I'm in a hotel room in Carlsbad, NM. I was going to camp at the state park but it's 109 degrees and I just didn't want to be outside!!! Tomorrow morning I'm going to check out Carlsbad Caverns and then on to Texas, then Louisiana and then up to Tennessee for Bonnaroo.
Today, besides a few hundred miles of driving, I stopped in Roswell and went to the Alien Museum and Research Center. Okay, the fact that I got to go through Roswell did play the teeniest role in my decision to drive down this way!! It's so funny, there's aliens everywhere on Main Street.....even the street lamps!!! It's a really nice little town which has embraced it's quirky reputation which overshadows its title as 'dairy capital of the world.'
I was in Santa Fe yesterday and spent last night at a KOA just outside of the city. On my way to Santa Fe from Albuquerque I stopped at a rest stop (they have great rest stops that have the visitors center in them and free wi-fi) and just happened to catch one of the old guys who worked/volunteered there while he was on his break it turns out he was from Foster City.....and still a niners fan. but he told me a few stories about people who stop in and questions about this and that and I just have to share one: a man came in and asked "What's the attitude of Santa Fe?" "Do you mean altitude?" he asked the man "Oh, yeah, that's what I meant" he replies, "Santa Fe sits at 7000 ft." he tells the man, then the man asks "All year?" he he he
Santa Fe was cute, small but not too small. I walked around the artsy little downtown area, checked out the La Fonda hotel, St.Francis church, ate lunch in the little square and went to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum. The museum was the highlight for me because though I knew her work I didn't really know much about her and learning more about who she was, and her story was very inspiring.
The night before Santa Fe I was in Albuquerque. Petroglyph national monument is there so I did a little hiking and checked them out. I included a picture of one which makes me think that this whole petroglyph thing is a racket!!!! There are hundreds of them in the area that I hike but they say that the petroglyphs choose who to reveal themselves to....interesting....and as I was walking out I kept hearing what sounded like people behind me so I kept turning around but I was in a canyon with one way in and there was no one else on the trail.....hmmm.
While in Albuquerque I stayed in a dorm room at the Route 66 Hostel. I'm sure my face said it all when the woman at the reception said that they didn't have any single rooms available. It was pretty shabby but it came down to paying another 50 something at a hotel or 18 ....the same as camping except there's a shower, a bed and I don't have to load and unload a car. Plus I hadn't had a shower in several days and I'd hiked everyday....uh...yeah. I was hitting the point where I didn't even want to get out of the car for fear of offending someone. But I figured I'd just stay away for as much of the day as I could, so I went off to check out the petroglyphs and did laundry, etc.
Anyhow, let me tell you about my experience at this hostel, what an odd bunch that they have there. First off everyone there was older, which was nice at first. Evidently there was some alternative/communal living conference going on in Albuquerque but nobody seemed to know what it was about. I didn't even talk to the conference folk I talked to the weirdos......more like the weirdos talked to me. Besides some homeless guy that was hanging out there, there was also some 66 year old guy from Berkeley who had been there for 3 weeks who was looking for 'peace.' Fine, looking for peace, who am I to say anything......what the hell am I doing out here right? And then.....he goes on to say that after his wife died he began these relationships with women ranging in age from 36-39....but he met some 71 year old woman on the train to Albuquerque that he was really attracted to......uhhhh.....didn't really need to know that. Then he said something about hanging out this past year at people's park in Berkeley....he wasn't homeless he just liked to hang out there......oh yeah and shoot up. Of course, I knew it would be like this when one of the first things that came out of his mouth was how 'normal' he was. And maybe at some point in his life he was. And there was some other guy there in his 50's who was making appetizers for everyone who was supposedly some rich eccentric who was thinking about opening a hostel and was going to look at property........yeah...okay....
So as I was trying to leave this morning and the office isn't open until 7 so I'm hanging out in the little common area....and the homeless guy is there....asking me about my laptop and then asks if well, he noticed I wasn't wearing a ring, oh god...this is why I try not to talk to people, but you probably have a boyfriend.....hell yeah I do!!! And then he says "yeah I figured, the good ones are always taken". EEEWWWWW!!!!!! Or maybe......they have a little self respect and don't want to be with some middle aged old homeless man on Social Security whose hanging out at a hostel trying to pick up women.
The entire time I was at the hostel I was on my the computer trying to upload pictures and ignore everyone, it was obvious I wanted to be left alone and yet......I got hit on by a weird homeless guy and got too much information from an over-sharing 'recovering' addict.....those recovering addicts really are the worst. People just don't know how obvious their freakiness is or how easy they can be to read. Or that they send off creepy vibes in waves that speak directly to the little hairs on the back of my neck. Though I sometimes question my shortness with certain people and at times feel like I'm not outgoing or 'open' enough my instincts in these situations has never been wrong.
Before Albuquerque and the good times at the hostel I was in Sedona, Arizona. It was beautiful and the experience of driving down the canyon from Flagstaff rivals seeing the grand canyon....okay here's the thing I know it sounds silly, and awkward to keep saying amazing and beautiful....blah blah blah. But, until I get back into the habit of writing it's all going to sound a little contrived and generic.
After leaving Sedona I drove east on 40 hoping to get to Albuquerque but then I decided to stop at the Meteor Crater. I stop and look around, I read the pamphlet, checked it out and and decided to take the rim tour....all kinds of bad jokes there I know.....anyhow I wait around to take the tour where the girl repeats everything the brochure pretty damn close to verbatim. The upside is that taking the tour is the only way you actually get to go out on the rim which was worth the repeat. Plus, this is where they filmed parts of the movie Starman so that was fun little fact.....I don't know if they filmed any parts of close encounters there. And then I stopped/drove through the Petrified Forest National Monument (which also includes parts of the Painted Forest) where there's a lot of dead wood lying around. Okay, wood that's gone through that whole permineralization process so it's very pretty, colorful rock that looks like dead wood. But driving through the park you see some gorgeous views, and the distinct, colorful layers of the sediment look, well painted.
After the meteor and the petrified forest it was getting late so I was looking for a place to stay and there was a national forest campground in the cibola wilderness area listed in the handy dandy little directory. The description seemed nice, it was cheap and only 5 miles off of I40. I figured I could sleep in the car and get an early start the next day. The campground was at a little higher elevation and it was all pine forest...it was cool....which was a nice reprieve from from the desert. BUT....it was empty except for one other a person and there was a notice on the board that said a big black bear had been spotted there earlier in the day. Bears....great....no bear lockers...no people...and it was getting dark so I decided to stay and sleep in the car. The minute I shut myself in
my imagination went crazy. Besides the thought of the bear ripping the door off to get to the cooler and box of food in the car, every horror movie I have ever seen having to do with psycho killers picking people off in the woods came back to haunt me. Then I kept hearing noises, and everything is distorted and muffled when your sealed in a car so I couldn't tell what they were. Obviously I survived......just a little more tired than I thought I'd be.
Holy Crap that was a long one!!!!
