FIGHTING THE ELEMENTS IN NEW MEXICO

Our plan was to be in our next campsite early enough to explore Santa Fe some, but fate dealt us another dustbowl day.  We were also peppered with minor vehicle issues, causing a lot of delays. I had scraped the underside of the car on the dusty road where we stayed, so had a flopping underside! We stopped in Socorro, a very sweet little town on the Rio Grande, and I crawled under to duck tape temporarily, while Michael was in the store. So many people saw me and stopped!!  I forget “normal” 65 year old women don’t do things like that.........and we are in mano y mano country. But hey, it just took a minute, and it needed a woman’s touch for the tape to stick!

Back on the road again, and we were soon stopped on the main freeway for over and hour for the most bazaar DOT debacle we had ever seen. On a holiday weekend, they shut down the freeway completely, with no warning and chance to divert. The windy, hot, waiting and inching along reminded me of what it must have felt like to the travelers escaping the intolerable circumstances they faced in the dust bowl.

Once we escaped captivity we just wanted to get out of the dust and smoke as fast as possible.  Fires in Arizona and elsewhere also brought heavy smoke riding on the gusting 30-50 mile an hour wind. So we drove north and did not even stop for a Santa Fe break. On to Abiquiu Lake in the area where Georgia Okeefe roamed and painted.

SMOKEY SUNSET

MORNING AT ABIQUIU LAKE

I was disappointed in the air quality that evening, but in the morning we were granted a reprieve and I could see the beautiful cliffs and put myself in her shoes for a little while.

RIO GRAND THROUGH ABIQUIU, NM

 I have been a Georgia fan all my life and loved seeing her terrain in person for the first time. I can completely relate to her love of this country, and I am re-inspired to study her life and works. I spent some time reading about her life here and bought a small print, "MY BACK YARD".

GEORGIA OKEEFE'S BACKYARD