Packed up and ready for our long haul back to Texas, we left early morning, driving all day, stopping at Wal-Mart for the night, then continuing on to Santa Fe to have Ribbit checked out before our journey back to Texas.

We arrived in Santa Fe and put down jacks at a small, somewhat expensive, mostly permanent resident housing RV park, Trailer Ranch RV Resort.  It would be a stretch to call this a Resort. Located very close to town and on the bus line, location is the reason one would stay here, along with cable and great WiFi available all day and night.

First morning was spent on housekeeping and the afternoon, a trip to town to view the Georgia O’Keef Gallery, first on John’s go-see list for the portrayal of Lake George, where he spent his childhood summers in upstate New York.   His comment, “she sure saw my old summer stomping grounds differently than I did.”

Window shop stop at Jackalope Mercado to admire the lively colored wares,

Glass blowing studio,

And lunch at Triple DDD’s Tune Up Café for delicious grilled salmon fish taco’s.

My enchantment with Churches was satisfied with a reverent pause in Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and Loretto Chapel in the old city section of Santa Fe.

As with most 100 year old religious relics, there is a story tied to the Loretto Chapel.  The one most popular is the Miraculous Staircase.  Legend has it that the nuns who lived on the property and used the chapel, wanted a staircase to the upper choir loft as there was none originally built when it was completed in 1881.  Carpenters claimed that one could not be built that allowed the current seating and space to remain in the back of the chapel.  The nuns prayed for 9 days and from seemingly nowhere, a carpenter arrived telling the nuns he could do the job.  No time limit was established and the exact time it took is not known.  The wood that was used was not local and no one knows how it arrived.  The staircase was built without a center pole or side support and was without hand rails.  It stood as built for years until wood hand rails were attached in the early 1900’s for support ascending and descending the steep staircase.  Many of the nuns were crawling on hands and knees up and down for fear of falling.  The legend hints to the carpenter being St. Joseph as no one knew the man and he disappeared after the job, never to be found and never appeared to collect his fee.

The story I like is the one told by the manager who was replacing votive candles in the chapel when we were listening to the staircase legend.  I asked her how the chapel came to be privately owned and this is what she told me.

In 1968 Loreto Academy, a school for women that sat behind the chapel and on Catholic Dioceses property, closed and the nuns had no funds for upkeep of Our Lady of Light Chapel.  When the chapel and the nunnery fell into disrepair and was condemned by the city, they asked the Catholic Dioceses if they wanted to pay for its repair and upkeep.  They answer came back “no”.  The city put the city block, including all 10 church buildings, up for public auction and a couple from Oklahoma bought the block sight unseen to build a hotel.  When the couple came to check out their purchase, the wife saw the chapel and refused to tear it down.  She offered the chapel, and the grounds where it stood, back to the Dioceses, at no cost, if they would do the repairs but the Dioceses again refused.  The couple then contacted their entire family for funds to repair the chapel and after the hotel was built, put the chapel into a trust so that it will never be sold or allowed to deteriorate, funded by the hotel and the small $3.00 charge per person that is now collected for entrance.

The largest church in Santa Fe, Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, was built in 1886 by Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy.  In unexpected contrast to the surrounding adobe structures, Saint Francis Cathedral was designed in the Romanesque Revival style.

The story here is literally in the huge metal door.   An older church on the same site, built in 1626, was destroyed in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.   The door, created in 1986 during the restoration, has ten bronze panels that depict the events in the history of the church. I waited to get a shot of the door but hordes of people entered and exited and my determination waned.

The other interesting tidbit revolves around the statue of Kateri Tekakwitha (1656 – 1680) a portrayal of Saint Kateri, the first North Native American (Algonquian-Mohawk) to be beatified (blessed).  When Estella Loretto, a Pueblo Native American, completed the statue in 2002, she clothed Kateri in the local Pueblo garb instead of the attire she would have worn, her native dress of animal skin beaded clothing.  I inquired about the reasoning but the only answer given was that it was to be appealing to the local Pueblo Native Americans.  In my opinion, a odd thing to do in 2002.

Rich history, Roman style art and the reverence of quiet thought envelopes you while sitting inside enjoying the detail and precision of each area of the church.  The pillars are simple yet exquisite.  The lovely baptism pool is large enough to reflect images from the walls.  We were lucky enough to step in for a listen to guides inside and outside of the church, informing and enlightening, then having the freedom to wander through to enjoy the artistic aspects.

The town of Santa Fe is quiet and speckled with turquoise, silver, brilliantly polished fossils and rounded beige buildings.  I love the simple comforting style of these building and even businesses take on the same shapes and colors making the town monotone as you wander around discovering.  The streets are narrow and because of the style of buildings, neighborhoods take on the appearance of some of the small Mexican towns we have visited.

Ribbit is in the shop having necessary tweaks so we rented an SUV and drove over the Turquoise Trail to the small towns of Cerrillos and Madrid.

Cerrillos is one of the oldest and most noted of the Old Spanish Mineral Developments in the Southwest.  Turquoise mined here found its way to the crown jewels of Spain.  Now a sleepy ghost of its former self, dusty dirt roads wander through the picturesque reminder of the Old West.  The towns current charm lies in the small church and

An eclectic gift/mineral/petting zoo run by a robust lady and her husband.  They seem determine to preserve and promote the town while still squeezing a living out of the area.  In spite of the location, way off the main road in a large adobe and wood building on an oversized lot that overlooks the old mineral mining area, there were several cars parked in the lot.

There are rickety wood and adobe buildings still standing on what must have been town center when the town was full of miners who extracted gold, silver, lead, zinc and turquoise from its gigantic red mounds of earth and rock back in the 1880’s.  The visitor center for the Cerrillos Hills State Park looks to be the newest building in town but it was closed during our visit.

The town of Madrid was down the road a bit further.  In 2006, John Travolta filmed Wild Hogs and the built-for-the-movie restaurant, Maggie’s, still stands.

Only one street long, but lined with dozens of interesting little shops filled with unique items.  It is deteriorating in checkerboard fashion, one building being restored, next door falling to ruins.

After wandering through many, we found an American Indian weaving shop and I talked myself into a small but intricate Zapotec Indian wool runner that has an honored position at the foot of our fridge.   Almost everything, including Maggie’s, closed early so we walked back down the block and began our drive back to Santa Fe.

Madrid was known for having the first lighted baseball field west of the Mississippi and their Christmas lights were legendary.  It is said that Walt Disney was so impressed by the spectacular Christmas light displays in Madrid that he modeled the idea of Disneyland’s Main Street after this small town.  So impressive were the lights that Pan American Airlines would reroute aircraft over Madrid at Christmastime.

Back to Santa Fe to explore before nightfall.  Canyon Road is Santa Fe’s art scene.  The street is saturated with expressive artistic talent in every form, genres, media and style.  Kinetic, jewelry, painting, sculpture, drawing, fabric, all abound.   Art appreciation need not be a prerequisite to enjoy the dramatic art forms that are housed along Canyon Road.

Departure morning and Ribbit arrived by 9am, purportedly fixed, so we hooked up and were Texas bound.   Next stop, Palo Duro Canyon.    Miles and miles of horizontal desolate earth dotted with scrub brush, the nothingness typical of Texas flat lands, about sums up our first leg back to Texas.

The only way I could appreciate this flat treeless land is if I owned a few thousand acres.  Passed the Stockyards with its lingering odor of wet cow, straw and cow patties smooshed into mud.  Not pleasant.  Stuckey’s signs along the freeway are a reminder of days gone by.  The restaurant chain linked parents of baby boomer travelers to clean restrooms, food and phones.  Seems strange that there is still a market for this diner from the 50’s that appears infrequently along less traveled byways.

Horizons of red rocks, then nothingness takes over again for another 150 miles.  The sound of Blue Collar Radio is a life saver when traveling through sparse and boring scenery.  Twice, listening to a commercial, I had to stop and think, “is it real or is it Saturday Night Live?  The ad claimed their product let you keep your wits and boost your tolerance for liquor, allowing you to drink more and improve the health of your mind and liver.   Yea, right.  At least it provides a laughable break in the monotony of a time-consuming drive.  Sometimes it is the destination, and not the journey.