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Road Trippin’ USA: a Brit’s perspective
One of my favourite types of holiday is a road trip in the US. To someone from a small island, the huge empty spaces and relatively quiet roads there evoke a sense of freedom and opportunity. Anything could happen here; anything could be just around the next corner.
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‘While you were watching TV’
On the slopes of Sandia Peak, above Albuquerque in New Mexico, we found a most unusual sight. As soon as I read about this quirky museum I knew that it was a ‘must see’. We both love those idiosyncratic places that seem to define a US road trip for us; and this is one of the best we have come across.
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Gallery: the Very Large Array
The massive radio telescopes of the Very Large Array, 27 of them, rise majestically out of New Mexico’s vast, otherwise almost empty, Plains of San Augustin like visitors from another world. But these are not visitors from another world, but searchers for such a world.
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In the footsteps of the Anasazi: Tsankawi
One reason for our planning to spend several days in Santa Fe on our New Mexico road trip was to visit nearby Bandelier National Monument. I had read a lot about it and knew it was just the sort of place we would enjoy visiting. Then a few months before our visit a wildfire swept through the area, devastating over 146,000 acres, including about 60% of Bandelier’s area. Almost all of the monument was closed to visitors.
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Gallery: of vintage wheels and shiny steel
While I have little interest in cars or motorbikes for themselves, I do find them interesting photographically speaking. And especially so old cars and shiny bikes!
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A stroll around Las Vegas
No, not THAT one! Did you know that there’s another Las Vegas, in New Mexico? But unlike its more famous glitzy namesake this one is an appealing mix of slightly down-at-heel with trying-hard-to-revive itself.
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Our Land of Enchantment: the scenic byways of New Mexico
New Mexico dubs itself the ‘Land of Enchantment’ and indeed we were enchanted. What delighted us most was the variety. In two and a half weeks we saw natural wonders and man-made. We followed trails worn down over the centuries by the moccasin-clad feet of early inhabitants; and sat in the cramped confines of a Mercury capsule. We marvelled at the legends of those early Native Americans, and at the tales of aliens crashing near Roswell.
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A pit stop in pioneering Pie Town
When I saw Pie Town on the map I knew we had to go there! Any town named after food has to be worth a visit, yes? And while getting to Pie Town involves a long drive across the empty plains of western New Mexico, for us the effort was well rewarded.
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Getting our kicks in Santa Rosa, NM
As we approached Santa Rosa on Interstate 40 the heavens opened and for about ten minutes we drove through a downpour so heavy that it was almost impossible to see the road or any other vehicle on it – scary stuff. Maybe the elements were finding a way to punish the road that almost destroyed one of the most iconic of all American cultural icons, Route 66.
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In the footsteps of the Mogollon at Gila Cliff Dwellings
Standing here and looking out over the valley, you have the same view a Mogollon would have had, centuries ago. For thousands of years, groups of nomadic people had used these caves to provide temporary shelter. Until, in the late 1200s, some people of the Mogollon culture decided this would be a good place to call home. They built rooms, crafted pottery and raised children in the cliff dwellings for about twenty years. Then the Mogollon moved on, leaving the walls of their homes still standing.
