Nestled in the Frijoles Canyon within the Jemez Mountains, about an hour’s ride northwest of Santa Fe, this historical site likely housed and fed humans 11,000 years ago. But about 2,000 years ago, the Ancestral Pueblo People (earlier identified as Anasazi) took up a more permanent residence in the canyon and the volcanic tuff cliffs.
The New Mexico Colors of the Fall Equinox
Gilda loves the high country. No problem for that Eurovan! We wanted to stop and get some of the top of the mountain photos from the roadside, but eh, it’s just a bit too curvy to pull over for those photos
A Heavenly Hike in Diablo Canyon
Gilda was let out of the barn today. Her tires were ready to roll toward the Rio Grande outside of Santa Fe in pure Eurovan style. Spring is official in northern New Mexico: Sunny warm 55 degree days interrupted by snow, sleet, rain and wind — at any given time of the day. So when […]
Where Old West Funk Wed Bohemian Style and Stayed
Wandering about Madrid you’ll find shops that supply medicinal herbs, pottery, handcrafted jewelry, reiki practitioners, and tarot readings. It’s reported that Hollywood celebs occasionally meander about the town, like Drew Barrymore who purchased boots at one of Madrid’s boutiques. (I’m sure that was the talk of the town for months!) Fear not, however, that Madrid will be the next Rodeo Drive as it’s the kind of town where old west funk married bohemian style and stayed.
Snow Paints O’Keefe’s “The White Place”
After a January visit to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, it became essential to my mental well-being that we load up Gilda, the EuroVan, and head north to Plaza Blanca, or The White Place as Ms. O’Keeffe referred to the locale in the Abiquiu, NM region. Plaza Blanca was one of the subjects […]
A Visit to Georgia O’Keeffe Land–Abiquiu, NM
You could safely say that I, not Gilda our EuroVan, has been lodged at the mechanic’s garage (AKA hospital) a bit too often recently. The good news is that my chief mechanic suggested a surgery to end this constant visit to the human repair garage—and I THINK IT WORKED. For today, after months of hibernation […]
Crusin’ Into Carrizo
About two hours from Gilda’s (our 1997 Eurovan) driveway, is a locale that has a history of spectacular color—and we’ve missed every one of those highly publicized wildflower super blooms. But today was the day when Gilda rolled into 50 shades of yellow, interspersed with magenta, blue, purple, and white — much as if the […]
A Day Trip to the California Super Bloom
My obsession was to find Baby Blue Eyes–a gentle blue wildflower that this California girls has never met in person. The local paper said they were in bloom–so Oly had a full battery installed and three of my four lenses were cleaned and ready to shoot.
Columbia: A Piece of Sweet & Bitter California History
I’m an off-season, weekday traveler, and this visit to Columbia, a state historic park, was void of tourists, but somewhat busy with school field trips. Not every shop was open, but the doors to saloons and eateries and other tourist-friendly businesses were unlocked and welcoming.
Gilda Rolls into California’s Gold Country
How flakes and nuggets of gold found in the South Fork of the American River forever changed California and its people, fascinates me. Several books of history, written by and from the Native American point of view, has educated me beyond what I was taught in mid-20th century state board of education-approved history books. Those books made mild mention of the native peoples, while devoting chapters to the amazing men of the 1849 California gold rush.
The EuroVan Chronicles 