Tag Archives: New Mexico

Prompt: most memorable road trip

Posted on January 13, 2025 by smellincoffee

Oh, this is an easy one. New Mexico, 2016. Not only was it my first time on an airplane, and my first time out of the South, but it was my first time taking a vacation somewhere as an adult: … Continue reading →

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Adventures with Ed

Posted on January 17, 2023 by smellincoffee

Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey© 2003 Jack Loeffler308 pages “He walked across the desert at least a thousand times,” Tom Russell sang of Abbey in his “Ballad” thereof. Jack Loeffler was with him many of those times, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

House of Rain

Posted on February 17, 2018 by smellincoffee

House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest © 2007 Craig Childs 482 pages Throughout the southwest United States and northern Mexico there are ruins from a people long gone, people remembered as the Anasazi. The name … Continue reading →

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Tyrannosaur Canyon

Posted on August 29, 2017 by smellincoffee

Tyrannosaur Canyon© 2006 Douglas Preston416 pages What do a ‘misplaced’ lunar sample and a fossil hunter shot dead in the high mesas of New Mexico have in common?  Their shared secret is one that would answer one of humanity’s oldest … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Cities of Gold

Posted on August 3, 2017 by smellincoffee

Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in Pursuit of Coronado© 1992 Douglas Preston (Walter Nelson, Photographs)480 pages Sometimes, history has got to be pursued from the back of a horse.  Douglas Preston wasn’t sure what took him … Continue reading →

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The Mexican Frontier

Posted on July 27, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Mexican Frontier 1821 – 1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico©  1982 David Weber (University of New Mexico Press)440 pages In 1821, the people of Mexico declared their independence from Spain, recognizing that its Napoleonic straits meant that the mother … Continue reading →

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Spain in the Southwest

Posted on May 5, 2017 by smellincoffee

Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History© 2013 John Kessell480 In the early 1500s, the Spanish triumphed over the Aztecs and established a new Spain — an empire forged out of the new world.  The equatorial tropics were only the … Continue reading →

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Week of Enchantment Video

Posted on February 15, 2017 by smellincoffee

Interested in seeing how Windows Movie Maker and Youtube worked, I “made” a video with 100 of my Week of Enchantment photos, set to music. Enjoy!

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Week of Enchantment: Santa Fe, the City Beautiful

Posted on October 29, 2016 by smellincoffee

I headed for Santa Fe in the early dawn, driving even as the sun rose.  I’d been assured that the capital’s traffic was nothing like Albuquerque’s, and found this to be the case. It didn’t want for cars, but the … Continue reading →

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Week of Enchantment: The Garden of Eden is Missing its Critters

Posted on October 27, 2016 by smellincoffee

From here  I moved to the attached Gardens, one of the most beautiful, romantic, and sometimes weirdest spots in New Mexico.  Beauty first:  Moorish gardens open the area,  ending in a tree-lined walkway that is utterly  peaceful This goes around … Continue reading →

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