Quemado and Albuquerque

Sat, Sept 4th

A great day -- starting with a hike around Lake Quemado and ending at Mary Ellen Long's opening at the Land/Art gallery in Albuquerque!

Hope you too are having a fabulous Labor Day weekend :)

Journal:
7am. Chilly! First night with sleeping bag zipped all the way up. Hot tea. Grapefruit. Applesauce and granola. Thuya tree scent reminds Wren of natural veruca treatment. / Drove down to Lake. When Wren realized it was just a 3hr drive to Albq, figured we had enough time to walk around the lake. Beautiful!! Such a diversity of wild flowers and grasses! And butterflies and grasshoppers (and grasshopper-butterflies) and birds! Took lots of photos in the golden morning light. Lots of folks (men, women, families) out fishing; a few boats out on the water. / Drove back to Quemado around 11.45am and stopped in at the Dia Art Foundation office, down the (only) street from the (only) diner and (only) gas station in 'town', third in a short row of two storied buildings, and the only one that didn't look entirely abandoned. Stepped into a bare room with wood floor, a semi-circle of heavy wood chairs, and some magazines on the window sill. Claire Harrison, an English late twenty something artist (and baker) from Kent-Essex-Cornwall, was sitting there waiting for the 2.30pm pick-up for the $150 visit to Walter De Maria's Lightning Field. We got talking, and carried our conversation down to the diner. Two men there had worked at the LF -- and recommended going, though clarified for us that the 400 stainless steel poles were not intended to be struck by lightning; they just looked esp good in the glow of lighting. But they also look pretty good at sunset and sunrise. At 2pm we returned to the Dia waiting room and took leave of Claire as several well-heeled visitors arrived in a Ford Mustang with Califiornia plates. / Continued to Albq on HWYs 36-117-40, and got my first speeding ticket. Remembered (belatedly) that Athena Steen had warned us NM was crawling with traffic cops (whereas you never see any in AZ). / Took exit 155 in Albq, where the budget motels are clustered, and plumped for the Motel 6 after the manager offered us a discount. / Freshened up then continued to Exit 159A and Granite Avenue, to the Land/Art Gallery, in what looked like a family home on an entirely residential street. The neighbor one block down had no inkling of its existence. Were greeted by Mary Ellen, blue eyes framed by a white bob, glass of red wine in hand, who was thrilled to meet Wren in person ("This is an email" she exclaimed to her husband Wendell). Met Edite and Tom, co-founders of the gallery; Gail, who is an artist and organizes art tours -- lastly to Japan in 2008; Jeffrey, a friend of Edite's; and Brock, who'd worked with Tom in some scientist-inventor capacity, and who's also been an artist-in-residence at the Gallery's outdoor 'studio' at Mountain Air. All very interested in us and very welcoming. Upshot is that we've been invited to check out -- and spend the night at -- the off-grid earthship at Mountain Air tomorrow night. / Brock recommended three eateries on Central, the buzzing (and congested) restaurant strip just a few blocks away from the gallery, and we had dinner at the Standard Diner, which had much better food than the name suggests -- shared a meal-sized beet-pecan-blue cheese salad, and had the salmon with chard and butternut squash while Wren feasted on seared tuna. / Getting home we drove around for 1/2hr in confusion when the exit dropped us on the wrong side of the freeway from our motel.
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