy, especially when there is no one else around to take care of things like this.
We have one fireman and he is off on detail.
We need this tree off the fence as well as the firebreak. My job comes in after he is through cutting.
Then there are special wagon tours...this one is for retired teachers.
It was a fun tour, we even got to see the bison up close and personal. They were blocking the road.
One day we were sent out to do sign inventories.
All the little green spots are some of the outlying places to go out for an adventure.
We took down the coordinates for six places. Wish we could have started on this before time to leave as there are a lot more of them to do. Kneeling Moose was the best!!!
Here is a close up showing K.M. and Martinson. Each square represents one mile.
Trying to find these places and the road to get you there is fun.
The beautiful colors...this is a canola field.
A close up of flax. The field looks like water, a beautiful color of blue, but I could not capture it in all its glory.
We must not leave out wheat. They say now the main crops are corn and wheat. Most of the fields depend on rain for irrigation. They all look healthy.
Now for our last look of the pollinator garden we have worked on.
This is what it looked like after mowing some trails throughout. An earlier photo before it came alive with color.
We are planning on putting mulch on the trails after spraying with round up.
Wallace and I pulled and cut around the islands and the garden producing a lot of stuff. Canada thistle being the main culprit.
Here is what it looks like now with monarda being the predominant color.
We broke it up into manageable pieces by putting in trails for the visitors enjoyment to get a close up view of the plants and critters.
Here is your close up view of monarda.
It is interesting to walk around to see what else is blooming.
Following is a few of the plants in the garden.
Purple prairie clover.
Yellow cone flower to your right.
Purple cone flower.
Gallardia thrown in at bottom right.
With a little hyssop thrown in...the crushed leaves smell like licorice.
On my day off (we are required to work only 20 hours per week) I walked up to the visitor center to work a little more. I did not have the camera with me to show you what this area around the building looked like...but you can see it now...all the rocks are now clean and free!!!
I take great pride in my work even if nobody else sees the work I do. It just looks so nice now...to me.
I hope the work in the garden continues after we leave here.
You will see, we finally lowered the flag for the four service people who were shot at the recruiting office.
As for me, I will continue to "Paint the Prairie."
We leave here August 2nd and head south to New Mexico. We will be volunteering at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. August 15th, we will be having a butterfly count...come see us!!!
One last picture...both the male Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers.
You can certainly see the size difference between the two in this picture...kinda like the yellowlegs, eh?
Until next time...
