The following photos are of great personal significance to me, and may not interest some of you in the least. But, nevertheless, I though I would share them with the group. In a lot of ways I think we are like a little family, and some of you may be interested in what I've been doing lately.
For the past week I've been down here in New Mexico. Some of you may know that my grandmother, to whom I was very close, passed away in October. Anyway, I'm down here now with my dad, my aunt, and my sister. Between last Thursday and yesterday (Saturday) we were embarked on a three day odyssey around northern New Mexico to spread my Grandmother's ashes in some of the places that she loved the best. I took photos the whole way. I'll share some of them here, and like I said, this will mean nothing to many of you, but at the very least the photos capture some beautiful scenerey.
We headed north from Albuquerque up to Taos, the small town where my dad and his siblings graduated from high school and my grandpa, Grampy as we called him, was the town's only veterinarian for about 15 years. My Grandma owned a gallery in town.
We stopped on the way up to spread some ashes in the Rio Grande near Embudo Station.
When we made it up to Taos we drove around as my parents reminisced about their teenage years. We stayed the night in Taos.
The Taos Pueblo indian reservation, where exists a multi-story adobe complex of homes that has been continuously inhabited by the people for over 1000 years, is just north of the town. Grampy and my grandma had several friends who lived on the reservation. Two of them were husband and wife Frank and Josephine Marquis. We weren't even sure if they were still alive, but we drove up to the pueblo and started asking around. We were surprised and delighted to learn that they were indeed still around and living on the pueblo. By asking around and going from one place to another trying to find out where they lived, we finally came upon their home. We knocked on the door and an aged native American woman answered. My aunt told her who we were, and she immediately started to cry. It was one of the most touching moments in my life. This woman had been good friends with my grandparents and hadn't had any contact with anyone from our family in years and years. She invited us in and we sat and chatted for a long time. Her husban eventually came home, too, and we had a great visit telling stories and laughing about old times. It was very surreal, and an event that I will never forget.
After leaving the pueblo we scattered some ashes along the road, with Taos Mountain in view.
From Taos we headed north toward Red River, a ski resort town where my dad and my aunt had both worked during and following high school, and where my grandma liked to visit.
We sprinkled some ashes into the Red River...yes, that Red River.
From Red River we headed back down to Taos, stopping at the airstrip where my dad first soloed as a pilot, on our way to the Gorge Bridge. The Gorge Bridge spans the Rio Grande Gorge just west of Taos. It was another of my grandma's favorite spots. The bridge is roughly 800 feet above the bass of the gorge.
My sister puts on a smile.
We then drove westward into the evening and night. We stayed in Bloomfield in northwest New Mexico. In the morning we awoke and headed towards Chaco Canyon, a National Historic site containing ruins of the Chacoan civilization that existed there for centuries in prehistoric times. Of the multiple historic parks in New Mexico containing ruins, this was my grandma's favorite because it is further off the beaten path and less traveled and touristy. You can only get to it by driving a 22 mile long dirt road. It's in a very secluded area of the state.
We left Chaco in the early afternoon and headed back towards Albuquerque. It was about a three hour drive. Once we got back, we had one last stop to make. We took the elevated tram to the top of Sandia Peak, something we'd all done many times. Sandia Peak overlooks Albuquerque, my grandma's home.
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