The Split Sky

Nice morning. We packed and headed for Gallup, New Mexico. The weather forecast was unstable with maybe rain, maybe not. Even though the landscape continued to fascinate me, the sky put on an impressive show.

All was pretty much as before as we headed south. But as we approached Santa Fe the foothills started to change. They were more numerous and you could see two distinct types. Hills with slowly rising sides resembling pyramids somewhat flat tops. The others are starting to approach buttes and mesas. What we were seeing was quite a bit different than the landscape further north. The colors all tended more toward red with some bright reds. The red cliffs are quite a sight.

The sky put on a spectacular show. The sky over the prairie, to our left, was covered with a stormy looking dark sky. Both were unusual.

On the right, we saw white billowy clouds, in the distance. The sky was a light blue. The white clouds, thick and fluffy, were so low that, from the car, we could see the ground below the clouds and the peaks of the mountains above. It had a fairy tale effect.

The clouds on the left we also low. At times the dark clouds actually formed large funnels all the way to the ground. The lightening was very active. The entire formation seemed to be still as were drove for miles and could the system from various sides. This was a spectacular effect.

Santa Fe was an interesting sight to approach. The cities, including Santa Fe that we saw from the interstate were all built in large basins. It is startling to crest the ridge of the basin and suddenly see the full expanse of the city spread out before the windshield. As we got closer, the buildings were different than we’re used to seeing. Most of them were adobe style. If not adobe, then blocky with flat roofs. Roofs not flat were of low pitch. Most were covered with stucco and colors were mostly light brown and lighter brown. This architecture was most evident to us when housing something familiar like McDonalds or KFC.

While in Santa Fe, we stopped at an interesting complex of stores named Jackalope. This attracted our attention because the Black Hills bus driver owns a home business that makes more Jackalopes than anyone else (his claim). The Jackalope is a mythical western creature that is a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope. He makes them by using taxidermy to stuff rabbits and mount horns on their heads. We saw some in the store and they wanted over a hundred dollars for them! The store was interesting. All kinds of Indian artifacts, artwork, pottery, etc. And all in a festival type atmosphere with many people and a lot of bargaining. Kind of reminded me of Stanley Market in Hong Kong.

Albuquerque was a quick pass with heavy traffic. We hope to see more on the trip back.

Then we came to the Continental Divide. We both posed at the official marker and conducted an experiment. When water was poured on the top of the marker, it ran down both sides. We’ve notified friends in San Diego and New Orleans to watch for the results.

We’ll be overnighting in Gallup, New Mexico.