Newsletter 14
So with everything organised to sell our RV, and a car
to take us to Los Angeles, we headed west.
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| Goodbye "Connie" Check her out on PPLmotorhomes.com |
A quick visit to Bev and Ross in San
Antonio
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| Bev & Ross in San Antonio |
and then across the dessert through the oil drilling areas to Wink. And
what might you say, would make us go to this very small town of Wink, (off the
main tourist route in very western Texas?) Why?..... The Roy Orbison Museum of
course!
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| Roy Orbison Museum, Wink Texas |
He was not born here but his family came when he was young and his
father worked in the oil business. So he did his schooling here, formed his
first band and decided he was not going to go into the oil business and get his
hands hurt. The rest is history.
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| The glasses that Garry is wearing are the ones that Roy wore at his last concert. Barbara Orbison donated them to the museum. |
The museum is small and could do with a big
injection of funds but it has lots of memorabilia and character.
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| The Big O - memorabilia |
Roswell is over the border in New Mexico. In July 1947,
something happened northwest of Roswell, during a thunderstorm. Was it a flying
saucer? Was it a weather balloon?
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| International UFO Museum, Roswell |
Mack Brazel, who’d been out checking on his sheep the
next morning noticed a wide area with debris scattered across it. He showed
neighbours, who suggested it might be part of a UFO as there had been recent
sightings, and he should show the Sherriff.
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| Is it a bird, is it a plane...? |
Some
days later he took parts of the debris to town. The military were informed –
they sealed off the area and the day after the newspapers had reported the UFO,
a “new” report and photo of a weather balloon was published.
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| Someones idea of what the "visitors" might have looked like. |
The museum(another local one that doesn’t get
government money), shows the story step by step and the government cover up is
quite obvious, even down to Brazel driving a new car some weeks later when his
neighbour said he never had two nickels to rub together.
After being silenced for 30 years investigations
revealed lots of “cover up” including a curious call to the local mortician
from the Air Force morgue trying to get hold of some small hermetically sealed
coffins and advice on preserving bodies that had been exposed to the elements
for a few days.
Well it was all very interesting and you are left to
conclude what really happened.
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| The town really plays on the advertising and it is good for business. |
Out in the street the shops and town generally
like to play on “little green men”. So if you’re a UFO fan, check out the
stories on the internet.
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| Mexican aliens |
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| ...even Maccas |
Further west, the pretty, small hamlet of Lincoln, belies
its violent past. It is considered to be the most authentic Wild West town
remaining in USA.
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| Lincoln Mainstreet |
However, when John Tunstall, Alexander McSween and John
Chisum saw an opportunity to open a large mercantile store and bank that
rivalled an existing store owned by L G Murphy and James Dolan (who’d had the lucrative
business from Fort Stanton) all hell broke loose.
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| Tunstall - McSween Store |
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| Boxed goods and shop fittings from early 1900's |
Then William Bonney (aka Billy the Kid) rides into town
and begins working on Tunstall’s ranch. A confrontation occurs in 1878 and
Tunstall is gunned down. Billy was part of the Regulators and Dolan’s group of
outlaws were The Boys. There were killings on both sides including Sherriff Brady
and his deputy. When the feud finally came to a climax after a five day gun
battle, McSween and many others were dead. For the murders, theft and property
destruction only Billy the Kid was ever tried, convicted and sentenced (for the
murder of Sheriff Brady.)
He was to hang in May but made his famous escape
from the courthouse in Lincoln, killing his two guards. Billy was eventually
shot by Pat Garrett. So after visiting all the existing buildings and many
exhibits documenting the history we felt quite well informed.
On Friday we drove into Ruidoso past the Spencer
Theatre for the Performing Arts and were disappointed to find the tours were
only held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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| Spencer Theatre, Alto |
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| Spencer Theatre (front water feature) |
So the next morning on our way north we
stopped by to take some photos. I was so tempted to jump over the gate and walk
around the building, hoping to look in to see the Chihuly glass. It is 12 miles
out of town on the top of a hill surrounded by Capitan and Sacramento mountains
– a magnificent site with wonderful views. A car pulled up and it was the theatre
manager. She had arranged to meet a group who were planning a wedding and took
us along too for a tour. How fortunate! How wonderful!
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| "The Persians" - Chihuly |
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| Exquisite glass art |
We had previously seen an exhibition of Dale Chihuly’s
glass with the Rotary group in Fort Wayne, and this time we were not
disappointed. It was spectacular.
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| "Indian Paint Brushes" |
Jacqueline Spencer became a very rich women
when her first husband, Hugh Bancroft Jnr inherited the Dow-Jones fortune in
the 50’s and died soon after. She will be remembered for the magnificent Spencer
Theatre that she funded at a cost of $22 million in 1997.
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| "Ruby Sea Garden" in Members Room |
Not far north is Smokey Bear Historical Park. In the
aftermath of a severe forest fire in 1950, a bear cub was found, nursed back to
health and named Smokey.
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| Smokey the Bear |
He became the symbol for fire prevention, lived for 26
more years in The National Zoo in Washington and is buried here.
Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico
and it is the oldest and highest capital city in America.
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| A "Bank" in Santa Fe |
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| Apartments in Santa Fe |
High on the plateau with 12,000 ft mountains
surrounding it, the city is built in adobe style - even the supermarkets and parking
stations.
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| Adobe Cinema |
We came through for a quick visit last year and hoped to return to
see some of the historical sites.
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| An Artist - St Francis Cathedral |
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| Beautiful staircase in the Loretto Chapel |
North to Taos to check out the ski resort. In town, the
old Plaza was originally a place to fence in cattle – now a lovely park with
big trees and surrounded by adobe style shops and art galleries.
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| Taos Plaza |
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| Taos adobe buildings |
We called into the Earthship Visitors’ Centre. It is
part of a large (347 acres) commonly owned park with many houses built of
natural and recycled materials (tyres mainly-sand filled - cement rended).
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| "Earthship" building |
The homes have solar/ thermal
heating and cooling, solar/wind electric power, and recycled water to make self
sufficient residences – quite fascinating.
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| Plans (full working drawings) for the "earthships" are available from about $8,000 if anyone is interested. |
Building sites and completed homes
were available for purchase from about $350k.
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| Bridge over Rio Grande near Taos |
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| A real cowboy on our way through New Mexico |
After dabbling our feet in the hot water along the
river, we would loved to have stayed longer in Pagosa Springs,
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| Pagosa Springs with 38 separate baths at the resort |
but had to make Durango
so Jen could ride the steam train to Silverton.
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| Durango - Silverton railway trip |
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| Through the canyon |
The drive up was also scenic so
Garry drove and stopped to wait for the steam train to chuff by, and chuff it
did – all the way up to over 9300 ft.
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| I 10 - Utah |
I guess the only disappointment was the Government
“shutdown,” as all the National Parks were closed and we were so looking
forward to visiting The Arches and Canyonlands near Moab. We have listened to
all sides commenting about “Obama-care” and can’t help agreeing with Jimmy
Carter who said “if you don’t want your tax dollars to help the poor – then stop
saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don’t.”
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| Virgin River Gorge - I 10, South Utah |
So now we are in Vegas again – such a happy civilized
holiday place, pausing as we pack, weigh suitcases and take stuff to the
charity centre.
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| Bellagio Foyer with Chihuly Art Glass - 2000 piece cost $10m in 1996 |
We visited the “seasonally changed display” at the Bellagio,
now “Fall” with Halloween coming.
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| Fall at the Bellagio |
You
can order a Spiced Pumpkin Latte to go with your Pumpkin Cheesecake and the
kids can order Scarey Face Pumpkin Pancakes.
So we did a little shopping and went to The Beatles
Show – the best tribute band, at Planet Hollywood.
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| The Fab Four |
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| Imagine |
And it was a great show.
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| Sergeant Peppers |
We’ve had a most wonderful time this year but are now looking
forward to getting home for another summer.
