Day 8 -- Bayfield, Colorado to Santa Fe, New Mexico (almost) -- 180 miles

Today didn't turn out anything like we envisioned. We had planned on going to Durango to walk the vintage streets of Old Town, but when we got up this morning it looked so much like rain that we decided to cancel those plans and just hit the road in the direction of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The TV News weatherman also helped in the decision as he enthusiastically proclaimed, as I was setting up the coffeemaker, that Colorado was getting set to receive a mega storm that promised to dump from 12" to 48" of snow in the mountains west of Denver and the rest of the state would at least get copious amounts of rain. The graphic on the TV screen showed this massive circular storm pattern that stretched from northern Colorado to Southern New Mexico. "That does it," I told Concetta, "we're heading south for awhile."

So most of the day the weather drifted between gray and overcast, to lightly raining. We stopped at a U.S Forest Service picnic area for lunch, otherwise we rolled along through the mountains of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico and listened to our latest murder mystery. We didn't stop to shoot photos since the light was so poor.

This afternoon we stopped at a Good Sam RV park about a dozen miles north of Santa Fe and grabbed a spot for the night. The park didn't have much to brag about in that the spaces were bare bones and not very level, but the manager was a happy and helpful guy and I can't really complain about anything. It was raining as we pulled in, but by the time I had changed into my "mud shoes" and had gotten my rain jacket on the rain stopped and stayed that way the rest of my setup time.

Once we were set up we decided to take a walk since we'd been cooped up in the rig all day long. Right across the freeway from the RV park was a Native American art gallery that we could see from our camp. The gallery quickly became our destination and we set out hoping that the rain would hold off until we got there.

The sun slipped in and out of the overcast skies and thankfully it happened to be out when we approached the gallery and I was able to grab a few shots of the building. Once inside the front door we were informed that they were getting set for a showing of one of their featured artists in 30 minutes and we were welcome to tour the gallery and then remain for the open house, food, and drink.

Concetta and I toured all the gallery rooms and then entered the architectural manifestation of a Pueblo Native American's world view. In the creation tales of Pueblo Native Americans their ancestors began their journey underground in what they call their "winter room." They lived in caves that kept them warm and the tradition of story-telling began at this stage. In the spring of their ancient lives they built pit houses and they begin to explore the outside world. In the summer of their ancient lives they had moved completely above ground. They tended crops, they built water systems, and they made pottery. Their lives were ruled by hard work and by survival based on the passage of the seasons. Then, finally, in the autumn of their ancient lives the Native American Pueblo peoples gather the bounty of their hard work as winter approaches. But also in the autumn of their ancient lives the Spanish Friars arrive and try to make them forget their ancient ways. Conflict and death result and the native peoples spend many lifetimes away from their roots.

In the art gallery you could enter a dark tunnel symbolizing the Native peoples' days of life underground. Then, as you moved beyond that underground stage, you moved into the pit house state and then into the agricultural state. You ended up in the Spanish conquest room and then the modern influences room where you saw a child clutching a cell phone, a TV remote, and sat glued to a mindless TV show. Concetta and I were certainly impressed at the lengths to which this tribe, known as the Peoh tribe, had gone to tell their story. It was incredible and magnificent and extremely well done.

After we wandered the interior of the gallery we went outside and began a tour of the gallery grounds. We found that each and every building on the property was devoted to some form of artistry. There was a wood shop, a pottery studio, a sculpture studio, and a brick-making area where students learned to make adobe bricks. We got to poke our heads into the wood shop since it was unlocked, but all the rest were not open for visitors, which was unfortunate.

To me the high point of our tour around the grounds was the discovery of a huge chunk of Limestone over near the mud brick production area. This was obviously limestone because we found an actual fossil shell embedded in the stone. It was a sort of gray color in some places and cream-colored in others. It didn't look anything like the chunk of rock I collected several days ago that I thought was limestone. Guess that settles the controversy, well, except I'm not giving up until I show my piece to a knowledgeable rock guy. It's just stubbornness on my part.

I mentioned earlier that we had stopped for lunch at a Forest Service picnic area. What I didn't tell you was that the picnic area had been placed at that specific location because of a natural phenomena that existed there, a concave amphitheater at least twenty stories tall, made out of the most colorful of sandstone. I almost didn't take my camera when we went to explore since the light was so poor. Once lunch was done we decided to get as many steps in as possible so we set off to explore the trail up to the amphitheater.

When we had climbed the path and concrete steps up to the gigantic natural "bowl" that had been formed by the sloughing off of the colorful sandstone, Concetta asked me to sing something so we could hear our echo. For some reason I chose the theme song from the TV show of the 1960s, "The Happy Wanderers:"

I love to go a-wandering, Along the mountain track, And as I go, I love to sing, My knapsack on my back.

Chorus: Val-deri,Val-dera, Val-deri, Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha Val-deri,Val-dera. My knapsack on my back.

The echo from the sandstone cliffs boomed back at me as I sang that long-ago theme song.

I really relate to this song and to that TV show from fifty some odd years ago. The Happy Wanderers TV show, which detailed the exploratory adventures of one Slim and Henrietta Barnard, featured the twosome headed out each week on some adventure in the southern California and southwest desert areas. The show was sponsored by local area Ford dealers and each week fans of the show could go down to their local Ford dealer and get a copy of that week's road map detailing the Happy Wanderer's adventures.

So why is this a big deal? Well, you may have noticed that our web site has the same name as the show. The reason is that when I was only a youngster the travel bug had already begun to grow in me. My parents' southwestern vacations in the early 1960s awoke that urge. Then, when I watched Slim and Henrietta having so much fun as they toured all the nooks and crannies of the desert southwest near Los Angeles, I determined that someday, someway, that life would be mine, too. Though I was too young to drive at the time, I prevailed on my mother to drive me to the local Ford dealer each and every week so that I could collect the travel maps. Indeed I have those maps to this day.

But that's not the end of the story. When our Happy Wanderers travel blog appeared a few years back I was contacted by a gentleman who wanted to know just why I had chosen that name. When I told him he confessed that HE was the son of Slim and Henrietta and was impressed that I had been a fan of his parents' show. He went on to send me more copies of the maps from their weekly show as well as some Happy Wanderers bumper stickers. How cool is that? I never heard from the son again and I suspect that he was very elderly at the time. But that bit of history still counts as one of the high points of my life.

Tomorrow we hope to visit historic Santa Fe and especially its historic central plaza. We'd also like to visit Taos which lies just to the north of Santa Fe. We're not sure how long we'll be here, where we'll end up staying, or just what direction we'll head when we leave. We'll leave that to serendipity. We wish you Happy Traveling and best wishes from the Happy Wanderers of yesterday and today.