December 10, 2002
Week 1: A Sense of Place by Roger K. Burton
Welcome to New Mexico “Land of Enchantment” reads the billboard at Albuquerque airport. Guys dressed in cowboy hats, buckskin jackets, pressed wranglers and cowboy boots roam around the airport lounges like ducks out of water, while sparse stalls sell fake Indian blankets and trinkets to no one.
We have a 3 hour drive ahead of us to Las Vegas - that’s Las Vegas New Mexico not Nevada – so there’s plenty of time to sit back in the luxury of our rented metallic green Dodge Caravan people carrier, and get acquainted with the area.
The I.25 takes us north and east criss-crossing Route 66 and the old cowboy Santa Fe trail. As we tune into one of the many country & western stations I start to observe the terrain. This is a high plain desert that is brutal and desolate, but with an amazing amount of green low lying Pinon trees and scrub covering most of it - the trees grow nuts that the locals cook with - look quite healthy considering it hasn’t rained here for over five years. It is so dry that people live in fear of bush fire which are not uncommon and usually caused by stray cigarette butts. Huge mountains run way off into the distance, everyone gives thanks when they are snow capped, as they supply most of the states water. The Rocky Mountain range meets the plains here and stretches north all the way to Canada.