Camino de Suenos - New Mexico

One HAS to surmise that with the surname of Reiche, that Greg has SOME genetic qualification for the grandiose. But who knows?

Photos by M. Cook






There are similarities between the 30-foot-tall (9.14 m) and the block-like forms of the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. I find it interesting that conquerors would so quickly adopt architectural styles of a people (Aztec/Inca) they apparently felt were, apart from their gold, useless.

Inscribed on the narrow wall of the crotch is this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."

(Emerson was an inveterate arm-chair traveler so you gotta consider the source.)

Cook saw it as a pair of unzipped pants.


The sculpture also brought to mind a monograph published during my tenure at UNM Press: Las Carneradas: Sheep Trade in New Mexico 1700 - 1860. It describes how the Spaniards brought, as food for their journey, hundreds of thousands of sheep. The landscape was so severely impacted it's speculated it will evolve rather than recover. Much of the land to the east and south is part  of the Armendaris Ranch, owned by Ted Turner.





West-facing side

If you've read Sophocles the Hyena by Jim Moran - a tale of Morris the cat on his way to cat-school - you may recall Ralph-Ralph, the dog, who carries in his pocket a bit of green glass. As each new friend joins the group he brings it out to show announcing, "It's the only nice thing I've ever owned."

I have yet to make it the five miles down to the Visitor Center (closed until further notice.) But inquiring minds wonder at the influence wielded to obtain funding for such an out-of-the-way project?

More about Turner and the Armendaris. There are also, of course, Youtube vids.

Virgin Galactic Spaceport & Shrooms

I like to move every couple of days and after some map perusal settled on Engle (sometimes spelled Engel and/or Engele), on the east side of Elephant Butte Lake. It turned out to be nothing more than a junction with buildings belonging to the Armendaris Ranch (a Ted Turner conservation collaboration). At some point I'd noticed the Point of Rocks on my topo map; they were due south, on the only road, about 20 miles.

It was nearing suppertime (4 pm) when the pavement ended. I was bumping along enjoying the afternoon when suddenly the phone rang!! It's illegal to use devices and drive so I immediately looked for somewhere to pull over and there, less than 50 feet ahead, was a two-track into the wilds. Her timing is sssOOOOOOoooo exquisite!!

I wondered who had put the rock there...and why.

Eager to be away from the main thoroughfare, I tried multitasking.....checking the washouts to see if Eggbert could get through. She felt ignored, but I couldn't stop myself when I noticed this magnificent specimen...further evidence of global warming.

After moving around the bend we unpacked. During the night a couple of trains went by but they didn't honk-and-wave so it was tolerable. In the morning I hiked up the nearby hill and was astonished to recognize Virgin Galactic's spaceport just over the way. If you know what you're looking at, you can make out the huge SE facing windows of the hangar-main spaceport facility. For those unfamiliar, it's that dark-brown line at the far right exactly half-way down. The lighter area above the dark-brown is the roof. Virgin Galactic's website has more photos. (10/31/14 Crash kills one injures another.)

The main entrance.

No access to the front yet, at least not for the hoi-poloi.



Here's Eggbert in full regalia.The bugnet is a double bed REI special. Note trenching tool at lower left and "new" hat on dashboard. I got it for $1.00 at the Mental Health thrift store in Socorro. Every Tuesday is half off. It fits better than any before.