Monument Valley and dinosaur tracks

dateline: Grand Canyon
After lunch in Farmington on Wednesday, we set off for Monument Valley, driving down the long way from the north on Highway 163. We drove west through Navajo lands, passing the San Juan River and "Shiprock," so called by 19th (?) century missionaries. I wondered about this nomination because how many desert folks ever see a ship. It really looks like a magical floating fortress, especially in the heat of the day with the mirage in air, sort of like Laputa in Miyazaki's film of the same name (aka in English, Castle in the Sky). More below about this place.

From "Shiprock," which is also a town, we continued along 64 W to Teec Nos Pos. We passed Beclabito Dome of red rock and a stunning panoramic view of mountains and desert with little vegetation visible. Is this where uranium mining happened? It looked like the desolation of Smaug (ref the Hobbit). We stopped briefly in Redmesa and found orange sherbet pushups made in Louisiana by "Blue Bunny" company. More dairy than most sherbets and certainly than sorbet, but very refreshing. At the stop was a letter posted and dated March 12 from the Regional Health center (a large beautiful new complex which we saw just before coming to the stop and which seems to serve the four corners area) warning about an outbreak of meningitis. Redmesa environment reveals red earth both pale and deep with terra vert plants, both pale and deep also

As the afternoon shadows lengthened, we came by Mexican Hat, a famous rock formation, and on down to the increasingly stunning views of this storied valley. Driving into the main part of the valley, which is a Navajo tribal park, at about 5pm, we thought we'd have to come back the next day. However, the Navajo tour guide service offered us a 2-hour sunset tour of the valley, and we gladly accepted. They were very quick on the uptake, and joked with us about a plant in our car which Sarah had given us, asking if we were going to smoke it. Their somewhat grizzled humor reminded us of our experience with crab salesmen in La Push, driving around town selling freshly cooked crab from the back of a pickup, and raucously telling us to eat it with "Indian sauce" i.e., butter. Beer was in evidence there, but signs all over the Navajo reservation indicated that by federal law, alcohol was forbidden, including restaurants.

We set off in a jeep Wrangler with our guide Tito, who was very knowledgeable about the Navajo coming from northerly Athabascan peoples, had visited British Columbia for a conference, and knew much about Salish and other tribes. He provided a perspective beyond the "missionary names" given to many of the formations in the valley, as he expertly maneuvered the little jeep through washes, joking about a place where someone had gotten stuck yesterday while going right through it. Alice was so grateful Tito drove because he went carefully and slowly, avoiding the jerking movements which propel motion sickenss. He told us about the Navajo names and stories in the valley, which is a sacred place for his people. With him, we were able to travel well beyond the posted limits for visitors, and we saw many beautiful and imposing places as the sun set. Tito is a first Gulf War veteran, and he provided a very different viewpoint about current events, telling us that Navajo believe the gods have given up on us, and are awaiting a next renewal of the world. He described Navajo as liking to live far apart from one another, in contrast to the ancient Pueblos of places like Chaco and modern people living in cities, where too close proximity led to many troubles. He connected this to the Navajo's long ago decision to leave the more temperate northwest and live in the more arid and less hospitable southwest. He joked that "somebody had to leave". He pointed out a large hotel being built right in the valley by middle eastern interests, expressing a good deal of cynicism and disapproval. He also pointed out a place where years ago a B-52 had crashed, filling the valley with feds and leading to a change in flight routes in that area. He seemed doubtful about the reality of native sovreignity when the US military could overrun their home, or when the elders, who are women, agreed to the hotel development. Tito told us that the most frequent visitors these days are Europeans, and other folks from around the world, but not so many US visitors. We ran into Germans from Hamburg during this tour, visitors from Asia, and heard a good bit of French spoken at Gouldings.

NB: Tito also told us the story of the "Shiprock," which was actually a leftover place from previous world destructions by the gods. A giant dragon was devouring everything and an eagle (or a person on an eagle) was able to maneuver onto the dragon's back and attack a vulnerable spot (sounds similar to the Korean film Dragon Wars, eh?).

After an excellent dinner (we ordered steak) including fry bread at Gouldings, a hotel and restaurant next to the valley operated by the Navajo, we stayed overnight in Kayenta, coming back in the morning for a second look. There, Alice found a pretty silver and stones bracelet made by a Zuni jeweler, and we bought a pot made by a local Navajo artist. The women who worked in the shop were not very busy at this time and were patient with our questions and decision making.

After lunch, again at Gouldings and seeing some of those highly embellished elder women with their embroidered clothing and squash blossom jewels, we took the road south and west through Tuba City, through the very northern part of the Hopi reservation. We stopped at a place where an Indian man showed us a number of T. Rex and hadrosaur footprints which had been discovered in the 1940's. A lot of them had been removed to museums, but enough remained to show tracks as well as an example of a very sharp toenail. Our friend Barbara had told us about this place, so we kept a sharp lookout as we approached Highway 89. The signs now are freshly painted. From there, we turned more directly west and began to see evidence of canyons carved by the Colorado River. Stopping for our first real view of the magnificent Grand Canyon at Grandview, we encountered a French-speaking tourist who for some reason was interested in photographing our Wiwaxia license plate; we have still to encounter anyone who identifies the obscure reference of that name. Seeing the canyon during the sunset shadows was truly magnificent--I (Jim) was blown away by the sheer size and extent of the formations.

The Farm, Chaco Canyon and farewell to New Mexico

dateline: Grand Canyon
Some of this is out of chronological order because we were busy living instead of writing, and the photos took a very long time to download from the camera. [Some photos are taken from my iPhone and others, the ones which took so long, are from our Sony digital camera.] We also want to thank everyone who's visiting the site and commenting or emailing us with comments. It's fun to have the connection to home.

Kaibabs not withstanding, here is the only jackalope we have seen on the trip. I guess they've moved to South America. It was situated on the corner of a large furniture and decorative arts shopping area in Santa Fe, not far from our hotel. Postcards have also been scarce (in Farmington, only Walmart carried them; sadly we didn't visit there). After another delicious breakfast at Chocolate Maven, whose staff also packed sandwiches for our supper, we left Santa Fe in caravan with Moria, Crystal and Wink to El Guique. On the way we drove through San Juan Pueblo, native land, and a very pretty town in the river washes. That afternoon Steve conveniently was working at the Seeds of Change farm and Moria showed us around. It is the most well organized and beautiful farm I have ever seen. There are no livestock, but the fruit trees were well maintained, the irrigation system organized [right], fields plowed, the greenhouses tidy and the offices/ seed area [above right] professionally managed. The farm is an old one in the Rio Grande valley and has terrific water rights. Still, it is arid farming in the high desert, and the nights are still too cold for seedlings to be outside yet. Alice found Santa Fe to be challenging because of the elevation and the hotel room stimulated allergies. So, with sunblock, hats, medicine, plenty of clothing coverage and staying in the car, caution prevailed and all was well. Moria also showed us some petroglyphs up the road from the farm, probably from Pueblo people. As in Chaco, spiral patterns were frequent. Do spirals mean water is here?

Saying goodbye with promises to converge on San Mateo in a year, we drove north to Abiquiu and turned toward Farmington at the dam (earlier picture). This, too, was beautiful juniper/pinyon forest land and we drove by the road to Chaco Canyon where we had visited on Sunday, March 23 with Sarah and Tory. We felt we had a good experience of the beautiful landscape of northern New Mexico.

We arrived back at Farmington on Wednesday night, where Sarah and Tory graciously put us up for one last night--we had another good conversation, this time with the addition of their friend Simon, born in Albuquerque, and whose Chavez family has roots in New Mexico going back hundreds of years. He still manages their historic family farm south of Albuquerque, as well as working as an industrial safety educator.

So here are some impressions of Chaco Canyon taken by Jim. The first is a view of Pueblo Bonito, the largest of the complexes in this canyon. The second is the largest kiva with Sarah and Tory on the rim to give you an idea of the monumental scale of these buildings. Finally below left is Alice's favorite, Jim's shooting through the doorways at Pueblo Bonita. A midday day visit at this time of year without cloud cover is very sunny and reminded Alice of being at UC Irvine, where she never went outside between 10am and 2pm. We had been warned about possible cold temperatures, but there was nothing remotely like that this day.

Sarah and both Torys, younger and elder, were unfailingly good humored, humorous, thoughtful and very hospitable. Here is a charming photo of the Teofanov/Larsen duo standing before their front door, designed by Sarah [photo credit from T/L archive]. It meant a lot to reconnect with them, and we hope to see them in Seattle before long.

Seeds of Change, Mrs. Bobbs's garden and Albuquerque Jim

Dateline: Grand Canyon, Friday 3/28

Our Tuesday morning in Santa Fe dawned early, but as usual we did not, to have a delicious breakfast at Chocolate Maven, a bakery/restaurant we found using TripAdvisor. During the noon hour, we met Steve at his workplace, Seeds of Change [right], where he coordinates seed growers and works on product development. He seems in his element, and showed us around, with the high point being the darkened seed room, which contained a ton of potential energy. Steve continues his quest to help feed the world's people in a healthy, delicious and sustainable way.
We then met up with Moria, Cryssy and Wink in the downtown of Pueblo Santa Fe, for lunch at Pasqual's [left]. This satisfied our desire to experience southwestern food at its source, in a town that was established five hundred years ago.
We made up a fun party in a dining room festooned with Chagallesque murals in a very Santa Fe style, chiles and other items that hung from the ceiling. Nothing extravagant, but very playful, and the food was terrific--mole negra, red and green chiles, prepared expertly and very fresh: enchiladas with even vegetarian fillings! Wink took Steve back to work, and the rest of us proceeded to Moria's client's garden, where Moria is head gardener for a large and traditional Santa Fe house and grounds owned by the charming Mrs. Bobbs [Alice and Moria right].

We learned that the house, in the genuine adobe style, was built in 1939. Thick walls, beautiful wood for the windows, doors and ceilings of boards supported by logs. Very distinctively styled, with a Steinway grand piano and many unique books written in the southwest over the past hundred years or so: Mrs. Bobbs had owned a bookstore, and responded to our deep interest in these rare volumes. [The Garden library above]. Moria was apologetic about the garden, still some ways from spring opulence, but it was beautifully laid out and filled with clever hardscape, much of it created by local artists. Some flowers such as crocuses were already blooming, and we were glad to discover the garden model railway [above] and a very large labyrinth [left]. The staff will be placing the labyrinth's tiles out soon, stored over the winter to avoid freezing. A new shipment of roses had arrived, and the three gardeners were busy with pruning and preparations. Sensitive to the very large garden's history, Moria adds her own distinctive artistic vision and practical knowledge of garden planning and execution, including xeriscape. The large property, located in the old, nearly downtown part of Santa Fe cleverly has wells and two lots in the municipal accounts so that staff can water 6 days a week instead of only three. Santa Fe, of course, has water rationing. [Fractal spiral with labyrinth at right.]
Later, we experienced Santa Fe rush hour traffic, as we navigated around an unfamiliar city with the car's usually reliable nav system, collecting a quiche, vegetables and other things for our second dinner at Steve's and Moria's, en famille with Cryssy and Wink. We saw many beautiful images of Mrs. B's gardens at different times of the year, when the various plantings are at their peaks. Dinner was a collaborative effort, with trips outside to see the river, garden, and the improvised potting shed that will someday be a more established greenhouse.

While Moria was showing Alice slides of a recent trip to Costa Rica, others were up to no useful purpose in the dining room, with much laughter of the sort that kept getting to the next (lowest) level. Beginning with a wacky plot to ride down the road to experience the toughness of dive bars in New Mexico's largest city, while anticipating our 40th high school reuinion next year, we began to riff on the building of a new legend, Albuquerque Jim. The rhythm of this phrase led to song expressing the hair-raising fearfulness of this icon of power and mystery, and the tale got to be very tall indeed, tall enough for all of us to confront our classmates of long ago without fear of embarassment. [Crystal and Wink, above, anticipate the next ridiculous plot.]

Much about the sidekick bull kaibabs, steroid fortified, and tied up with the origin story in a mysterious way. Kaibabs are a subspecies of Abert's squirrel, found only on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, for whom the Kaibab National Forest is named. These are gracile creatures with white tufted tails, but in our lexicon they took on a menacing mien. We traced the evolution of Albuquerque Jim with glee, from an invertebrate to humanoid via the intercession of the great bull kaibab and his similarly huge and fearful fellows, who pulled Jim's stagecoach. The legend will likely grow, including the amazing appearance of the now-legendary secondary sex characteristics. Crystal wondered whether Paul Bunyan got his start this way. Late into the night, we could not stop laughing. [Steve, Moria and Cryssy admit it's hopeless.]

Jicarilla Apache lands, Chama Valley and a masterpiece

We left Sarah's and Tory's house on Monday after yet another delicious breakfast including eggs. We visited Sarah's studio and saw many series not seen before, paintings and beaded sculpture, most affectingly including a series about boats. She had done both a sun boat and a moon boat, but the latter was astounding. Clearly a masterpiece! Here's a picture of the fabulous Sarah Teofanov in her kitchen.
After filling our tank at the sign of the sauropod, we drove east through Jicarilla Apache reservation lands, stopping in briefly in Dulce (duls). It's beautiful country with junipers and this time of year, snow on the north sides of hills or outcroppings, very near the Colorado border. The earth there is deep purple--a gorgeous color with the depth of yellow ochre as compliment. Then we crossed the continental divide into the beautiful Chama Valley, site for recreation and horse ranches. Further along, we passed Ghost Ranch where OKeefe worked part of the year on paintings inspired by the surrounding landscape. Here's a picture of the land from Abiquiu Dam looking north east. We ate at the Abiquiu Inn--disappointing, but everyone said we ordered the wrong things. See comments on Trip advisor.

So we pulled into Santa Fe at dusk, checked into our hotel on Cerrillos, and headed to Moria and Steve's where we found we hadn't missed an Easter ham (Beeler's no less!) because old friends Crystal and Wink had just arrived before we did. Moria also served succulent parsnips from their garden, tossed with the most delicious kumquats which C & W brought from their tree in Pasadena. What a feast! Lots of laughing and good cheer. Daughter Natasha was there on break from Mills College in Oakland, California.
Moria and Steve live in a cohousing development which began about 10 years ago. One final home is still being built. The homes have an adobe style architecture and are located near a river wash. They were amazed that WIWAXIA's navigation could find their house #9 in the complex. Of course, we were amazed at the route through the wash (not the only one), but we cheated in a way, looking for California plates knowing Crys and Wink were there. (The secret's out!). Moria shared an amazing fact: the goats they keep there are descendents from Sam Karp's original Saanen herd, from the very farm, Tetridge Dairy, where Alice lived in 1976 and where Jim, visiting the farm on break from UCLA, confused a steer with a goat ("that's the biggest goat I've ever seen"). The owner had lived in Santa Cruz and obtained them after moving to Santa Fe. There are also chickens, dogs and cats. Here's Moria in her living room with some of her paintings on the wall above her. After showing off the video of Robin's graduation speech, Moria, Alice and Tasha watched Dae Jang Geum (also known as The Jewel in the Palace), the episode about the heroine going to Un Ang Temple (I never get sick of it, and it's a very persuasive buddhist story about the importance of cooking with devotion). [More to follow about Santa Fe in the next post.]
Side note about Tetridge Dairy: named after Sam and Janie's cat, Tet, the patriarch of the (was it nine or ten or more?) cat clan at the farm, Tetridge Dairy refers to the Tet offensive which you may recall was the Vietnamese Lunar New Year strategy to go all out against the US military in 1968. Robin wrote a paper about Ursula Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest as a response to the Tet offensive. Tet was a very tough and large tabby.

Hesperus, postcard snow and vehicle names

dateline: Farmington
So we realized not everyone knows that wiwaxia is the name of our car: it has a license plate with its name, and here is Jim posing with the clean car in Sarah's and Tory's driveway. You can see how warm it is here by Jim's modeling his shirt in the sun. The car is doing well, resting here as are we for Tory's been taking us on outings in his (company) truck, a comfortable ride. On Saturday, we went back to Hesperus, north of Farmington and enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Kennebec cafe & bakery (I put a review on Trip Advisor), then went to Durango, definitely a trendy place with Disneyland character in its narrow gauge railroad. The class divide which seems to accompany the border between Colorado and New Mexico in this area is quite noticeable, even at first glance. We picked up provisions: a very delicious free range chicken, vegetables for Korean cooking Saturday night dinner, and four bottles of rum. Not just any rum, either. Jim will explain below. Now, part of the significance of Hesperus is its relationship to our Volvo's license plate, Hespera, the car currently being driven by Robin. We chose the name among several referring to the Amazons' colonies. Hesperus is also the name of the evening star. You can see the landscape, as Jane Austen would say, is meaning to have spring again. Everywhere around here is just on the verge of bursting into leaf and bloom. We left Seattle past that stage (and no, I hadn't planted my peas yet). But four corners area (of which Hesperus and Farmington are part) is filled with fields which will grow (presumably short season) beans as the soil warms and nights don't overchill. On the way back from Durango, we drove through Aztec where is located some ruins of ancient Pueblo construction (we saw one of the unexcavated mounds from the road). The entire area including Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon contains many ruins from an urban society active between 850 and perhaps as late as 1400 CE. Tory's employer maintains its offices in Aztec, and when he's not out in the field, Tory's at the office, about twelve miles from his house. His commute is about 20 minutes through a pretty residential area with cottonwoods and juniper dominating the mesas and the Animas River. Sarah and Tory have been the most generous hosts: asking for both our slide talks last night (Tory brought home a digital projector from work). Their eldest son, August, is away from home during our stay, but the younger son, also Tory, is here working on projects for his studies at the college. We saw his paintings last evening, and he has quite a painterly stroke, good sense of composition.

We have spoken with Robin, and he is flying tomorrow to Phoenix to visit Gregory Smart, longtime TOPS fellow student and church school pal who is studying at Prescott College in Arizona. We don't expect to connect up with him as it is unlikely they will go to the Grand Canyon and he will stay only until Friday; however, it is coincidental that we have friends in the southwest. It sure is another interesting coincidence that New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is in the news over his endorsement of Senator Obama. I like that he's got the beard now that he's not running for prez, making him look less fake.

Here are some photos Tory (the elder) took of the Pyrenees dog and the accompanying sheep which invaded their property recently. No shepherd available, and the sheep eating everything in sight. Forget any fencing by the Bureau of Land Management.

Jim: We found four bottles of Beachbum Berry-approved rum in Durango yesterday (Saturday), one a 151 proof Demarara from Guyana which is a famous "floater" and an essential flavoring for many genuine faux tropical drinks, and another golden rum. I dropped a bottle on several adjacent bottles of gin in one of the liquor stores--not the big Liquor World, but a smaller wine shop where we understand the proprietor is arrogant and has bad breath. Fortunately, nothing broke, but I did attract the attention of the owner's wife, who latterly kept a close eye on me. We hope to find one or two more rums in Santa Fe or Arizona, and return with a critical mass for my planned birthday Tiki party in May. This is not to mention some very fine dark Venezuelan rum of Tory's we were able to sample back at the ranch. Moab featured a western supper with a scheduled 7pm gunfight, but I felt that Durango had even more potential as a cowboy showplace, despite its superior airs.

Today, we rose (relatively) early and set out for Chaco Canyon, locale of the largest pre-Columbian edifices north of Mexico City. These have a very spiritual quality and purpose, and the various places are aligned according to solstices and also lunar cycles of substantial length. The largest, Pueblo Bonita, contains over 400 "apartments", of several stories, and is as huge as the Roman Coliseum. It is now thought that these were not dwellings, but rather gathering places, and the many petroglyphs, often spirals, as well as abstract figures, are fascinating. Numerous kivas exist now as below-ground spaces once covered, one of which I nearly fell into, to the chagrin of our hosts. We'll post some pictures soon--an incredible place, full of mystery.

Back in Farmington, we witnessed another beautiful New Mexican sunset, and after dinner, Tory got out the Celestron telescope. The moon rose late tonight, so stars were very bright and visible in the cloudless sky. We saw rings and moons of Saturn in clear detail, as well as the pleiades. I saw a shooting star across the field of the telescope, then another while gazing unassisted. We are having a great visit with Sarah and Tory, and will be off tomorrow for central New Mexico--Santa Fe and hopefully, Los Alamos, where nuclear mysteries will be revealed (or not).

Mesas and mining

dateline: Farmington
from Alice: I awoke this morning in twilight, just before the sun came over the roof of the house. The wide sky here is dominated by the greater light during the day, even when cloud covered, and the lunar lit landscape at night offers still greater view of starlight than we ever see in the wet coast sky. We came back from downtown supper with Sarah, her husband, Tory and their youngest son, Tory, to such a night sky and paused to ponder the turning of the winter constellations and the appearance of Mars. Then we walked the labyrinth, a beautiful one Tory made for Sarah from the local stones, located ingeniously near the chicken house. The chickens had gone to bed when we'd come back, but earlier (see photo) were huddled near the fence as I walked up, waiting for me. Sarah gathered nine eggs yesterday--beautiful eggs of brown and green, reflecting the different breeds. Some have gorgeous iridescent feathers and many of you will recognize their varieties. (Of course, these eggs are delicious!)
Coming from Moab, on Sarah's suggestion, we took a route after Cortez that drove through Hesperus, Redmesa and La Plata (one of the three rivers around here which form geographic reference). We plan to return to Hesperus today, and I'm glad because the route is beautiful. Folks seem to denigrate Farmington's landscape, but it is very interesting, with its own beauty, and it's understandable that ancient people settled around here because there is water from the rivers and biomass created by the juniper/pinon ecology. There is no denying the resource extraction on an industrial scale: large reservoirs of natural gas and petroleum are tapped, and the national pest, Halliburton is here (and hiring!). Of course, this also means there are dinosaur fossils around. In the Moab rock shop, I found some petrified wood beads and of course there were a variety of fossil beads as well.
Regarding biomass, Sarah works hard to create it from the local urban setting, collecting coffee grounds and compost and building her tilth. It's a subtle growth compared with her gardens in Seattle and Montclair. At this point I want to reference, for Lara, because I think I forgot to mention it, although she may know it, Barbara Kingsolver's book about eating locally. Sarah found it very inspiring, as many have at home. We toured with Sarah in the morning on her route: aluminum recycling, coffee collection, and a drive by the San Juan Community College, a lovely school with great promise. There is a technical school there, and nursing students. It is perfect for what is clearly a growing community, and I truly hope its promise includes solar energy research and training, for this area is even richer in solar and wind resources than conventional fossil based energy.
Regarding the energy consumption scene: Tory took us on a tour of the house as soon as we arrived on Thursday night, revealing the secrets both of pride and contractor irritation that those of us who hire them endure. The house's hot water comes from passive solar system and the tank is completely insulated--keeping the water very hot for a long time. There is also a beautiful covered patio, really almost an atrium, facing south, which they plan to glass in for year round use. Tory told us about the dimensions of the living/dining room matching the floor plan of the king's chamber of the great pyramid at Giza [not Tutankhamen's tomb--correction], but the contractor balked at making it as high. I sympathized about the windows issue: I like the clerestory brick windows (one of their best uses) as opposed to the conventional north view window which can leak in the winter due to relentless storms (remember my studio window and its drainage to the floor below?), but Tory says even these bricks leak. He and Sarah had wanted no windows at all. Inside, the desert plants are everywhere and Sarah promises cuttings for me to take home to experiment with. I think the plants do help increase the moisture in the house. The family has worked to cut propane use, up this winter with all the snow and cold weather. As many of you know, especially the Seattle folks, passive solar clothes drying (aka the clothes line) helps immensely, and it was a real pleasure to hang our laundry on the drying racks and line: everything dried so quickly compared to home. No time for mold or mildew!
Just listened to Barack Obama's recent speech via New York Times. This business over the United Church of Christ puzzles me because it is the church both Jim and I grew up in and it is a liberal one, if Christian. Of course its liberalism may make it a target. Also, I cannot help but comment on the arrests around the country during the antiwar protests on Wednesday: interesting so many arrested at Diane Feinstein's offices and the others at the IRS. Choosing these as strategic sites interests me. Very cool.

Jim: I commented on the views from Crouch Mesa, where we are staying. The sunrise picture above was taken from the tower we are staying in, attached to the main house by a breezeway. The house is beautiful, thoughtfully planned and executed, and we are surrounded by Sarah's art, and Sarah and Tory's art collection. We were greeted by friends and a delicious southwestern dinner of brisket and accompaniments on our arrival. Sarah and Tory's son Tory has also been very generous, sharing his droll perspective, while preparing a delicious lunch for us yesterday while we watched the Robert Redford narrated DVD about Chaco Canyon, where we are headed tomorrow.
We are learning a lot about the life, history and landscape of northern New Mexico from Sarah and Tory, augmented by Tory's humorous outlook--he is a keen observer of people and institutions, with an amicable view of human nature which however does not ignore cynicism. Sarah has been enthusiastic about showing us around town, pointing out things such as the unique highway shrines people construct to remember those killed in traffic accidents--the one we saw yesterday (Alice is attaching a picture) was thoughtful and touching.
I cannot however ignore a sovereign aspect of our drive once we entered Colorado and New Mexico, which is the amazing volume of road kill, especially skunks and deer. We keep thinking about road kill stew and wondering, "where are the Clampetts?", though we did not have to ask the question, "what would Jed do?" We are eagerly waiting for our first view of a roadrunner, hopefully chased by a coyote.

Utah Lake, Post Provo and Moab: on the trail of the outlaws

dateline: Farmington

Alice writes: Utah Lake is in real trouble. Some of you may be familiar with Chip Lord's Canaries on the Rim, referred to me by the late Jo Hansen, the San Francisco environmentalist artist. Lord lived in western Utah and became a local environmental/political activist. Lara told me about June sucker fish and how this indigenous species is endangered due to sportfish stocking and pollution. So here's a link to her friend's site and a photo of the lake.

http://junesuckernation.blogspot.com/

Lara's Aunt Bonnie's florist shop in Provo--beautiful flowers and very cool clothes, too. The house is 106 years old and in beautifully cared for condition.



In honor of our travels, here's a poem written by Christian's father, the late Thomas Asplund

LOOKING AT A UTAH ROAD MAP

It is pinched now, like any epic brought to line and page.
Pressed like flowers n a book is the land.  The stingy pines,
The dry mountains, the creeks, the desperate sage
Are marks and scratches in a map with interstates and highway signs.
One-quarter inch equals each mile of blessed Zion wide—
Of love and hate between sons and brothers; of hope and dread;
Of charity and sin, trusting time's vast capacity to hide
In ink and ledgers; waiting there for the anxious pilgrim to read
The secret signs and markings—the promises of a promised land
  Vernal, Fairview, Pleasant Grove.
  Richfield, Fruitland, Bountiful;
  Eden, Garland, Sunnyside.
And hear hidden music to soothe hurt hope
  Tooele, Payson, Kamas;
  Manti, Parowan.
There, too, the tales of will and power told by men
Who chose to mark the map
  Heber, Murray, Hyrum, Hinckley.
  Woodruff and Brigham City.
But somewhere near the edge of myths, reminders
Small of second sons and lost prayers still linger
  Sandy, Thistle and Hurricane, Sulphurdale, Salina
  Faust and Thermo.  Muddy Creek and Dirty Devil.

 --C. Thomas Asplund

Lon's (barbecue place) where Eva, Lara and Christian's eldest daughter works. So Lara had her honors seminar students over: they are writing about food; naturally they had to make some. This was one delicious potluck: Lara made tacos and guacamole; I made more Korean pancakes, but there was gnocci with cream/tomato sauce, Polish soup, asian dumplings, spring rolls, lots of labor intensive hand made food. The little boy, Moses, (he's 3) who gets up in the morning calling in the sweetest voice imaginable, "Mommy, get me out [of the crib]" had gone to bed, but I got to hang out with Lula (who's 10) and Cecily (who's 5, I think). Cecily played with polly pockets and checked me out, but Lula asked me to show her how to make folded paper cranes. She's really patient and careful--we were using tiny sheets of paper. Then they were ok with watching Korean drama. The little girls and I watched Dae Jang Geum, the historical fiction/ drama about the real woman doctor to the 15th century Korean king.

I chose the part of the story when Suh Jang Geum is a girl, just goes into the palace to go to school and learns to cook and how she gets in trouble, sometimes with the other girls. Lula and Cecily were right there with me on it, though I did read the subtitles to them. Lula was in Seattle as a small child and I remember clearly what a happy kid she was, so cheerful about doing anything her much older sisters were doing.

We left Wednesday morning, hoping to evade a snow storm coming to Provo and drove through Soldier pass to get to Moab. This is clearly a railroad route (see picture), and once past the summit, Alice felt so much better--must have been getting away from the pollen. This still continues and it's a great feeling. In Moab we had a terrific meal (see odaraia's review of the Desert Bistro on Trip Advisor) of antelope, elk tamale and mushroom risotto, and I picked up a book I'd long been interested in, Paul Shepard's Coming Home to the Pleistocene. There is a lot of red rock around Moab, and I hope what I collected can be ground into pigment--it's a beautiful color (hence, colorado) if not transparent.

Jim: On Tuesday night, Christian and I cruised Provo, riding high up the mountainside to a popular outlook with the whole Utah Valley below us--a beautiful night view to complement that of our morning hike. Then, down to the valley below for ribs and brisket at Lon's and watching Eva at work. Always good conversation with Christian, on music, history, much else--he is a friend I have missed a lot since he moved from Seattle. It was good to make friends with the younger children, too, and to spend time with Lara.
On Wednesday, we took the back road over the Wasatch Mountains through Price, a favorite route of outlaws, on down to Moab, where Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch had a Robbers' Roost hideout. The striking landscape, along with knowing that uranium was heavily mined in this area after WWII, brought to mind the 1950's-era sci-fi movies with radioactive creatures growing to monstrous size crawling over ridges and mesas to terrorize the populace, which I had watched with such penetrating interest.

Moab was jammed with jeepers, come for the annual off-road booster extravaganza. A grand sight of the American West, though kind of duded up. We saw at least one amazingly large arch in the red rock, and passed through legendary canyonlands into Colorado, where an Officer Davis gave Alice a "courtesy warning" for exceeding the speed limit. It is now a keepsake from the trip. We had a brief look at Mesa Verde National Park, but pushed on, turning south just shy of Durango.
The afternoon skylines in New Mexico reminded me of DH Lawrence's time here, with very long vistas and pastels. We found our way to Sarah and Tory's beautiful home atop a mesa, with views in every direction, including Angel Peak and Ship Rock--clearly visible from 20 miles away. Even with the full moon rising at sunset, stars were all over. In overcast and lit up Seattle, we neglect the heavens. This is Indian Country, and we look forward to exploring.
After a delicious meal of brisket which had marinated for two days, it was so to bed, with the certainty that we are closer than ever before to a free-range tarantula.

Provocations

Jim: After circling around Temple Square in Salt Lake City, seeing the monumental original temple and the Tabernacle, where last trip here we saw and heard the famous and very accomplished MT Choir, we ran down the road 50 miles to Provo. Yesterday, our friend Christian took me on to the campus here, where we saw his office and the art musem, and also some of the oldest buildings, which were beautiful. I learned more about the history that pertains to my father's ancestors, and saw the present-day approach here to preserving history. It appears that while a part of the historic buildings and other tangible relics is preserved, they are often gutted and then rebuilt in a manner that seems to me to be over-cleaned up and revisionist, despite a reverence and respect for the history here since 1847.

The small Pioneer Museum in a Provo city park, which we saw during our last visit, keeps history in a more tangible and unfiltered way, with numerous objects and exhibits which are unrestored, including handwritten personal testaments from the 19th century which I found fascinating. There are examples of the pushcarts that my forebears and many other emigrants used to cross the prairies and mountains when they lacked draft animals. This was history close up and very personal, and evoked those earlier days not only in the strongest possible terms, but in a way that for me drew a much more palpable and realistic connection between past and present.

Today, Christian and I hiked a little way into the steep Wasatch mountains which are on the east side of town, and dominate the landscape. We overlooked the Utah Valley, especially the large and environmentally challenged Utah Lake (not the salt one), and the mountains to the west. Clear at first, it then started to snow. We are hoping to explore the lakeshore later today. One trail we walked on extends along the mountainsides for many miles, all the way to Salt Lake city and also to the south.

On campus, I saw a photographic exhibit of a dismantled WWII era steel mill, Geneva Steel, on the shore of Utah Lake. This was built by the US government in 1942 to provide steel for west coast shipyards, while being protected from air attack, and operated until a few years ago. This reminded me that in Idaho two days ago, we passed Minidoka, the concentration camp for the most suspect Japanese Americans during that time. Sheds some light for me on the current paranoid fears being constantly fanned about terrorism and "Islamic extremism", and the proximate danger that Bush and his people constantly raise in order to promote their repression and worldwide torture and lawlessness.

Falls, buffalo on the walls and big sky

dateline Provo

Sunshine streams into the east facing workroom of Lara and Christian’s home here. There is a long library table and family members do computer work and other projects here: Lara’s poetry applications, one child’s bead stringing, someone’s Apple laptop. Provo is situated right next to the mountains and you can see them from this window, only one other housing ridge between us. We are uphill from BYU where Christian is at work teaching music. Lara has taken all the children to school and is on spring break from her teaching duties at UofU. The house, Lara says 3000 square feet, is big on communal space but short on private space, hence the large workroom (former dining room). It is so beautiful here. We just arrived last night, spent time talking late into the night.

Lara and Alice went grocery shopping, visiting on the way, Lara's Aunt Bonnie's flower and gift shop, Flower Basket Boutique. It's in a beautiful house originally built in 1902. Then we went to Chao's to buy Asian veggies and groceries for Alice to cook Korean inspired food. We picked up organic eggses from Clifford Family farm [left] (multi colored as are the hens) and then went to a large warehouse grocery [below] with storage mentality amped up with the rise in food prices. Lara said the LDS church is closing down a number of its fields to grow surplus, presumably looking to get out of the business of social network safety net as quickly as the US federal government. However, anxious individuals can gather their own year's supply at this grocery where we bought enough supplies for tonight and tomorrow.

For dinner, Alice cooks brown rice pancake with mung bean sprouts and green oninon; pork in grape juice with garlic; portabello mushrooms; tofu with ginger, green onions and tamari and spinach with sesame dressing. Lara made apple crisp, and we had dinner with the family, including Eva (Lara and Christian's eldest daughter now awaiting college admissions results) who arrived after work and Bonnie who arrived after belly dancing class. Lara's brother David and his daughters joined us for dessert after their day on the slopes at Sundance.

Driving through eastern Washington and Idaho, we’ve noticed the emphasis on power generation, whether wind turbines or electricity generating dams on the rivers: these engines dominate the landscape even more than grain storage for livestock. It’s exciting to see the turbines, but there was not much wind while we were passing through.

We stopped in Twin Falls and saw the canyon of the Snake River.
Lake Bonneville, the bigger ancestor of Salt Lake, flooded this area about 15,000 years ago. Twin Falls, so named because of the pair of cataracts that once poured over these rocks was formed by that flood.
Shoshone (show-shown) Falls is the more beautiful part of the access.
In 1935 Idaho Power began construction on the original dams and power plant at the Twin Falls. A second dam, the arch dam is 780 feel long. It was built in 1975 along with the non-overflow dam and powerhouse.
Had a terrific lunch at the Buffalo Cafe (see Alice's comment on Google maps). The landscape offered vistas, cattle with their calves and snow draped mountains as we sped towards Utah. Traffic was very light until we neared Ogden: then massive construction projects to widen (presumably) interstate 15 and 84 confluence.

On the road and away

dateline, Boise Idaho
Hi to all our friends and family,

Jim is trying to accomplish temperal/spacial reconciliation because we seem to have lost two hours in two weeks--first because we had daylight savings time and now because we're on mountain time.

We finally got on the road after finishing up our work and had supper with Robin in Olympia at Vic's Pizza. Vic's is earlier in the space/time continuum: Jim remarked that he felt he had gone back in time 25 years: vegetarian pizzas with whole wheat flour, wir sind studenten, etc. Alice doesn't like pizza, but Robin's favorite, spinach and tomato, which also had cheese was ok. Robin took all the tomatoes off his before eating. Vic's is ok. Robin is ok, too, and told us his new joke.
We stayed last night in Hood River and awoke to the Columbia River at breakfast, sunny and warm. [photo from Hood River looking east.]
Driving along the river, we watched the weather change to rain showers. Wind turbines appeared in southern Washington. We stopped in Pendleton (the Woollen Mill) to look for a blanket designed by Lillian Pitt, but they don't keep everything in stock all the time. We will check again on the way back.
Between Pendleton and La Grande, Oregon are the Blue Mountains. We ran into snow there, quite a lot, sticking to the road. In Baker City, residents told us we were past the worst part. Now we're in Boise. There are no laws here. Thank goodness we have chicken tortelloni and broccoli from home.

Jim: The Columbia gorge was impressive--sights similar to photos of 19th century fish weirs in the same locations, and Big River, listening to Leontyne Price in Porgy and Bess. Smooth riding until we left Pendleton, then ran into a quasi-blizzard in the Blue Mountains. This made us gunshy about further mountains coming up, so we rocketed straight through La Grange and Baker City, riders of the storm, and stopped only for gas at the sign of the sauropod, with nary a nod to the famous Haines Steakhouse (catch you on the way back?), or the restaurant with the model train going round the dining room. Once we made it over the last high pass, it was smooth again all the way across the Snake River to Idaho. We backtracked a short distance to Ontario, OR to grab a quick supper, then into the Land of Larry Craig
where speed limits hardly exist, all the way to Boise.