Clinton, OK to Santa Fe, NM

Friday May 6, 2011

Clinton, OK to Santa Fe, MN

This was a straight drive on I-40 through Oklahoma and Texas into New Mexico where we turned north up MN 285 to Santa Fe. The landscape varied from flat with an arrow straight highway to rolling hills and curving highway. The vegetation was sparse and the grass generally brown speckled with black cattle now and then

When I told people we were making this trip I was usually told it would be boring, boring, boring across the midwest. From one standpoint it was, but I found there were infinite number of things to look at. I was fascinated by the sudden appearance of a house or collection buildings.  Who lived out there miles from any other people? At one point we saw a sign announcing Cuervo, NM. When we reached the town it was nothing but a group of crumbling buildings; weed grown and deserted.

The textures and colors of the land were constantly changing – light greens mixed with darker green; sudden flashes of red-gray rocks and bright red soil. Hills and steep flat top mesas, or are they buttes, began to appear. At various times a dark band would appear to the south looking very much like the ocean in the distance!

Isolation became real to me as the landscape unfolded. I could not say there was nothing there because there was always something – an oil rig here, a windmill there, and then round metal corn silos followed by rusting trucks and automobiles. Once an endless train of multicolored freight cars crept east as we flew west.

We stopped in Texas at a Safety Stop perched on a rise of land beside the highway. It was built as a rest stop with sun-shielded picnic tables and a handsome building built like a fortress.  It was a tornado shelter complete wireless internet and an exhibit on the development of agriculture in the area.

As we approached New Mexico, highlands appeared and great hills of crumbling red rock. Dry washes veined the land and dark green trees became more numerous.

I photographed a lonely house with bright red roof. In contrast in the far distance to the north was a white capped mountain.  This land is a land of contrast and infinite variety.

Once we left I-40 the road swooped around curves, ran long stretches straight as an arrow now rising and then dipping. The white capped mountains appeared and disappeared as we drove.

The trip was a poetic journey. We loved it! And

At 4pm we arrived at 901 Dunlap Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our friends the Walkers lent us their lovely adobe house for our stay. Thank you Mac and Mary Jo.

The road to eternity

landscapes changed continually

Now and then cattle dotted the land

land formations changed as the miles passed

Windmills and abandoned buildings came and went

 The last vestiges of Cuervo, New Mexico

I do love barns

And the road went on and on

As we approached Santa Fe the road dipped and  turned.

Land forms changed and snow capped mountains appeared

The first glimpse of Santa Fe