Today's Location:
Big Skies out West
Day 3: If you have been following the AmericaQuest daily updates, you will recall that they had to adapt to a climate that was colder than expected. We have had to do the same. Monday, our first full day in New Mexico, was warm and clear. Today was the exact opposite. Clouds began rolling in from the west last night, and we woke this morning to a gray overcast sky. Sprinkles dotted our windshield from time to time, and a stiff shower came down as we ate our lunch. It began with what sounded like large, heavy raindrops, but was in fact tiny pieces of ice. It rained steadily for about 30 minutes, producing about half an inch total. That doesn't sound very impressive to Midwesterners, but when you live in a region that gets only 10-12 inches of precipitation in a year, a shower like that is noticed. The elevation and terrain made for some remarkable cloud structures. I am used to rain approaching in a line of clouds, a large thunderhead, or a flat gray sky that doesn't change throughout the day. Clouds of many layers and textures delivered today's rain, some solid and dark, others thin and wispy. The tremendous changes in elevation cause up and downdrafts that stir the clouds as if in a pot. This led to dramatic structures drifting over Santa Fe, dropping precious moisture. Some grass is already greening up. The terrain is remarkably different from the Midwest. Where I am used to seeing mile after mile of lush cropland, neatly organized into fields and farms, the areas of central New Mexico where we have driven have been impressive by their randomness. Nature is in full control. We have seen no organized agriculture in the traditional sense, aside from an occasional head of cattle grazing. What they graze upon is still unclear. There is a lot of plant matter growing, but the amount of it that is edible by cattle is unknown to me. Either few people are actively ranching the lands here, or it takes an immense number of acres to support one animal. As Jenny mentioned yesterday, everything seems to be fenced. Sometimes they use modern steel posts driven into the ground, but often we see what look like branches from trees. In the arid environment, objects break down slowly. Wood does not rot; steel rusts at a glacial pace. A visitor from the Snow Belt notices immediately that few cars have rust here. Even though snow is common in the higher elevations, salt is not needed on the roads, because the temperature seldom stays below freezing during the day. Keeping a car in good mechanical condition is the primary goal for an owner. You don't have to worry about driving a rust bucket; they don't exist. Keeping a vehicle in good running order is important, because distance is a tremendous factor to residents of New Mexico. Cities like Albuquerque and Santa Fe have all the goods and services one would expect in a city: grocery stores, hospitals, malls, etc. But most of the small towns we have driven through do not have the population to support a grocery store or a gas station. Living in many of these towns means driving 10 or 20 miles to get a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread, or get your mail from an isolated post office. The roads you take to get the staples of life can be rough and out of the way. If you look at a map of New Mexico, you will see great areas where there are no marked roads. Living in Iowa, I am used to having a road of some kind every mile. Here you may drive 10 miles before you find a crossroad, and it may only be one lane of gravel. The terrain plays a factor, also. In Iowa, with a few exceptions, you can put down a road wherever you want without too much effort, not so here. There are mountains and ridges and riverbeds that must be traveled around rather than over. A trip of a few miles "as the crow flies" may be a dozen or more to circumvent a mountain. But no matter how far off a paved road one travels, there is always evidence of our society and technology. Jets leave vapor trails in the sky, cell phones often work, and litter can be found without looking to hard. Our fingerprints are everywhere, even in the "wilderness." One interesting aspect of the region: many cities have building codes that require businesses to mimic the adobe style construction. The result is banks and gas stations made to resemble many of the houses around them. While it might seem odd to a visitor to see a convenience store with wooden posts sticking out the front, it does help blend the business to the residence, as the adobe residence already blends into the terrain in both color and form. Peter
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