Meow Wolf

Have you heard of Meow Wolf? I guess it can be described as a multisensory art experience. At first it was only in Santa Fe, New Mexico, then I think a second one opened in Las Vegas, and now there's one in Denver, which you see pictured here in a snapshot I took out the car window as we were passing by. I've never been to Meow Wolf but many of my friends have. They describe it as very, well, psychedelic. From what they tell me, the best one is in Santa Fe, so maybe I'll make a special trip to New Mexico to check it out before I hit up the Denver location.

Road Trip to Durango (Part 8)

A few more pictures of our little detour to Farmington, New Mexico. Tomorrow I'll show you some pretty pictures from our drive back home to Colorado Springs.

Road Trip to Durango (Part 6)

Durango is a little over fifty miles from Farmington, New Mexico, and my brother Chuck reminded me that there's a Muffler Man in Farmington, so of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity to add pictures of him to our collection! If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that Pat and I are somewhat fanatical about Muffler Men and will go out of our way on road trips to find one. So fifty miles was nothing! If you've never heard of Muffler Men, by all means take a minute to read about them HERE. The one in Farmington is called Sunny the Big Man, and he's dressed in baseball garb in honor of the Connie Mack World Series held there every summer. In fact, we just happened to be there around that time (maybe he's only dressed like that during Connie Mack week?). Anyway, we were thrilled to find him and I took lots of pictures. After that, we explored Farmington's downtown a bit. Pictures of that tomorrow!

Road Trip to Durango (Part 4)

More cool Durango pictures! Just random stuff we saw walking around town. I'll post a few more on Monday, and on Tuesday I'll show you what we saw in Farmington, New Mexico.

Road trip to Texas (part 1)

As promised, I'll be sharing some of my vacation pictures for the next few days. The photo above was taken somewhere in New Mexico, en route to Alpine, Texas with a stop in Roswell just for the heck of it. We wanted to see the crazy alien conspiracy stuff that Roswell is famous for. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that Pat and I are huge fans of kitsch, and it doesn't get much more kitsch than Roswell! Another reason why we wanted to stop there was that a couple of days before our trip we watched the movie "50 to 1", about the long shot gelding named Mine That Bird who surprisingly won the Kentucky Derby in 2009. Mine That Bird trained in Roswell, and the Double Eagle Ranch, where it all happened, is featured in the film. We wanted to see it just for fun, and maybe get a glimpse of the champion himself, who is now retired and living out his days on a ranch across the street called Buena Suerte Equine. It was fun to see the ranch and the track he trained on, even though we didn't see Mine That Bird. Pretty cool!

It seems like everything in Roswell is tied into the alien theme. I love a town that embraces its weirdness. Practically every business in Roswell has a big green alien standing in front of it, or a green alien head somewhere in its logo.

The famous UFO Museum.

More alien stuff! I like the misspellings and questionable grammar on this sign.

The Double Eagle Ranch! This is where Mine That Bird trained. Having watched the movie only 48 hours earlier, it was fun to find the entrance to the ranch, looking exactly how it did in the film. Pretty cool!

Just across the road is Buena Suerte Equine, where Mine That Bird now lives in comfortable retirement.

Here's the track that he trained on. I recognized it from the film as well.

Leaving Roswell, headed for Carlsbad and beyond. It was miles and miles and miles of flat, straight highway through a dirty windshield.

We made it to oil country as the sun was going down. Vents burn off excess gas to prevent it from entering the atmosphere. We saw countless numbers of these, glowing in the nighttime landscape as we drove deeper into Texas.

Tomorrow, pictures from Marfa! Stay tuned!

Ratón Pass and Fishers Peak

The mountain pass that straddles the Colorado/New Mexico border is called Ratón Pass, and the town just inside the New Mexico border is called Ratón. Being reasonably literate in Spanish, I've always thought that ratón meant rat, but I guess I was wrong all this time. I just double-checked, and it means mouse. My estimation of the town of Ratón has gone up accordingly ;^)

When you're driving through Ratón Pass from New Mexico into Colorado, there's a "scenic view" area to pull your car over and take a picture. You can't really get this view driving the opposite direction. I've always thought it was interesting how the topography changes noticeably almost the instant you cross the state line. The Colorado side is emphatically Colorado-looking, and the New Mexico side is equally emphatically New Mexico-looking, once you get clear of the pass. It's weird. This mesa is known as Fishers Peak, and it's on the Colorado side of the border.

I did a pano of the same view for you, below. This is about four or five photos seamed together in Photoshop. It doesn't truly capture the breathtaking view, but you get the idea (click on it to see it a little bigger). If you ever find yourself driving into Colorado from New Mexico via Ratón Pass, do pull you car over, stretch your legs and take in this beautiful vista.

February Theme Day: Entry

It's the first of the month, and that means Theme Day for City Daily Photo bloggers! This month's theme is entry. I must admit I was initially perplexed by the concept. My first thought went, naturally, to doorways, but I figured that a lot of the other CDP bloggers might have the same idea, so I decided to try and come up with something else. Eventually, after much pondering, I came up with the "Welcome to Colorful Colorado" signs that are posted at every major entryway to the state. So here you have it: within an hour of the idea entering my brain and exiting my lips, Pat and I were in the car, headed for the border -- the Colorado/New Mexico border that is, smack in the middle of Raton Pass, just south of Trinidad. We drove 150 miles, snapped a few pictures of the "Welcome to New Mexico" sign, turned the car around, drove back and snapped a few pictures of the "Welcome to Colorful Colorado" sign, then drove 150 miles home. I think we were in New Mexico for about seven and-a-half minutes ;^) The things I do for my blog! (Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. We had a blast!) For more entry images from City Daily Photo bloggers all over the planet, click HERE!

Below: what you see as you leave Colorful Colorado and enter New Mexico.

And just for fun (and because I've never bothered to have my picture taken in front of either sign, although I've driven past both of them countless times), here is Your Favorite Colorado Springs Blogger, waving like a regular tourist :^) 

I'm probably just biased, but I think the Colorado sign is better ;^) 

Traditional chili ristras

Every year around the end of summer, little stands pop up on local roadsides selling fresh roasted chili peppers. I never indulge, mostly because I have been suffering from severe GERD and was forbidden to eat spicy foods until I had surgery last month! But the smell of roasting chilis is very tempting indeed. If freshly roasted peppers is not your cup of tea, you can always buy them unroasted in these traditional ristras -- that is, strung up in bunches like you see in the photo above. It's a very southwestern thing. (By the way, these are hatch chilis, in case you were curious.) You can find ristras like this all over the American southwest, especially New Mexico, where hatch chilis originated.  Where to buy ristras in Colorado Springs:  at Camino Real in Old Colorado City on the corner of 27th and Colorado, where I took this picture last week.