Vegas, Baby

Been interested in Las Vegas (the one here in New Mexico) ever since we passed through there last year. A recent article in New Mexico Magazine (oh, look, Santa Fean Joe West is their featured artist this month) highlighted Las Vegas and mentioned something about their three-day Fourth of July festivities. A good a time to go as any. We headed out on Monday.

It's about an hour from Santa Fe, so we got there around noon, parked near Old Town, and followed the crowds and sounds of music to the festival. A bandstand, set up in the plaza, ringed by vendors of various sorts. We wandered the festival, and then a bit around Old Town. To be honest, there wasn't much other than the old buildings — this was a boom town in the late 1800s, fueled by trading and the train — in varying degrees of preservation. [click small pix for more detail]


   

Around the time the rain rolled in, we'd decided that we would get in the car, go find the coffee shop we stopped at last year, and check out that area. On the way, passed by the Carnegie Library, a legacy of Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy. It's small, but still in use as a public libarary — and it has a card catalog.



The Super Chief Coffee Bar is all finished and was pretty full of lunchtime diners. An iced mocha, some brownie, and we ducked outside to photograph the cowgirl mural that, from the look of the photo in the article, had been repainted. And it had, according to the credits on the wall — where we also learned it had originally been painted for Red Dawn. A few more shots, then back in the car. We came into town the back way, and so figured we'd leave via the main road (as we did last time). So you can understand our confusion when we got to the turn we remembered and found this.



Figure it's for a movie, maybe even for the upcoming No Country For Old Men, adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel.

About halfway between Las Vegas and Santa Fe is Pecos National Historical Park, which we'd not heard of until M&D&S visited in the spring, bearing a Boston Globe article about it. With plenty of time left in the day, we decided to check it out.

The Pueblo of Pecos has a history that spans centuries, as a settlement of around 2000 people developed during the 1400s. Through encounters with, subsequent subjugation by (and revolt against) the Spanish, dealings and conflicts with the Plains Indians, it was a central, thriving community until the early 1800s. Now, the ruins of the pueblo — once, a five-story walled town — and the missions (one was burned down during the revolt) form the basis for this park. There is a trail, an easy mile-and-a-quarter gravel path that loops around and through the pueblo that offers amazing views of the surrounding area. As we were there, gray clouds in the distance occasionally flickered with lightning. We took our time, climbing down into the kivas and examining the new adobe that's being used to repair the church, then left for home. [click small pix for more detail]


  

At home, there was an invitation from Jett & Serena to go see District B13. A series of pretty spectacularly put-together action scenes. A lot of fun.