Amarillo, TX, 10-25

We drove through Amarillo on our way to Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

Amarillo Public Library

The American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Amarillo.  Painted horses, reminiscent of Chicago's cows, are located throughout the city.

Our cabin on the floor of the canyon is on the left; our nearest neighbor, on the right.  Like the roads leading into and through the canyon, the cabins were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Inside our cabin we found two flies...

Approximately 120 miles long, 20 miles wide and 1,000 feet deep, Palo Duro is the second largest canyon in the US.  It was formed less than 1 million years ago when a fork of the Red River began carving through this high plain.  We hiked land trod by dinosaurs.

We hiked a path...

...that led to the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River.

Flora and fauna of Palo Duro.

Rock formations dating back 250 million years.

Springfield, MO, 10-27

Tomorrow we travel to St. Louis to visit John and Cassandra, Jim's brother and his wife, for a couple of days and then on the 30th we return home.  We will complete our blog entries then.  ttyl

Albuquerque, NM, 10-24

The 24th was a travel day, so we don't have many photos.  Instead, we have a quiz and some safety tips for you. 

The Quiz:  Name these buildings in Albuquerque, NM.  (Hint: Breaking Bad fans have an advantage.)  Answers follow safe travel tips.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Tips for safe travel:

Answers to Quiz:

1.  Walter and Skyler's house
2.  Jesse's house
3.  Los Pollos Hermanos
4.  Not Hank and Marie's house

Sante Fe, NM, 10-23

We took a day trip north to Santa Fe, where we saw gallery art...

...and the mission church of San Miguel, the oldest church still in use in the United States, built by the Tlaxcalan Indians of Mexico in 1610 over an ancient Indian dwelling.  Indians who died during construction were honored by burial within the church walls.

An 800 lb. bronze bell, cast in Spain in 1356, which once hung in the bell tower.  The metal charms fastened to the bell support are called milagros, usually kept as personal amulets and often left in churches or shrines to solicit help with a problem or as a token of gratitude for an answered prayer. 

A carved wooden beam added in 1710 to help support the choir loft.

An adobe brick similar to ones used in the church's construction.

We had lunch at this café in the courtyard of a 300-year old fortified hacienda.

Outside the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.

Santeros (saint makers) paint or carve images of saints.  In the 1700’s, the tradition of the santero began to emerge in the small villages of northern New Mexico. Trained by their fathers or other elders, santeros were expected to be exemplary citizens with a deep commitment to their faith.  The sacred images they created, like the Byzantine icon and ancient Egyptian images, were believed to carry the divine power of the saint or figure portrayed.

 We visited the Santa Fe Palace of the Governors where we viewed Spanish colonial art, including this scene from one of the Segesser hide paintings, done in the early 1700s.  In this painting, the Spanish Villasur expedition members and their native Pueblo allies are defending themselves against an attack by the French and Pawnee. 

We toured the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum where one gallery was devoted to photos of O'Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz.  (They did not allow cameras in galleries displaying her paintings.)

 

 Random scenes of Santa Fe.

 

Anne and Jim in Burro Alley.

This is the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library, the institutional successor of New Mexico's oldest library (1851).  It is a research library, open to the public, that preserves historical materials and is part of the Palace of the Governors. 

Across the street is the Santa Fe Public Library.

Contemporary stone carvers.