Road Trip 2, Day 3 Santa Fe

THURSDAY, 5/6/10

We woke up in the "Roadie" Marriott in Albuquerque (on Louisiana Blvd.) feeling a lot better than most who have woken up there we imagine, borrowed Celia's car (so we wouldn't have to drive Ned, James and Tow-Tow) and hit the road to Santa Fe for the day.

Actually, we were headed to Tesuque (pronounced teh-soo-kee) outside of Santa Fe to visit our dear friend, the amazing Joan Tewkesbury. More on Tesuque and Joan later.


This sign says Santa Fe, but NL was driving too fast.


Random sign.


The roads were wide open. Beautiful vistas and desert.


And the occasional housing development. There are ordinances governing building in New Mexico. The style, size and color are all in keeping with the traditional adobe housing. It's really great, as the big developments blend into the landscape rather than define it.


The Sandia Mountains, we think.


"Bunny"

Okay, just when we were praising the aesthetic of New Mexico we saw these paintings on the freeway median walls. What? Seriously, did someone in the dept. of transportation give the job to their 4 year old?


"Birdy"


"Mean Birdy"


"Lizard"

Soooo, you can't paint your house the color you want, and you have to look at these stupid "installations." Rethinking New Mexico...

Ahhh... falling back in love with NM. Once we got off the main highway and started up into the hills and valleys of Tesuque, the desert gave way to blooming plants, shady trees, little rivers flowing, and lots of green. Enough so, that there were a lot of pastures with horses grazing, etc.

A few words about Joan Tewkesbury: Writer, Director, Mentor, Sage, Wicked Funny, A Great Broad, Fiercely Loyal, and always the most interesting person in the room - yet she'll make you feel like you are the superstar. (That's her tree in the picture above.) We have been lucky enough to write and work on a couple of projects with Joan. Trust us when we say, she makes us all better.

Joan's house (which she helped design and build) sits on a hill. There are only 4 or 5 other houses on this hill. All beautifully designed to disappear into the landscape. It is truly a hideaway. And it's pretty darn close to paradise. Single level, with lots of casita type rooms/bungalows. We missed the turn-off at first, but eventually found our way.

Look at Joan's garden. Paradise, right?

The patio. These great Wisteria vines climbing
everywhere -- Joan says when they bloom it's incredible.

Joan's house was built with a lot of
salvaged doors, wood, fixtures, etc.
Very green and totally cool.

Photo: Jean Pagliuso

Her house is full of great and amazing art, artifacts, and photos from her life and work. We didn't want to post too much of the interior and bust up her privacy. But we did want to share this great photo of Belushi. He and Joan had worked together. One morning they came out for breakfast and John was sitting at the table with this kitten in his mouth. They snapped the photo and it's one of Joan's faves. And we can see why...


Joan leads NL to the guest casita.
It was hard to get NL to leave however.


Entrance to Joan's office. Just a walk across the courtyard. Now this would make me want to go to work.


One of the foreign posters for Joan's movie "Nashville."

The movie trailer from 1975. We apologize for the cheesy ads.




As we headed out for lunch and a tour of the local sights -- Fed Ex came a callin'.
It's true, you can run but you can't hide.


One of Tewkes' neighbors... just down the block. (gorgeous)


Entering the town of Tesuque.


Local watering hole on our way to lunch at Gabriel's for some authentic Southwestern food.

A carved St. Francis watches over the lunch rush. Didn't help the animals we enjoyed for lunch, however.

Spooky art at Gabriel's. Eat here or else.

Paige gets all arty farty in the Gabriel's courtyard.




Lovely Fajitas! (spoken in a thick Irish brogue. Thank you, Miss Mary Quinlan)

Bellies full we drove on.


This is gigantic casino out in the middle of the desert called "Buffalo Thunder Resort." Insert Buffalo Thunder jokes here. Anyway, Joan said the tribe who built it had hoped it would be the crown jewel of their tribal enterprises.

However, it turned out that it was overpriced,
the slots weren't paying and the service sucked.
Word traveled like smoke signals on a clear day --
and now they can't give away the rooms.
At this point in time, I'd like to plug the
Cherokee Casinos in Oklahoma.
SHAMELESS PLUG HERE. Loose slots,
nice rooms, good food and entertainment.

The landscape here is amazing. If you're into beauty and majesty and that sort of thing.




...even the soldiers of God are staking a claim here.



Speaking of God, Tewkes took us to the town of Chimayo. It is built around a church that is said to have healing dirt. There are pilgrimages to this tiny chapel to pray, light candles, get some holy dirt. Lovely.


When the new priest came to Chimayo, he decided to turn the faith of the believers into commerce. Building turnstiles and gift shops and adding services. It backfired, as the people stopped coming when the simple services and places to meditate and pray changed.


See the crosses in the fence. People put them there to get the saints surrounding this church to pray for them or their loved ones.




There's a river that runs behind the church...

And rumor has it that is where the healing dirt is harvested from each morning at dawn and brought into the chapel and placed into the sacred dirt pit (not the official name).

A lone horse lives in that pen. I wonder if he has special powers, too? He's the only one there, so he's doing something right. Dios Mio!


NL stops to feed the horse... naturally.

Exterior of the original church.

NL & Joan walking up the newly installed walkways
and turnstyles. We were almost the only ones there.


We're guessing when the twinkle lights are
turned on at night it has a more spiritual effect
than it did in daylight.

The inside of the chapel. Not allowed to take
pictures in there, but Paige stole this one.
She'll have to atone for that.

We lit a candle for our loved ones in need. As
we do at every Catholic church we visit.




Here we are after having been in the church. Don't we look more spiritual? Joan said that the church tried to buy the house in the BG of our picture. As it was an eye sore and housed some less than spiritual neighbors. They wouldn't sell. Sometimes even God can't close the deal.


This lovely gentleman worked in the store next to the church. He was great, told us all about the spiritual items in the store. And sold us some great dried chili powder - which we've already used in some chili and sauces. Killer!! He was really honest about what was going on in the town and with the church, sad to see the changes, but happy that the old ways are winning out. He snapped a picture of us in the store. (Thank you!)

Exterior of the gift shop.

It's a great pic of Joan.
(We look a bit road-weary.)
She bought us some beautiful
housewarming gifts from this store --
she'll get to see them when she comes
to see us in NOLA.

Heading back to Tewkes' house, we drive through town.

Here's a restaurant that Joan says is great. Check out the dried chilis hanging from the roof.





She gave us lots of history, lore and gossip.

We dropped Tewkes back at her fab house and said our goodbyes, for now. Thank you for a great day. We love you, Toothfairy!

We headed back to AlbuQ to pick up Celia and get back on the road.

Celia had asked us to make sure that when we packed in California to leave a little room for her and her small suitcase in the back seat. We literally left the tiniest spot (in Narnia) for her. She was such a good sport. Sitting in the back, making us sandwiches out of the cooler. I kind of felt like she was a poor little girl working in a sweat shop back there. But she didn't complain. Well, until she had to try to use her legs to walk... Okay so that's it for the day trip LOG.



We hit the road that evening -- next stop Amarillo, TX.
PB & NL