Hola Amigos y Amigas! We just arrived in Taos NM, after nine days’ camping in Abiquiu NM. It’s an aural shift to to be in Taos with its busy traffic, muffler-less vehicles, and neighborhood dogs barking from behind our latilla/coyote fence separating our campground from a residential alley at Taos Valley RV Park. The bathrooms are clean, the park is safe, ravens fly croaking in at sunset and we’ve got the Sangre de Cristo mountains framing the sky.
Let me take you time traveling to last Friday, Oct. 10.
We drove to Santa Fe to swim at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center–swimming is $4 in a great facility–do laundry, and shop at the nearby La Montanita Natural Food Co-op, suggested by Emily, who is caring for our cat, Plecostamus and home while we’re on our three-month road trip. Emily’s lived in Santa Fe before and knows the good places.
As we drove south on US-84 toward Española that morning, a car drove past in the opposite lane, throwing a stone. It sounded like a gunshot. An instant circular crack with 3-inch radiating spikes appeared in the upper left corner of the windshield. We called some places in Santa Fe, left a message with no response. Bill contacted our Abiquiu Campground hosts, Cyndy and Al Warnier, who recommended R&E Glass Co. in Española.
Great suggestion. We pulled in before 11 AM, just in time for the R&E folks to order our specialized windshield which had to be calibrated and delivered from a vendor. They told us to return at 2:30. Hooray! We drove to Santa Fe, I swam, we did laundry and were so happy to shop at La Montanita. Great deli food such as orange-ginger chicken, good lunch meats and produce like locally grown heirloom tomato, basil and medium roasted chiles–which we’re still enjoying.
Back at R&E by 2:30 we learned the business is owned by a couple, their son and their grandson who do all the work. The place was the center of the universe from our observation with folks walking in and out the door. Mrs. Montoya brought us cold waters while the three Montoyas–her husband and the boys–replaced our window with expert calibration. We spoke with a Sikh woman whose husband is a master woodcarver, Loren Cushman, Jemez Mountain Public Schools Superintendent, and a local character wearing more than 40 keys on a ring at his belt—“I’ve gotta lock everything on the ranch,” he told us. He pointed to a long scar down the side of his face and along his right shoulder and arm. He said he got them while changing a tire.
The following day was the first day of the Abiquiu Studio Tour, which ran for three days. We enjoyed visiting the artists last year and this year was an immersion of the senses. Viewing creative art is great therapy.
Our first stop was at Dar Al Islam, a mosque and religious community “engaging in land-based spiritual contemplation,” according to its website. The center was built in 1979 and is nestled amid the white hoodoos of Plaza Blanca. We noticed a serene radiance on the faces of those who run the retreat and education center. We chatted with Andrew Furse, a 40ish printmaker we met earlier where he works at our favorite eatery, Cafe Sierra Negra.
We bought a couple of his prints and learned that he and his wife have a produce stand at the popular Tuesday Abiquiu Farmer’s Market. We visited with him there Oct. 14. He has a nearly one-year-old son. Andrew believes in the noetic science revolution that is occurring now, and he is a joy to speak with. We admired many artists at Dar Al Islam, including weaver Vanessa Harris, whose Rio Grand-inspired rugs were tempting and beyond our budget.
Later we walked among what looks like 50-foot high chess pieces among the canyons of white sandstone and alabaster tuff.
Then it was time to have lunch at Cafe Sierra Negra, probably in the top five of my all-time favorite eateries. The locally sourced great menu, the staff, and imaginative art by Ron Milhoan all add to the ambience. Ron’s wife Melodie is the head chef there.The overall vibe of welcome and friendliness can’t be beat. We love Ben, a wonderful human being and server, that every Abiquiu woman my age I spoke with who knows him, loves him truly. That day it was shrimp tacos with homemade pico de gallo for me, and a chili cheeseburger for Bill, which was accompanied by a tasty potato dill salad.
We stopped in to see our friend Sharon Garcia, the librarian at El Pueblo Library and Cultural Center. Sharon is a descendant of the Genizaros, people of colonial Spanish and Native American ancestry who were awarded a land grant by the Spanish government in 1754 after being converted into Christianity. Sharon and I have shared deep conversation about our families and she is someone we look forward to reconnecting with each year we visit.
While at the library, I asked about a book lying on the table, The Genizaro & the Artist, by Napoleón Garcia, Sharon’s dad’s cousin, born in 1931. Written by Napoleón’s second wife Aanalinda Dunn, the book tells the story of the man being raised by his mom, shamed in the community for being born out of wedlock. He married Emma when he was 19 and she 16. He grew from his days of being hungry and cold to working for Georgia O’Keefe, working at Los Alamos, and in his retirement, carving sacred objects and aspen pueblo ladders, and serving as a tour guide for folks interested in the deep history of Abiquiu.
Sharon’s long-time friend Paulette who helps out at the library, ran out to Analinda’s car and asked her to sign the book. Later we talked with Analinda following the 8 AM Mass at nearby St. Tomas. She told us Napoleón had 10 children, along with 21 grandchildren and 16+ great grandchildren. She noted that Emma must have been worn out with bearing and raising 10 children. Napoleón has since passed on, and while talking with Analinda, we intuited it was her husband’s great grandchildren who waited in the pew to take her home.
Bill and I read every word of the book, gaining a deeper appreciation of Abiquiu’s history and the deep caring of the land and its rivers by the Genizaro ancestors.
The library is located in a historic plaza. Its website notes: “The land around the Center is the first land granted to Indians in NM of 17,000 acres which are held in common. The classic adobe Santo Tomas Parish is directly across from the Center and Georgia O’Keefe had a home here, which is now run by the O’Keefe Museum, which hosts tours of her village adobe.”
Our next stop on the tour was at The Nest Gallery, where Tamara Kay’s jewelry crafted to look like aspen bark, or the night sky shows her real talent. Her pieces are wonderful and more than I can justify spending for jewelry. Meanwhile, I met and spoke with publisher Zach Hively, who was chatting with Tamara. Zach runs an Abiquiu-based publishing company founded in 2020, Casa Urraca Press. I bought Hearts in Motion, Hearts in Place by Enrique Lamadrid, a bio-regional folklorist, that Casa Urraca published this year. Its poems and bird illustrations invite us to find our heart’s place. It is a joy to talk about publishing with Zach. “I grew up in New Mexico and after living in other places, I knew I wanted to come back. This place spoke to me, right when I needed it for the creative work I was doing,” Zach wrote later in an email. I invite you to read this article in Southwest Contemporary about the surviving publishing industry in New Mexico. It explores in depth why Zach does what he loves.
As the afternoon light changed into gold, we stopped at another art studio, and bought weavings from Suzie Fowler, a retired naval intelligence officer, who found weaving to be great therapy following her naval career. She’s also a volunteer firefighter.
That evening we enjoyed great views of the Milky Way.
Sunday found us attending Mass at St. Tomas El Apostle, one of seven regional churches its priest visits. I was moved to tears by the Gloria and Our Father, sung in deep-heartfelt Spanish.
Back at camp we enjoyed lunch of butternut squash soup and salad of Santa Fe co-op heirloom tomato and basil. En route to the restroom, about 200 steps uphill from our campsite, I herded a juvenile tarantula off the road.
Later, we headed over to NM State Road 96 toward Coyote, where we stopped at St. Theresa’s, part of the Abiquiu seven circle of churches. We ascended from sandstone cliffs to Ponderosa pine and aspen forest. Quite a few folk were camped in the Carson National Forest, on hunting trips and wood gathering excursions. We drove behind a family with black cattle. We were surprised to see the cattle voluntarily walking with their humans. Cattle graze free range here and the ranchers know who their animals are. The scent of Ponderosa is worth breathing in deeply–it’s a comforting piney-amber smell.
We stopped by the National Forest Service Echo Amphitheater on the way back to camp. Its geology reflects hundreds of millions years in formation. AI notes: Echo Amphitheater’s geology is a result of layered sandstone formations, primarily the Chinle Group at the bottom and the Entrada Formation above it, which have been carved over time by water and wind erosion.
Later, we listened to our next door neighbor mom playing her red ukulele really well round the campfire with her husband and three sons. Her music inspired me to practice I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, Jambalaya and When the Saints Go Marching In. Zoom in to this photo and you’ll see the neighbor strumming her ukulele.
On Indigenous People’s Day we drove from camp along Hwy 84 into Abiquiu. This was another day that will remain forever tattooed in our memory.
We visited Bill Page and Jaye Buros’ gallery, resulting for the second year in a row, in soul-satisfying conversation with the artist, her sister Max, a visiting neighbor Sally Elgin, and Jaye’s husband Bill Page. The gallery is a salon for true listening and meaningful conversation.
Bill recounts this tale: “I was talking to two of the art ladies and Max [Jaye Buros’ sister] asked me what my artistic passion is. And I said I don’t really have an art form that I practice. She told me I had to talk with Bill Page, who reminds me of [the late Langley WA poet laureate Peter Lawlor]. So I sat down next to him and asked how he was inspired to do his art.”
Turns out Bill worked in the corporate world and attended too many meetings. At one of them the talking heads couldn’t reach any agreement. Bill took out a whiteboard and sketched a bunch of wolves circling a lamb. A man at the meeting said Bill’s action clicked, and later handed him his daughter’s thesis on playfulness. Bill Page read the thesis and was moved to tears. He started playing around with brushes and paints and started creating art. He wouldn’t have met his wife Jaye, a kindergarten teacher turned artist who was used to playing with her students while teaching, if he hadn’t decided to open his world to playing. The couple moved to Abiquiu nearly 30 years ago and have since then created a creative oasis in the high desert.
Bill Poss recalled: “Bill told me, Say yes to life.”
We also enjoyed talking with Jaye’s sister Max, up to help with the art show from where she lives near San Diego. Sally Elgin stopped by to visit and we had a delightful exchange. She mentioned wanting a good photo for her obituary, and suggested folks get together and write their obituaries before they’re gone so what is said about them comes from the source.
We visited next door with the McSweeney mother-daughter team: Judith, the mom, who makes scented candles, and her 31-year-old daughter Tara, an up and coming artist being mentored by next door neighbor Jaye Buros–“They’re the best neighbors we ever had,” says Jaye. The McSweeneys moved to Abiquiu 15 years ago from Berwick ME to live in a warmer climate. Tara, then 16, balked at leaving her teenage life. But she says now, she would have never found her calling in painting. Jaye Buros married Tara two weeks ago to a man from Chimayo. We bought Tara’s painting of our beloved Cerro Pedernal, her second painting sold.
That afternoon we drove out to State Road 151, near the Echo Amphitheater. We parked on a dirt lot and ascended a path along the Rim Vista Trail. The nearly six-mile round-trip trail was too steep and rocky at its end so we stopped were we could safely put our feet without slipping on loose rock and gravel. We welcomed the views of Ghost Ranch, Echo Amphitheater and Cerro Pedernal.
Tuesday Oct. 14, after leaving camp, we stopped by the famous Chama River overlook, a much-painted cottonwood-lined bosque along the curving river with views of the straight Abiquiu Mesa in the distance. We stopped in at Cafe Sierra Negra once again. There was Ben who gave us tips on his favorite hikes. We took the road along State Road 155, the road to Dar Al Islam. However, we turned left onto a dirt track to explore more of Plaza Blanca.
There we met a boon docking gentleman who calls himself “Rez,” where he was staying with his two friendly dogs. We soon realized this practical-minded artist and retired plumber is a visionary. He had an ‘awakening’ in 2010, pondering the big questions of: Why am I here? How does the Universe work? He was given the idea that he would be shown the answers. Giving his trust in following this newfound guidance, he told us, “For the past 15 years, the Universe has been paying the bills faithfully.”
During his stay in the back country he’s been studying the work of American architect, inventor and futurist Buckminster Fuller’s building concepts. He excitedly shared his findings with us: about the triangular interconnecting shapes he’s had fabricated and believes will be the architecture of the future. About water, and how bubbles form geometric shapes when gathered together. Rez pointed out a path, whereby we ascended a canyon through the white towers of Plaza Blanca. On our return Rez had assembled some of his triangles. He talked of a “Grammar of New Understanding,” in which he consults with AI on “being an advocate for the fractal field.”
Well, that was an eye opener and an awareness raiser. We returned to camp with another memory to add to our string of road trip jewels. We reveled in the afternoon and evening views of camp. We wanted to open every sense to what we were seeing.
That evening Bill built a fire and our camp neighbor Mary stopped by. We chatted a nice while, talking about places we like camping. She enjoys sitting outside her camper painting the scenes before her and spending time with her animal family.
Oct. 15–our daughter Gillian’s 36th birthday, we packed up. At the restroom, I chatted with Mary, who was walking her beloved dogs Fergus and Angus. We talked with Rita, resplendent in a turquoise banded cowgirl hat, scarf and outfit befitting a New Mexico artist. Her dog Otis, a small black poodle, ran out and greeted Mary’s two lads. Both women were surprised at how well the dogs got along. I told the women I wished to make a postcard drawing of them, to remember the connection we have. I said goodbye to the cottonwood tree, which rattled its leaves in the breeze across from the restroom.
Then it was goodbye to Cyndy and Al. They stepped out of their booth and we hugged them, thanking them for making us feel like family.
And finally, on this trip we learned of a friend’s son who was murdered in February. She held him while he died. This is for all parents who have lost their children. It’s a photo, taken with permission from the vestibule at St. Tomas’ church in Abiquiu.
