Amatuer Rock Climbing and Low Riders on Good Friday

So... yesterday was Chelle and I's big day out. We had a good one. We drove to a place out in the middle of nowhere near Abiquiu, NM called Plaza Blanca and hiked around. It's a really stunning place visually.







As you walk through the canyon begins to narrow at a certain point. It eventually becomes a slot canyon and you reach a spot where a bit of rock climbing is involved if you wish to continue on. Now... these rocks are smooth. And there is not much, if anything to really grip on to for the climb. It's really only about a ten to 12 foot climb up but if you are an idiot about these sort of things (which we we both apparently are) it can present a truly difficult situation. Several attempts were made. At one point we were both wedged up in the rocks at about a height of 8 or 9 feet in the air in very Spider Man-esque sort of positions and we broke down in to hysterical laughter. It is very hard to maintain a slippery rock climbing position when you are weak with laughter. The only thing that really keeps you in the air is the knowledge that falling may result in a broken bone or two. Or at the very least bloody knees and ripped jeans. If you would like to see what this all looked like I do have a very accurate and powerfully impressive visual to share.



Sorry Chelle. I had to post it. For the sake of blogging history. For the sake of rock climbing history. For the sake of really funny pictures of people's shadows and butts. No injuries were incurred during the climbing session. Well... no injuries other than the photo pictured above. Michelle did manage to achieve the top eventually but I was unable to due to being too short and also a chicken. We abandoned the scene and moved on.

Next we hit Ghost Ranch (where Georgia O'Keeffe used to reside.) It is one of my favorite places in NM. We poked around out there a bit and bought a bunch of hot deserty looking O'Keeffe postcards to send to friends and family who live in areas of the country still plagued by snow and winter. Here's a view from near Ghost Ranch of Pedernal Peak which was O'Keeffe's favorite mountain to paint.



That is Abiquiu Lake in the foreground. It's a man made lake created by a dam on the Rio Chama River.

After we grabbed lunch we headed to the tiny town of Chimayo. On Good Friday every year hundreds of Catholics make a twenty some mile pilgrimage to the Santurio de Chimayo (it's a really eclectic and famous little church in the town which supposedly has "magic healing dirt" that you can rub on your body and be instantly healed from whatever ails you.) We wanted to get a load of what all this looked like so we drove through. The most exciting thing I have to share about the drive was seeing lots of really cool low riders and hot rods on the trail.





We almost ran out of gas while doing this drive. This would have been epic. We were about 15 miles from the nearest gas station when I realized we were on "E." Michelle and I have a bit of a history of running out of gas in really stupid places so this would have been no surprise to most people who know us. Somehow Big Berta made it out and we got to the gas station without incident.

OK. There you have it. Tonight Billy and I are going out to a really fancy dinner to celebrate our 7 year anniversary (which is actually tomorrow.) We are both in ridiculous anticipation of the place where we are dining. They enforce a STRICT no fragrance policy and rumor has it that if the owner or a member of the wait staff smells ANYTHING on you they will kick you out of the place. I have read reviews where people claim to have been kicked out because they were wearing hand cream and the owner could smell it. Bizarre. So... will we pass the no smell test? Will we be clean enough and civilized enough? Probably not. It could result in a funny story. I will report in tomorrow.