Three weeks in the West,parts nine and ten

Yes, so here we go.

On June 3, we packed up the tent and drove to Santa Fe. I used to live a little bit further south of the city, in Cerrillos, in 1999. I hadn't been back to visit since 2000, so this was a part of our trip that I'd looked forward to quite a bit.

The first stop: Cafe Oasis, an eclectic, outrageouesly and wonderfully decorated, veggie/vegan restaurant that... oh, it's closed. The tile-and-glass mosaic walkway is gone. It's an antique store. Never mind.

Next stop, then: the plaza, with its abundance of high-end home decor, jewelry, art, and bric-a-brac boutiques. Racks full of ristras, ponchos and Western wear. A gallery and a figure of Kokopelli every 20 feet. The monument to Kit Carson and the soldiers who fought against the Indians (with the modifier "savage" chiseled off, finally).

We managed to find something light and inexpensive to eat. At that point, the only thing that I wanted to show my Lady Friend was the long row of Native artisans who sell jewelry, pottery and handcrafts in front of the Palace of the Governors. She commented on the apparent segregation between the Natives, sitting on the sidewalk with their wares on blankets, and the Caucasian vendors with covered tables and upright displays. The first thought I had was "Well, the Native people get to sell without permits."

Which is something like the truth. The Native American Artisans Program, which is overseen by the Museum of New Mexico, reserves the portal to the Palace for the exclusive use of Native artisans of all the regional tribes. There are several thousand artisans enrolled in the program, which has been in place for more than 80 years.

We bought a couple of items and then moved on to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, which had recently opened an exhibition of her abstract work, along with a series of documentary photographs of her life in New Mexico. It's always astounding to see O'Keeffe's paintings up close. First off, they're huge. Second, the subtlety and saturation of the colors, the blended forms, the texture. Third is the fact that you can see work of hers that seems (to me) not to have been reproduced anywhere else. The only drawback is that there's only one level to explore.

After O'Keeffe, we left town, but not before visiting my beloved Baja Tacos on Cerrillos Road. Tofu tacos and burritos, oh my. Sated and happy, we drove along the Turquoise Trail to the village of Cerrillos, where we stopped again so that I could pick up some stones and see my old place, and then we finally got on our way to Albuquerque and points south.

We spent the night in the Cibola National Forest, then set off toward the Very Large Array. The VLA receives and analyzes radio waves from celestial objects with 27 enormous antenna dishes on an open plain west of Socorro. Perhaps you'll recall the facility from the film "Contact." Geek that I am, this was my third visit to the observatory. I'd hoped to buy a new souvenir T-shirt, but unfortunately, the new designs weren't that appealing.

Our last stop in New Mexico was Pie Town (where, yes, pies are the attraction). Another friend from Seattle had been there a couple of months ago. She sent me a postcard from Pie-O-Neer Cafe that was signed by the owner. I had hoped to stop in, pick up a card to send to Seatown, and get a tasty treat myself. But, alas, they were closed. Literally, there was a "gone fishin'" sign on the front door. So we went to Pie Town's other pie place and then pushed on toward Arizona.



















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Photos from day eight are here.

Go forward to days 11 and 12.