RV Winter Rambling 2006-07

Georgia on my Mind….

Ghost Ranch was the part time home of Georgia when she moved to New Mexico in her later years after her husband, Alfred Steigletz died. Fifteen miles down the road is the tiny town of Abiquiu where she had her other home, an adobe pueblo-style house high on the ridge overlooking the valley.


But Ghost Ranch was where she got most of her inspiration. Today it’s a conference centre and resort. An old log cabin sits near the front of the large property - I wonder who lived in it. Georgia’s house was set further back near the mountains, but perhaps she sometimes stayed in the cabin. I was mesmerized by the sight of Pedernal, the mountain that she painted in several of her pictures. I had a real sense of ‘déjà vu’ when I saw what she had seen all those years ago.

Compare the actual photos taken by me in March, 2007 to the Georgia O'keefe paintings.










Northern New Mexico is still native Indian territory and many of the reservations still have traditional pueblos that they open up to visitors at certain times. The Taos Pueblo was closed to the public while we were there, but the San Idelfonso Pueblo on the road to Abiquiu welcomed us in ------- for a fee of $5. They wanted another $10 if we wanted to take photos – not likely. Many of the pueblo women were selling pots from their homes – another source of tourist income. Things don’t seem to have changed all that much from the old days – if we took away automobiles and booze anyway.







Bandolier National Park has opened up ancient remains of pueblo Indians from 1,000 years ago, adobe brick foundation walls and amazingly intact cliff dwellings. In a beautiful long and narrow verdant valley, water running through it and huge trees creating shade, the Pueblo Indians once resided with a population of 1,000’s. The steep limestone cliffs were full of holes like Swiss cheese and the Indians fashioned rooms by shaping and enlarging the caves to room size. Some of the rooms / caves were accessed by ladder and it was rather like a high-rise condominium building.





We hadn’t forgotten the restaurant recommended to us by Jorden, the art consultant at Shidoni – Rancho Chimayo in the little town of Chimayo and we looked forward to some authentic New Mexican cuisine. It was in a large remodelled ranch house and it was filled with genuine artefacts. Our room looked out onto the patio where more tables were set for lunch. The food was Mexican, as we know it with a twist. I had shrimp in blue tortillas with black beans and Pico de Gallo while Fernie had a tower of tortillas, cheese, chicken, beans, lettuce, tomato, guacamole, sour cream, etc. All was extremely delicious and Fernie discovered Santa Fe pale ale, a beautiful sweetish tasting amber beer.

The pueblo of Chimayo is famous for the sighting of the Virgin Mary by a farmer many years ago. He saw a light in a field and a church was built there, the Santuario Chimayo. People go there from far away to be cured and in a small room beside the church, the wall is lined with cast-off crutches and pictures and stories of those that have been restored to health.

posted by O'Leary @ 9:03 PM