Blog draft may 20 26 Hotels In my youth we called roadside inns motels. Today we call many of them hotels. These are operated by major hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton. We stayed in a string of Hampton Inns, all owned and operated by Hilton. They are indeed hotels. Multiple floors, dining facilities, and roomy, well-furnished rooms. In our case we had handicapped accessible rooms that had safer showers for mobility challenged people, me. All of these hotels provided sumptuous breakfasts in the morning for several hours. Early birds like me ate at 6 am. Others lazed and ate at 8 or 9. Selection of food was broad and all was delicious. These hotels earned their category as hotels. In Santa Fe we stayed at the Hotel Santa Fe and Spa. It is a cozy hotel designed in the southwestern motif. An added plus is the hotel is owned and operated by a Native American tribe. The service personnel were exceptional. The meals were excellent. They welcomed us and kept us feeling welco...
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Blog draft may 18 26 Miles We drove nearly 3000 miles on our recent trip to New Mexico. We had planned about 4500 if Arizona was included. But that was not to be. Lots of miles. Some tolls, although most were in Oklahoma at $10.50 a pop, at least three times, maybe four. At least those tolls were charged to the license plate. I expect some bills to be received in a week or two. Gas stops were frequent although my car is a hybrid and gets great mileage. At 70 to 85 miles per house, however, the mpg’s drop significantly. I get 42 mpg around town but 32 or so on the highway. Our trip averaged 29.6 mpg. Not shabby. Gas prices rose during the trip mirroring the Strait of Hormuz storyline. Still, the most costly gas was in Illinois at $4.70 per gallon as we got close to home. Traffic congestion was very thick in St. Louis. Again in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The latter was often five lanes of congestion. Also, truck traffic was heavy throughout the trip. You know what they say ...
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Blog draft may 15 26 Art Shape. Color. Function. Texture. Presence. These are primary elements of most works of art, I doubt we think of them in this precise way, but an image instantly appears in our mind and we think. About it. About what it represents. About what we are feeling about it or anything else. This piece of art in front of me causes ideas to flow. It is speaking to me. It may be clear communication or not. Mostly not. In time, however, something coalesces and meaning for that piece and I becomes a firm thought. At times it seems like magic, but art truly is a communication from the artist to someone else. Not an intentional message perhaps to a specific person, but a message none the same to another person. The viewer makes sense of the piece one way or another. To those it does not speak to, they walk by without a care or thought. That’s just the nature of art. The southwestern states of America are alive with artists. A lot of them are native Americans...
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Blog draft may 13 26 Rocks And more rocks. Travelling to the southwestern United States, you see more rock. Different types. So many colors. And textures beyond imagination. Tall and short, wide and narrow, square and spindly, crooked and straight, rocks in the southwest are the story. You know you have arrived when most of the grass has disappeared and the plains sprout mountains and mesas. Hills? Not so much. Mountains yes. Buttes, too with flattop mesas above. Along the sides of mountains and mesas are rocks. Some have small holes in them, carved by birds for nests and homes. Other holes are larger for creatures who can climb rocks with claws to carry them. They nest as well deep into the rock walls. Later humans would build cliff dwellings away from wind and damaging rain. Entire communities would take residence high above the canyon floor for protection from animals and human predators. Rocks as scenery. Rocks as residence. And the color of the rock walls may hav...
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Blog draft may 11 26 Colors We think in black and white and colors. Recall some dreams you’ve had. What color were they? Technicolor or drab black and white? I’ll bet they were in full, rich hues. Think of the desert, any desert foreign or domestic. Sandy? Pink? A slight pinkish white? Then remember, if you can, what you have seen in-person of any desert. What color is present. I lived on the Mojave Desert for 3 years when I was very young. One of the memories I came away with was how colorful the desert was. I don’t think I was fully conscious of it then, but in the decades that have passed, my memory is rich in colors. As an adult visitor to the same desert or any other, color is the outstanding impression. Red rocks. Rocks with stripes of grey, black, pink, red, purple, and many other shades. Rich in presence, the desert landscape is radiant with color, and texture. Textures include sand, grit, smooth, jagged, pointed, delicate and ruggedly large. Nothing delicate ...
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Blog draft may 8 26 Trip and Trees Bulbous green. Bouncing branches fully leafed out. Shades of green too numerous to name. woods and more woods everywhere. This does not describe Illinois well, but Missouri it does. Missouri if a major state of trees, especially along old Route 66. We took Interstate 55 in Illinois to I-44 in St. Louis, to I-40 in Oklahoma City. From there the trip was I-40 to Albuquerque and then I-25 to Santa Fe. I-55, I-44 and I-40 all cover the old Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. It is an historic route celebrating its 100 th birthday this year. Well, that’s the route we took, but trees were beautiful and plentiful in Missouri and Oklahoma. Texas and New Mexico has a landscape that does not favor deciduous trees. New Mexico will support leafed trees depending on altitude, soil and moisture present. Most of the green in the state comes from round, bushing pinion pines. Those dot the rocky landscape by the millions. Very pleasant ...
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Blog draft may 6 26 More About the Trip I have related heart and breathing problems. They are well under control by meds and ongoing testing. We shift the treatment as needed on a monthly basis so we are all good. The trip, however, provided the challenge of high altitude/ Santa Fe and Taos are both at 7000 feet compared with Chicago’s 720 feet. I deal with this difference with pulseox measurements frequently. Looking for a medium pulse rate (65 to 75) and oxygen concentration of 88 to 95. My norm is 90 to 92. The trip, however, produced oxygen concentration ratings of 72 to 86. That calls for oxygen from either a tank or a concentrator. I have a home-based large concentrator, and a smaller travel concentrator. It is the latter that failed on this trip without our knowing of it. When my oxygen rate consistently sat at 74 while totally immobile, the internet told me to get to the hospital quickly. We did and all is well. This week I have to figure out how to replace the co...