Blogs from Grants, New Mexico, United States, North America

Grants, New Mexico, 11 juillet Les perspectives temporelles se sont télescopé aujourd'hui... À notre petite échelle humaine, les phénomènes qui remontent à des milliers et des millions d'années peuvent sembler bien abstraits mais lorsqu'on mets les pieds dedans, cela procure un certain effet! J'ai d'abord découvert ce matin le site de Meteor Crater, à quelques encablures de Flagstaff, où un bolide s'est écrasé il y a environ 50 000 ans. Vu la taille de la chose (environ 50 mètres de diamètre), le cratère est impressionnant avec son diamètre de 1500 mètres et sa profondeur d'environ 200 mètres, la force générée par l'impact équivalant à environ 150 fois les bombes atomiques larguées sur Hiroshima en 1945. Au début du XXème siècle, un certain Daniel Moreau Barringer a investi 27 ans de sa vie (et tout son fric) ... read more

Cynde and I had been talking about a trip to the Grand Canyon for quite some time. She had been to the Canyon as a child and had fond memories. I, on the other hand, had flown over the Canyon many times, but had never had the pleasure of stepping onto the rim to take in the magnificent views. So, we elected to make this trip our first lengthly trip, eighteen days on the road. Our plan was to head out on Monday, the 10th of June, with our first night in Santa Rosa, New Mexico; the second night at Bluewater Lake State Park, New Mexico; and nights three and four at Holbrook, New Mexico, home to the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. But, I am getting ahead of myself! On Monday morning I had ... read more

It's 10.37pm on a Tuesday night at the Comfort Inn hotel in Grants, New Mexico. The last few days have been completely wild and like a dream, we have hiked so much uneven terrain, taken way too many pictures and lived like animals. After coming from Yellowstone, entering Utah we were almost knocked out by the sheer force of the sun and the heat in the van, we had spent so much time trying to keep warm and now we were doing our best to keep cool, and with no air con it was some serious tropical breeze windows down type action going on. Town after small town we passed, each kind of eerie in their own way, we weren't sure if it was due to the recession or just people moving on but most seemed ... read more

Dear Everyone, Hello again! I know it’s been forever since I’ve written, but somehow one day has oozed into the next and suddenly here I am, almost through with my time here. However, this passage of time has also allowed me to have many wonderful adventures and gather my thoughts on one of the foremost facts of my current life: New Mexico Is Awesome. The fantasticness of New Mexico has many dimensions, and I will detail the first of them here. ……………………………… #1: The Cast of Characters There is nothing quite as spectacular in life as a different, interesting, quirky place populated by different, interesting, quirky people that somehow make your world grow simultaneously larger and unquestionably better. The main people in my life these days are relatively few, but pretty universally great. Let me introduce ... read more

Dear Everyone, So here's the thing. You can travel all your life, but there are some things that you just can't possibly know about a place unless you put down some roots. But a very key component of Putting Down Some Roots is first overcoming Obstacle #1: Making Some Friends. Now, this is not as easy as it sounds, at least for me. On one hand, there are people like Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat Pray Love fame), who explains her main talent for globetrotting thusly: "I can make friends with anything. If no one is around, I will make friends with a 10-foot wall of sheet rock" (or something like that. I don't actually have the book on me). I, notably, am nothing like this. I seriously envy people this talent: people like Elizabeth Gilbert, and ... read more