Help me, Obi-Mom Kenobi! You're my only hope.

“I have decided that we shall stay here.” – C-3PO, Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

Tonight we’re staying in the hotel that we stayed in last night. I know! For the first time in 8 days we didn’t pack up and get in the car first thing. Crazy. Our historic hotel is not exactly luxe, quiet, or even particularly quaint (despite being in the heart of Silver City’s Old Downtown area). But it has one special amenity – a private room for Padawan Learner. We’re all enjoying a little time apart at the present. PL is watching NCIS until his eyeballs glaze over and Dad Windu is “reading” (napping) – and neither is having to bend to the other’s wishes for a few moments. Now that’s luxury.

PL and I covered a few hours of lessons this morning at the corner coffee shop while DW walked around town and scoped out the old buildings. He met a curmudeony local bookseller that said, after hearing that he was looking for a book on local history, ”I can tell you all about Silver City’s history. They mined silver here and they treated the Chinese people very badly.” Well OK then. We all took a little stroll through downtown, with DW acting as tour-guide with his new found knowledge of the town courtesy of his new book, Built to Last: An Architectural History of Silver City, New Mexico.

After lunch we headed to the Fort Bayard National Monument this afternoon. What a disappointment. There’s a National Cemetery and a few plaques scattered roundabout covering the myriad uses of the Fort’s land over the years (protective fort for silver miners and settlers, training camp for one of the Buffalo Soldier units, Army TB hospital), but nothing is open. Even the windows are closed up and covered. Oh, well, our first strike out. Attached to the site is a trail for one of the many hiking areas in the Gila National Forest, so we spent a couple of hours there instead.

Another hiker said we had to follow the Big Tree path. “It’s a lovely trail and there’s just the most enormous tree at the end of it.” It was a nice trail – moderated difficult with varied terrain, enough hills to make you glad to find another downward slope, and the (empty) promise of a potential wolf sighting. After the two miles out, we saw this:

our not so gigantic tree at the end of the trail

Obi-Wan Kenobi:    It’s over Anakin, I have the high ground.
Anakin Skywalker: You underestimate my power!
Obi-Wan Kenobi:    Don’t try it.
        Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

High ground seems to be a recurring theme for this week. Despite the fact that I’m getting a bloody nose on a regular basis, I’m enjoying the treks up and into these high places.

We started yesterday morning off, at Dad Windu’s request, with a trip to the Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque. For such a nondiscript little hole in the wall, we all had quite a good time seeing about 30 different types of snakes – plus reptiles and spiders. I was a little leery about going in, not being a fan of snakes, but apparently a thin pane of glass is all it takes to reduce my “willy” factor. There was one particularly beautiful snake, an albino, showcased on black rock that followed Padawan Learner back and forth. It was… mesmerizing.

We tried to get PL some trampoline time at a local gym, but they had birthday parties scheduled for the entire afternoon and night so – No gym for you! He was definitely bummed, but we’ll look for another place in Las Cruces. At J. Kubenka’s suggestion, we roamed through the Aquarium and Botanical Gardens in town. They have some gigantic sting rays (my favorite) and a couple of nasty looking sharks (PL’s). Although the flowers in the garden were long past their prime, it was a really relaxing walk. Our friend, C-3PO, would have loved the Botanical Garden: it had several G-scale trains running through it.

And now we get into the high ground part: the Petroglyphs National Monument was hiking and climbing galore. The park has 3 different locations for viewing the petroglyphs and we went to them all. We even had an unexpected little “extra” journey after taking a wrong “path” on the last location. Doh! Oh well, PL certainly didn’t seem mind that he had to blaze a path down the side of a mountain. After that, we headed down to Socorro for the night. It was an all around pleasant day, and a perfect day for driving.

Today we headed out to the Very Large Array and it was beautiful in its simplicity. You can see it from miles away. The three arms are each 13 miles in length, in a Y formation. They even cross two roads. I thought we’d be there maybe 20 minutes, tops, but we were there for an hour or so instead – and PL and DW aren’t even astronomy geeks like me.

We had a beautiful drive through the  mountains to Silver City, NM, but we may have found PL’s mountain-driving limit. He started to get a little car-sick about 3 hours in, so I got to try out the backseat for the first time this trip. I know where I’ll be sitting when we finally head up to the cliff dwellings in Gila!

“Remember, concentrate on the moment. Feel, don’t think. Trust your instincts.” – Qui-Gon Jinn, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

How the days get away from me, and how tired I am at the end of them!  It’s a good tired though. We’re seeing so many interesting things and going to such remarkable places. It’s been a full week now, as I sit here in the laundry mat, since we’ve been on vacation. It’s going faster than I thought it would. Normally we’d be heading back home after a week; I’m so thankful to be here with Dad Windu and Padawan Learner.

One change coming up on Monday, is the fact that PL and I are going to attempt to do some lessons over the next two weeks while we’re in the car. As it’s not uncommon for us to drive a couple of hours each day, we should be able to do that without too much problem. But if it becomes a burden or makes either of us miserable, we’ll probably chuck it until we get back. Time will tell.

We had quite a full day yesterday. We continue to run on, off and across Route 66, without even trying. At first we would call it out each time we say a sign for it – “Look, Route 66!” – but we’ve gotten used to it now. I still think it’s cool, but I’m not surprised by it any more.

We stopped at the Pecos National Historic Park, since one of Padawan Learner’s requests from the trip was a chance to see some pueblos. He was hoping for intact pueblos, but he enjoyed going down into a reconstructed Kiva and seeing the layout of the old Mission church (especially the small doors) nonetheless. Dad Windu had been looking forward to seeing some rattlesnakes, as there were signs warning visitors to watch out for them, but we didn’t see any. I was OK with that.

On our way into Santa Fe, we stopped at the Santa Fe Camera Shop and bought a new camera for DW to use on the trip. It’s just a little Canon Elph, not quite the mega camera that DW is used to, but it’s better than nothing and it’ll be mine after we get back home. To make sure of that, I picked out a pink one.  J PL is going to get my current camera, so he’s pretty happy about that. Our only concern is that the new camera started making some pretty strange noises today when DW was trying to take a picture – almost like it’s constantly trying to focus and re-focus. It’s taking decent pictures though, so we’re choosing not to fret.

Bandelier National Monument was an event to get to, miles of mountainous switch back roads that always make me get a nose bleed, but it was worth it for sure. The cliff dwellings were another request by PL and I’m glad he asked to see them. It’s amazing to think that the former residents of these cave homes were so resourseful in such an often inhospitable place. We were able to climb up into them to see the scorch marks from generations of fires, which has got to be one of the highlights of our trip to date. I was intrigued by petroglyphs adorning the walls. Decoration? Storytelling? Good luck omens? Sometimes I really, really want a time-machine so that I could go back in time and ask these types of questions as they roll around in my brain.

Lando Calrissian: “We won’t get another chance at this, Admiral.”
Admiral Ackbar:  “We have no choice, General Calrissian! Our cruisers can’t repel firepower of that magnitude!”
Lando Calrissian: “Han will have that shield down. We’ve got to give him more time!”

Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

That could have been our family’s cry today, “We’ve got to give him more time!”

Padawan Learner was entranced by Palo Luna State Park (the Grand Canyon of Texas) today. Entranced. Although we hiked and hiked, drove and drove, and took picture after picture for hour after hour, it wasn’t enough to satisfy his love for the place. We tried to stay overnight at the park, but all the cabins have been reserved for the next two weeks. Bummer! So we stayed as long as we could and are sleeping nearby. We’re shipping out to New Mexico in the morn.

It’s late, I’m tired, and my feet are killing me, so I’m going  to bed shortly. Here’s a few pictures for you all to enjoy.

“Careful you must be when sensing the future Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side.” – Yoda, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

We started yesterday morning off with a fantabulous breakfast at this great little restaurant attached to our hotel. $3.49 for a full, delicious breakfast. OK, now you know what floats my boat first thing in the morning – food.

We got into Oklahoma City care of our new best friend – Chelsea, the voice of Mr. Sunday Morning Doughnut Buddy’s super wonderful Garmin Nuvi. We ordered our own Nuvi but it didn’t arrive in time, so Mr. SMDB took pity on poor Dad Windu and lent us his. DW may very well become his bitch, he loves it so much. This is pretty impressive for a guy that actually considered making his cell phone voicemail password 1234567. I kid you not.

Our first stop was the  National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Yeah… I don’t think we’re the target audience. It was well-done inside and out with a gorgeous building and grounds and well-laid out exhibits, but it left us all feeling so-so about the topic at hand. Even after spending that much money (and it’s a $$$ level museum), we were ready to vamoosh long before the items ran out. The highlight for us was the re-created frontier town but if you’re into Rodeo, they have a pretty extensive exhibit on that.

Since we got into OKC pretty early, we had time to head over to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. What a sobering place. I was pregnant with Padawan Learner when the bombing occurred. I kept having flashbacks to sitting at my desk when the receptionist announced the bombing overhead on the intercom system.

The museum is designed to keep you perpetually uneasy, constantly on edge. A voice leading a governmental meeting cut short by a blast, the screams of hundreds in terror, survivors describe being buried in rubble, a doctor explains performing an emergency amputation on-site with his pocket knife. A single, dingy child’s shoe stands on a shelf, identified as belonging to one of the 19 children who died in the day care center. A pitted file cabinet, with the top tore off, sits full of file folders. A poster reading

ATF 
Stranded 
Send HELP!

sits next to a picture of an ATF officer standing on the edge of what used to be his office.

I spent much of my time fighting back tears and moved from one section to another when I just couldn’t take it any more. Dad Windu was shocked by the state of the bathroom, in the museum building (across the street from the Hannah Federal Building), which was left in its original state of rubble – just as it was after the truck blew up. It very clearly shows the raw power of the explosion.

Outside, the memorial park is both beautiful and haunting. Two gates stand at either end, 9:01 and 9:03 with the reflecting pool and the empty chairs in between. The half-size chairs are particularly heart-wrenching.

After that experience, we decided that we were too melancholy to stay in OKC any longer (sorry, OKC), so Westward ho!  it was for us. We stopped at the world’s coolest rest stop, just inside the TX border on I-40, where even the BBQ grills showed the home pride. Only in Texas!

We ended up staying just outside of Amarillo, not quite sure of what we would be doing the next day. The hotel we stayed in was very nice (until our neighbor turned his TV on – really, really loud) and we all got a nice, long sleep (after we called the front desk re: the neighbor’s TV).

Obi-Wan Kenobi:  “Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy.”
Anakin Skywalker:  “If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.”

Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

War is such an odd thing. A war among neighbors, even stranger. Yet here we were, surrounded by acres of silent reminders from the Civil War. To bring you up to speed, Wilson’s Creek was the 2nd battle of the Civil War and the 1st west of the Mississippi River. It lasted 6 hours on August 10th. General Lyon, who took a musket ball in the chest, was the first general to die during the Civil War.

We arrived at the battlefield expecting to buy an annual National Parks pass, see a few displays, and be in and out in about a half-hour. We spent over 3 hours. After watching a film at the visitor’s center, we paid our $10 entrance fee (they were out of National Park passes), collected our entrance token and got back into the car for the driving tour. There were 8 stops along the four mile route and we stopped at them all. We followed the many trails, read the informational plaques, looked out across the corn and oat fields, and tried to imagine 6,000 men (sometimes within 50 feet of each other) fighting amidst a screen of smoke.

We visited the buildings, touched the cannon, walked the old Wire Road, identified the separate fields of conflict, mentally traced out the lines of fire, and listened to a babbling creek that was witness to it all. In the end, we were serious and silly, thoughtful, melancholy and grateful.