San Antonio - 2/23/2011

Day 21 pictures!

As the pictures will show, our last morning in San Antonio was full of food.  We started with a second trip to Taco Taco Cafe and found it still yummy.  Next up was the coffee shop I had been at the day before where Kat and I experimented with the different coffee flavors and mix-ins.  Cinnamon looks cool, but is not the the best tasting combo with coffee.  Our feeding frenzy ended at the Barbed Wire BBQ which was down the street from the zoo and sunken gardens.  It was delicious and messy as all good BBQ is.

We got back in the car and tried to decide what to do next.  As I was browsing I remembered that the musical, Wicked, was playing in Texas right now and sure enough, it was in San Antonio.  Kat and I were familiar with the musical and the wonderful lottery that happens before each show.  You put your name in a hat and then two hours before the start they draw names.  Twenty tickets are given out for $25 cash each (two are allowed per person though some simply take a single ticket) and the seats are in the front five rows.  When the tour was in Madison last fall Kat and I were able to win twice!  We figured out where it was playing and decided to wander the river walk until then.

We were feeling sluggish after our all out eating that morning and so sat down at the first ledge and let our feet dangle in the water.  It felt amazing.  Two riverboat tours passed us and each waved and shouted hi.  One girl even screamed out her name in introduction.  We replied in kind and soon decided to move on.  Our 30 minute walk turned into the entire afternoon as we walked up and down and all around and got completely turned around.  However, on the way we stopped at the library (where there was construction and a guy on top of the building waved at us) and shared a chocolate/strawberry milkshake (the heat got to us/ I'm always in the mood for a milkshake).  Eventually we did end up at the theatre.  Our luck did not win us the lottery this time, but, since there were still some tickets left over, they sold them to everyone at the lottery for only $40.  Since neither of us had ever seen the show from further back, we decided to give it a go.

On our way back to the car we stopped in at Walgreens for some cheap treats (gummy slices and reeses pieces... show snacks!).  It was then time to doll up and eat a bit of real food before heading back to the theatre.  There were two crazy long lines coming out of the theatre on either side as they opened the doors a bit late.  Strange to act worried and impatient when there was assigned seating.  Oh well, Kat and I saw no need to wait and chilled out on a bench until it cleared out.  First stop for me was the bathroom line, easily located by the kind usher standing with a sign labeled "End of the Ladies Restroom Line". While waiting I was able to chat with a very nice woman from North Carolina who was in town for the Chick Fil-A convention.  We shared our favorite parts of San Antonio and discussed what women in line often discuss, why in the world can't they make the women's restroom double the size of the men's?  Oh well. 

Back to my seat in plenty of time and a kind older couple sitting next to us shared their program as the theatre had run out.  Apparently they had been coming to the majestic theatre since they were children back in the 30's.  It was a majestic place, with castle silhouettes all over.  You can check out pictures here and here.  The show was as amazing as always.  I doubt I'll ever tire of it.  There were a few distractions, like the teenage girls in front of us who constantly checked their very bright smartphones and the headset worn by a man in front of us.  Overall though, another magical night.  Day 21 to a close.

San Antonio - 2/22/2011

Day 20 pictures!

At this point in the trip, it was very strange to suddenly be driving in the car by myself.  After cleaning up a bit and reorganizing the car I wasn't sure what to do!  Thankfully our host called and let me know that a group of San Antonio couchsurfers were meeting up for a President's Day paella night.  I helped him make some beet salad to bring (and by help I mean I peeled a small percent of the very hot beets and watched him add all of the fun doodahs).  We got there and were warmly greeted by a good size group.  There were amazing tapas (3 different kinds of oils for bread dipping, nuts and dried berries, spiced salami, salted codfish, etc.), a wide variety of drinks (including some delicious sangria) and the paella (regular and veggie) was still on the grills.  The age range must have been at least 30 years and there was everyone from the established to the entrepreneur to the guy riding around the country on his bicycle!  I got to talk to a number of people, all with interesting stories and travel tips.  



Landa Library

On Tuesday morning I woke up with our hosts and shared some breakfast tacos with them.  They warmed the tortillas by placing them directly on the gas stove burners. Yummy.  They left for work and I decided to lay my head back down for a minute.  Three hours later I woke up to the sun shining in and the dog on my feet.  It was heavenly and I decided to try and keep the relaxing theme for the rest of the day.  Well, every heavenly day must include a trip to the library and so off I went.  Like just about every city so far, I was able to enjoy another library flavor.  The building looked like a fancy old house with it's red tiled roof and wrought iron porches (not sure that I'm using the exact right words, but you get the idea).  Outside there was a playground, a gazebo and some beautiful, beautiful trees.

Next up was a coffee shop that had been recommended to me.  It had huge comfy couches and big mugs with unlimited refills (from a handful of different flavors) for only $1.  I spent a number of very pleasant hours typing and reading, only interrupted by the frequent tips to the bathroom (darn coffee has a downside).  Around 4pm I packed up and headed to the art museum, free to the public on Tuesday evenings 4-9.  It has been crazy how these things have worked out throughout our trip.  The museum was also amazing and I would definitely recommend checking it out if you're in this area.  My night ended with some glorious hours spent in the cell phone waiting lot of the airport catching up on phone calls :). I then picked up Kat and we crashed a little after 1am.

Kat's view from the airplane window

Exploring San Antonio - 2/21/2011

In the morning we got up at 7 so we could leave with Mark at 7:30. His puppy came out to welcome us all over again by jumping on us and nipping our hands and licking our faces. Mark had recommended Taco Taco Café for breakfast as it had been given the award for best tacos in San Antonio. We ordered two tacos - the Special with eggs and potatoes and beans and the Chilaquiles with eggs and onions and peppers. We added salsa and they were delicious. (They asked us not to take pics....but I think we forgot that rule the next time we ate there.....)

San Antonio pics

Next we went off in search of a Japanese Tea Garden. We parked at the zoo for the free parking and climbed the hill to the garden. There were flower lined paths and waterfalls and streams and rocks. Tricia climbed to the top of the rock wall so I could take her picture. On the walk down we saw tons and tons of cats in the woods. There were food dishes and climbing posts, so it seemed that someone was looking out for them, but they didn’t appear to be house cats. We must have seen twelve or so. There was a sign at the bottom of the hill saying that it was illegal to dump pets in the woods, so we think the cats may have been dumped and breeding there.

Afterwards, we went to the Alamo, bypassing the $8 Alamo parking and opting instead for the $1.50/hour meters that were only a 15 minute walk away. There were a lot of tourists there, and we couldn’t take pictures inside. We saw an archaeologist inside who was restoring parts of the walls. We learned that only 12 people had survived the siege - all women and children and one servant. We were able to see the room where the women and children had stayed during the siege. We also learned that Texas had already been declared independent before the siege took place. We read all the names of the people who died. There were men from many states and many from other countries in Europe as well. There was also one freed Blackman who died, identified only as John _________.

We wanted to see the other 4 missions as well, which were said to be prettier than the austere Alamo. We drove to all four Missions and explored the ruins of the churches and convents. Some of the convents were still in use by monks who had returned after a long time away. We also saw an aqueduct built to forge a stream and completed in 1740.

Then we found a little shack making and selling food, so we tried the famous Frito Pie and Corn in a Cup. Frito Pie is Fritos with chili and nacho cheese, and is alright. Corn in a Cup can be skipped, as it is corn and spices and mayonnaise, and other things that don’t belong together.

 

Right at this time, I got a call from Orbitz saying that my imminent flight to Madison had been delayed two hours and that I would miss my connection. I had a 9 AM appointment in Madison the next day, and was already supposed to arrive at 10:30 PM. Panicking, I called every rental car company in Milwaukee, but none would let me rent a car in Milwaukee and return it in Madison. When we got to the airport, I asked the ticket agent what he could do, and he told me to talk to the attendants in Milwaukee. I asked if they’d at least put me in a hotel, and he scoffed. Apparently, they do absolutely nothing if a plane’s delayed for weather. (They do next to nothing when it’s not weather, so why was I surprised?) I figured I’d talk to the people at the gate, but there was no one there. I had to wait an hour, pacing back and forth at the gate, before they finally came. The lady was so nice, in spite of the nervous breakdown I was having, and let me ask her every 5 minutes whether the Madison flight had been delayed yet. She consoled me, saying she would be doing the same thing and that all the Midwest flights would be delayed and not to worry. The fourth time I approached her I informed her that I’m usually much less of a pain in the ass.

Finally, she said the Madison flight had been delayed until 10:10 and that the Milwaukee flight would arrive at 10, so I should make it. We finally boarded the plane, to my relief. Fidgeting in my seat and waiting for the plane to take off, I finally flagged down a flight attendant and asked what the hold up was. And she told me there was a maintenance issue with the door. And I sat in a plane full of people and cried. No, really. It was sad.

 

To top it all off, they knew absolutely nothing about any of the flights in Milwaukee, and could not tell any of the upset passengers were going to make their flights. The pilot came on before we landed to tell us that most flights had been delayed and most passengers would make it. I tried to breathe. When we landed and they let us out, all of us who needed to catch a flight bolted off the plane and into the terminal. I didn’t even know what gate I needed, and couldn’t find a screen with useful information, so I shouted in the general direction of a gate agent “Where’s the Madison flight??!!??” He shouted back and I took off running.

The flight had been delayed until 10:40. And here it was 10:25! Tons of time. They weren’t even boarding yet, but started up as soon as I arrived. I sank gratefully into my seat on the little plane. We pulled away from the gate. And then the pilot came on. And I swear this is what he said:
“Folks, I’ve just been informed that the airport is closed. And we need to deice the plane first, so we’re not going to try, because there would be no point. I mean, it’s closing in about 3 minutes, and we wouldn’t make it. So, I’m really sorry, but we’re going to have to wait 20 minutes for them to plow the runway, and then we’ll need to be deiced, so it’s going to be about a 30 minute delay.”
Way to bury the lead, right??? The passengers all gasped in horror, and then signed in relief. As long as they didn’t cancel the flight (because there were no other flights), we did not care about delays. I was happy as long as I got there by about 8:30 am. All the flights the day before had been cancelled, and they were still trying to find flights for those passengers!

So, I finally made it into Madison, and had the scariest drive out of the airport ever! Apparently there was an actual reason for the flights to be delayed! And that reason was snow. And ice. And then I was terrified that my appointment would be cancelled and I’d have to reschedule, which would have killed me as I’d just FLOWN from San Antonio for this thing. But, by 8 the next morning the roads had been fully plowed and everything ran smoothly all day. And at 6 pm I got back on a plane and headed for San Antonio. But not before I had some Culvers. I know we’re on a fast food hiatus here, but after my night a greasy hamburger, fried cheese curds, and a Reese’s Concrete Mixer were vitally important to my life.

Fort Stockton - 2/20/11

Fort Stocton Pics

The Texas sun woke us bright and early on Sunday, and we set out to explore Fort Stockton. There is a two mile “driving tour” that takes you around to all the historic places in the city. Since it was Sunday, many establishments were closed, so we parked at a taco shop and walked toward the city center. First up - the roadrunner! The city seemed fairly dead, but while we were fooling around a second car of tourists drove up, and we took turns taking each other’s pictures. They were coming from California and heading East as well - a popular Southern route at this time of year.

Next we found the visitor’s center (also closed Sunday). Here we found many iron silhouettes to pose with. Another tourist gave us a look as he walked by, but we had a ball hugging cowboys, hanging off horses, peaking out from stage-coaches, howling like wolves, and smiling at the prairie children. A little farther on was the first railroad in town, from the late 1800’s, and there were an engine and caboose still on the tracks, so we took pictures on it, too. Then we climbed on an oil rig. Having satisfied our climbing cravings, we moved on to the tour (which we walked of course).

Oldest house

The tour consisted of 16 historic buildings, and took us through historic downtown. We passed shop after shop of either closed or abandoned storefronts. Literally the only things open on Sunday were the churches (we passed 3) and one diner. Fort Stockton is badly in need of a touchup, but the city is still interesting in spite of being a little tired. The 16 buildings were all from the late 1800’s. Some were falling apart, some had been refinished and were in use again, all had interesting stories.

At one point we noticed some people in a park bending down and picking things up and putting them into plastic bags.  We thought at first they were collecting trash, but as we got closer we realized they were picking up nuts that had fallen out of the trees.  We collected some ourselves, and stepped on them to crack them open.  They turned out to be pecans!  We enjoyed ourselves sampling the pecans - it was a good lunch!  :)

After Fort Stockton we hopped back in the car. We checked the email from our host, and realized she hadn’t given us her phone number or address, so we quickly wrote her an email and then got on the road. It was noon, and we had only about a 5 hour drive left. When we arrived in San Antonio, we spent some time trying to figure out whether we could park at the government buildings without being ticketed or towed. The signs said “Towing enforced at all times” and “Official passes only - all others will be towed” and “No parking anytime except Sunday”. This seemed a little contradictory, but it was Sunday after all. Tricia was still nervous, so she called the towing company. The towing company didn’t know - they just came when the government workers called to say someone was parked illegally - so they gave Tricia the number for the government agency. They didn’t know either, so they gave her a third number. At this point I talked Tricia into leaving the car and trusting in the part of the sign we liked.

We wondered down to the Riverwalk in the bright Texas sun, and wondered up and down by the river. There are barges and beautiful trees and restaurants, and we found a Spanish place on the water to eat. We ordered one meal, but it came with chips, salsa, queso, guacamole salad, an enchilada, a taco, a tamale, rice, and beans. It was quite fun.

When we returned to our car, it had thankfully not been ticketed or towed.  We heard music coming from a block away, and decided to leave our car there and check it out.  Tricia spotted a police man in the next lot over, and went over to ask him whether we were parked illegally.  Like everyone else in San Antonio, he had no idea, but said that after 6 we shouldn't have a problem in most places in the city.  So we once again trusted to fate and left our car.  On the next street was a small crowd of people watching a singer and some dancers.  We spent a few minutes watching with them and then left.

By this time we were getting very nervous that the girl in San Antonio hadn’t emailed us back yet. We emailed another couple who had said they could take us but were 40 minutes away, and hoped that they would check their email before going to bed. We went to Starbucks to use our computers and wait for someone to adopt us. Finally, we got to the point where we were afraid we would be stranded for the night. At about 8:30 we went on the San Antonio “emergency” page and left a message asking if anyone could take us last minute. Twenty minutes later, Mark had found us and given us directions to his house. He had a couch, a sleeping pad, blankets, a puppy, and a shower. It was lovely. The puppy was very very happy to have guests, and jumped around and on top of us and nipped at our fingers and toes. We were very very happy to have access to a shower. After chatting for a while (Mark had actually started the emergency page in San Antonio, modeling it after other cities), we showered and stretched out on the couch and sleeping pad and turned in for the night.

Albuquerque - 2/19/11

Albuquerque pics!!

In the morning we tiptoed over the sleeping forms in the living room, left a thank you note, and made our exit.  It was already 9:30, so we shared an orange in the car and got on the road.  We were rushing to hit Albuquerque by 11, as there was a dance being performed then at the Indian Cultural Center.  We drove quickly and squealed into the parking lot at about 10:58 and ran into the lobby and danced impatiently as the curator went over the map with the people in front of us.  Finally, and I do mean finally, the curator let the people go and took our $6 admission.  It was then that we saw the sign that the dance was actually at 12, not 11.  So we were much less impatient while the curator went over every detail of the map with us, including where pictures were allowed and where they weren't. 

We wandered through the cultural center for a while, and came to our favorite part of any museum - the kids' room.  We got to try our hand at weaving at a loom!!  As we sat there, trying to weave the stick through the vertical strings, a lady came by and showed us how to push the stick through at the top, where the strings were already separated for us.  Ooooohhhh.  So we managed to weave one line of the rug.  Next, we were supposed to switch the strings to weave the second line.  The directions said to pull one stick up and over the other to reverse the strings.  We sat and tried for about 10 minutes, but this proved too complicated for us.  We finally had to admit that we wouldn't have made very good Indian women, and give up on our weaving careers.  The children's room also had clay to make pottery, but we were too discouraged by our weaving failure and didn't want to fail at pottery too, so we went back to the adult section.

Soon it was 12, and we went outside to watch the dance.  There is a dance every week, and this week there was only one dancer.  He showed us some traditional dances from his tribe, and his wife sang songs she had written about Indian culture.  The best was when he invited us to dance.  We jumped up, and some brave souls followed us, and we held hands and danced in a circle and then snaked around in loops and figure eights.  He taunted the chickens who were too afraid to dance with us. 

As we'd only had 1/2 an orange each for breakfast, we decided to go to the cultural cafe for a second breakfast.  We ordered blue corn pancakes with breakfast potatoes, eggs, ham, and sopapilla with honey.  We dripped honey all over everything trying to get as much honey as possible on our sopapillas.  We like honey.

We drove through historic Albuquerque for a few minutes, and then got on the highway to high-tail it to Texas.  We had about a 7 hour drive and it would be late when we got to Fort Stockton. Tricia had awoken about an hour before I had, and as we'd gone to sleep at 3 am, she was very tired and took a nap in the passenger seat while I drove through New Mexico rather on auto-pilot.  When she woke up we chatted for a bit, and then she said, "um....did you get off at exit 316?"  Um...no.  And here we were at exit 370.  I can't remember directions for more than 15 seconds after I'm told them, and I've been completely spoiled by the "stay on 80, stop when you hit San Francisco" directions we'd had up until then. So, we needed to figure out an alternate route. There was a diamond shaped group of roads to heading south, and that looked like the way to go. My gps said to take the east path, but it looked longer than the west path, so we headed west. For several miles, the gps implored us to turn around, but we ignored her. Right about then we also considered getting gas, but we had more than a quarter tank and gas was more expensive than it had been.

After a few miles, we came to the westmost corner of the diamond and began heading southeast. Suddenly, we were on the most empty, desolate road ever. There were no cars. There were no businesses, there were no houses. Every dozen miles or so we would pass the gate to a ranch, but the ranch itself was far enough away that we couldn't see any of the buildings. We had about 60 miles to go, and our gas was getting precariously low. And it was getting dark. In the waning light, we got out of the car to do some yoga. (Tricia made sure to lock the door, even though we'd seen about two cars in the past 20 minutes, and certainly no people. There had been some cows...) Then we got back in the car and pulled out the AAA guide. Apparently, AAA will drive to you and bring you enough gas to get you to the next gas station (I wondered if they'd really give us enough gas to go 40 or so miles). We foraged on, watching the gauge go all the way to the E. In the precious few moments that we had cell coverage, we tried to coax my cell phone and tricia's iPad into telling us where the nearest gas station was, but both just informed us that "our search returned no results on our route". When we finally got to the end of that road, the gas light came on, and there were still no gas stations in sight on the new road. But, there were cars. And cell coverage. And the iPad and cell phone finally stopped being so fatalistic and told us of gas stations 20 miles up ahead. We figured we had a good 30 miles left in the tank, so were feeling much more upbeat about the whole thing. (It's important to note here that only my phone and the iPad had very little coverage. Tricia, having Verizon, never lost coverage. Those Verizon/AT&T commercials are accurate - if you're in the middle of nowhere, you want Verizon, hands down.

After gassing up, we soon crossed into Texas. We had barely an hour left before we would reach Fort Stockton, and were in high spirits. Seeing several signs saying "turn left for historical marker", we turned left to find one of them. As we drove along the very dark back road, Tricia said it reminded her of the movie "the last house on the left", and then proceeded to describe it for me. If you havent seen it, I will tell you the plot. A girl is raped, and then her rapists are tortured by her parents. Except graphic. And gory. Whem she finished we snapped a picture of the road in front of us, made sure all the doors were locked, made a 3 point turn in the middle of the road, turned on Billy Joel, sang at the top of our lungs, and high tailed it out of there!! It was seriously spooky!!

We stayed on the main road for the remainder of the time into Fort Stockton. And we arrived safe and sound.

Santa Fe - 2/18/2011

After grabbing the camera battery from the outlet under the futon and some clothes from the dryer (yay reminder post-it notes!  The guy who had moved out the day before had left his laundry in the dryer.  He could have used some post-it notes), we began our exploration of Santa Fe.  First up was parking.  $10 for all day... Sold.  We had planned on heading to the Georgia O'Keefe museum since we had read that it was free but this was not the case.  Oh well, took a few pictures of the outside and moved on down the street.

Day 16 photos!

We came across a huge number of art galleries where no pictures were allowed and so descriptions will have to suffice.  The first we stopped at was the Clive Jones gallery of animation art.  A daffy duck bench had caught our eye and the fun theme continued throughout.  Next door was a more traditional gallery full of modern art :)  It was called the Patina gallery and the adjectives that popped into mind were crazy and elegant.  There was beautiful jewelry, some with sleek circle pieces and others with sharp bear claws.  Following Patinas in line was Hueys Fine Art.  When you first enter a sculpture of movement and embrace captures your attention immediately followed by a number of large beautiful landscapes.  Painting after painting had my admiration as they captured what the human eye and soul sees, far beyond the very different capabilities of a camera.  This gallery also included a number of spectacular old pots of which the owner of the originals, Bill Freeman, creates replicas to sell.  Apparently he is 88 years old send has been doing this for 55 years.  On the walls were more paintings by a variety of artists.  Don Prechtel had some interesting, but so so in my opinion, psintings of cowboys and Indians.  Robert Moore's paintings were breathtaking, not sure if it was because of or in spite of the gloppy paint... And my notes go on and on.  We stopped in to quite a few more galleries, but as it seems I took down more notes than most would care to read, I'll sort through them later.

After the galleries we came to our first historical site, the Palace of the Governor.  The entire front of the building was lined with people selling Indian art and jewelry.  The sand paintings were particularly pretty.  We headed into the actual building and were told that it was free after 5pm.  After taking a look at the lobby (cool Nichos and Greek revival style doorways and a picture of a fandango, lively dance) we were back on the street and headed to the main plaza where more art awaited.  As we walked we saw a man eating what looked like pulled pork out of a frito bag, um, strange.  However, we were soon distracted by the El Molero fajitos stand.  We got one to share.  Now, this sharing thing has been going really well, but splitting this fajita which would have been difficult to eat by itself, especially without silverware, was quite a feat.  It was also incredibly spicy and with our tongues on fire we began running around looking for some water.

A water fountain was finally found in a nearby mall type place.  It had more art and jewelry and also some really neat stores with boots and clothes.  I found a really amazing pair of shoes, leather slide ons with beading and they were even 10% off!  Unfortunately the original cost was $695. Boo.  However, there were also $5 earrings and Kat bought a really pretty pair with Indian catchers and feathers.  She lost them later that night, but that's okay because we have a picture.  With our tongues still burning a bit we began a new search, this one for ice cream. The store next to the mall had signs all over for famous frito pie.  Ah ha moment as we realized that that was what that guy had been eating earlier. In the next building we found hagan daaz ice cream.  It was crazy expensive for a tiny cup, $3.66, but really rich and yummy with large chunks of peanut butter.  Happy and content, we took off again, this time in search of the visitors center and bathrooms.

After following a ridiculously large number of blue signs, we finally arrived at the visitors center and it had bathrooms and free coffee.  Score! We were wilting a bit by this time.  According to a number of brochures, our next stop should be the capitol.  We arrived, and after taking a fun picture of a friendship statue, we entered to a throng of people there for Oil and Gas day.  After wading through that we made it to the senate room which Kat was scared to go into.  She missed a fun couple of minutes of the committee discussing new anti-bully laws and side tracks into the education budget.  Next up were three beautiful cathedrals/chapels.  Following our trusty map, we then came to the Institute of Native American Contemporary Art.  It was $10 so we didn't go in, but the lobby had books and books and books so we were happy browsing.  They also had a table of $1 things which included a puzzle of the American Indian dream with lipstick and ice cream, strange.  Let's see, Kat also bought a $1 book and we both tried a number of natural lotion samples and left smelling pretty.  Next up was a trip up a hill to see the Cross of the Martyrs.  The sky was full of beautiful clouds and we had a great view of the city.  Those pictures turned out pretty well.

We wanted to make sure to eat before the 5pm free museum extravaganza began and so we started to head back to the center of town.  On the way we passed a library and of course stopped in.  I started talking to one of the librarians and she is actually heading to Simmons College in June to begin her masters program there.  It was a lot of fun talking to her about possibilities in the field and we even exchanged emails.  She recommended a good Mexican place and we headed over to the Blue Corn Bar and Grill.  It was a yummy dinner of green chili relleno, chicken enchilada, and beef taco along with some sopapilla and a margarita to share.

After quite a bit of run around on which museums were actually free after 5, we headed to the governors' palace and the connecting history museum.  There we saw a pretty sweet full size wagon, a broken pot puzzle that Kat put together and an arrowhead that had been radiocarbon dated to 5040 BC.  Not as far back, but also pretty neat was a peek hole in the floor through which we could see some of the original foundation of the building, the oldest public building in continuos use.  In the actual history museum we saw a broader history of the area which took us from a ceiling hanging with arrows to another mention of the Navajo code talkers.  One quote stuck out, "Everything is quiet in Cimarron. Nobody has been killed in three days." This was from a copy of the Las Vegas gazette, late 1870's.  Makes us grateful to not have been there.  The top floor had a special exhibit which told the story of Ernest Thompson Seton, a wolf hunter turned conservationist.

It was getting close to the 9 o'clock closing time and so we headed over to the art museum.  As we walked in I had to smile as there was a huge collection of cloudscapes.  People who must love them as much as I do :) Here we were also able to see some of Georgia O'Keefe's work, always interesting.  The next room was also interesting with its politically motivated artwork.  Our wanderings completed, we headed to starbucks for a $1.50 cup of coffee (with lots of chocolate powder, milk and sugar added) and some Internet to write.  We also finally made contact with our host for the night and got directions.  Unfortunately, he couldn't help us find our car.  We wandered around for a bit, ran into some fish and had a fewnphone conversations, but did eventually get to our destination.  As we walked into the home, a living room full of people greeted us.  It was an amazing night of beer tasting and music playing.  Our host had traveled extensively and had stories and musical instruments from around the world.  It was not until the wee hours of the morning that we finally crashed (along with the 7 other people still in the house) and day sixteen of our trip came to a close.  Our host's roommate also gave up the only bed in the place to us, so we had a nice comfortable place to sleep (albeit only for a very few hours!).