Of cacti and bluebirds

Friday, March 4, 2011

SANTA FE, NM — We’re in a new state and a new time zone – Mountain Time – which gained us an extra hour today. We made an early start since we had a bit further to go this time to reach this fabled city of New Mexico, “the enchanting state”.

It was a breathtaking drive today. The Texan landscape continued with its prairie grasses, grain silos and grazing cattle. At one point, on our left we saw hundreds and hundreds of black-and-white cattle, coralled into scores of pens. When we passed the building at the end of this stretch of highway, emblazoned with the words “beef cattle”, we realized where these creatures were headed; restaurants and supermarkets everywhere!

Several times we passed signs warning of severe winds, and Val really felt it pushing from the south against the side of our trailer. Most of the trees by the highway were twisted sideways, indicating that this type of wind blows from that direction pretty well all the time.

Shortly before lunch we crossed into New Mexico, under a yellow archway with stylized Adobe-type suns that decorate the NM flag. The welcome centre there provided a wealth of literature which we eagerly scooped up.

Almost immediately the landscape began to change. There were still huge expanses of grassy land, but they were peppered with low evergreens and twisted, spiky plants with pale yellow flowers at the tips of each fleshy branch. We even caught sight of some real cactus; the kind that looks like round paddles tufted with sharp spines, though there weren’t too many of these. Some of the fences had snagged tumbleweed in them as well.

The land was fairly flat, but it often dropped away into gulches or was pushed upward into flat-topped hills. I think these are what they call mesas. The shape was fascinating, but what captivated me even more were the colours, especially of the soil, which ranged from rust colour to almost purple in places. Then, far off in the distance, we saw blue mountains, some of them high enough to be capped with snow! The truck climbed steadily as the elevation increased. The city of Santa Fe is known as the highest city in the US, at 7,000 feet above sea level — and we read in the brochure that newcomers may even sense the thinner air, requiring a couple of days to become accustomed to it.

Our KOA campground is outside the city of Santa Fe, so we haven’t yet seen what the town looks like, but the houses we passed to get here were quite different; almost all of them had flat rooves, and they were low and nestled on the hillsides, many the colour of sand or brick.

Our arrival here was fairly early, due both to our early start and the extra hour we gained crossing the time zone. It gave us time to set up and relax, and I was able to do a couple of loads of laundry. Next to the laundry room, in a little garden area surrounded by an adobe wall, I saw some little birds fluttering around a feeder, hung from a small tree. On closer examination, I realized they were a lovely blue! The woman in the office said they are Mountain Bluebirds. I was enchanted.

Back at the trailer, awaiting the completion of the wash cycle, I heard a pattering sound on the roof and looked out. The air was filled with billows of snow pellets that bounced on the red soil and piled up in the grass! I could hardly believe my eyes! It certainly was chilly when we got here, but I didn’t sign up for snow! At least it melted fairly quickly.

Note to faithful readers: We’ve finally been able to upload a few photos, so you can scroll back to some earlier entries and see them now!