Karen's Back Porch

While I headed north through Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver the weather looked ominous over the snow capped Rockies. 

Just out of Pueblo a hail storm hit so hard I had to pull over on to  the shoulder along with dozens of other motorists.  When the marble-sized pellets finally stopped the road and all the country side was completely white with hail and there were a number of cars and trucks down in ditches beside the road.

I inched myself along and finally stopped to spend one night at Cracker Barrel outside of Colorado Springs.

My destination the next day was the tiny community of Drake in Big Thompson Canyon to visit with sister Mary, and Brother-in-law Jim, who were visiting their friend Karen for the month of June.

Karen had purchased my Road Trek the summer before and it was fun to see it again, sitting high up in the mountains among the pine trees.

Karen is a collector of all things porcine....

 

  and she has many. 

Her back porch is a gathering place for those that live all up and down the mountain...

...and the arrival of Jim and Mary from Hawaii was cause for a Hootenany.

Jim is on the right and the three on the left are all brothers.  The name of their group is....Ta Dah...

THE ROTTEN BROTHERS!  

But they weren't 'rotten' at all, they were very very good.

There was lots of good food...(I love a pot luck).

Good views...

Good humor...

Good friends....

Good weather...(except for one tiny shower) ....

And a  good time.  Thanks for the great afternoon, Karen. 

Meow Wolf

That same afternoon Alexandra and I decided to check this out (on recommendation from Gary).  

The building had once been a bowling alley but upon entering the doors I saw no sign of the previous sport.

It is impossible to explain Meow Wolf ....

...except to say that this sign was just inside the door.  It may explain it all.

 Me and Meow Wolf

The refreshment area was psychedelic, but still it was normal enough,  

 

Now I am sure, I have entered a 1970's time warp.

Going through a second set of doors revealed an old Victorian Style house that, we were told,  held a mystery...

....that can be discovered only by finding the clues that are hidden throughout the house.

Deciphering just what is a clue is a bit difficult.

Almost nothing is as it seems....

For example, this refrigerator in the kitchen seemed perfectly normal, until....

...people kept disappearing inside it.

...and then reappearing from the dryer!

There were secret doors, secret passageways, cryptic notes lying around, eerie music, flashing lights and lots

of  psychedelic colors....

...or not.  In one room things seemed almost normal...

...then the next room would make my head spin. (There are two people in the picture above--I was looking down from an upper floor)

I just glanced into the bathroom and moved on, only to learn later that the toilet provided a secret window to the floor below.

An enormous amount of time and money was put into this amusement (?) and I admit I was mesmerized by it all.  

After two hours neither Alexandra nor I had a clue as to the solution to the mystery.

And when we walked back out into the sunshine the ground seemed to be moving.

Our next stop was the pub across the parking lot, hoping a glass of wine would settle the whirling in our heads. 

We had spent over two hours in that structure (I don't know what to call it) and I am sure we missed a whole lot.  To find and decipher all the clues would take hours--there were diaries, newspapers, letters, cryptic notes, even labels on soup cans that gave information and told a story about a family that disappeared from the house.  One young girl we met told us she had spent a total of five hours over two trips before she figured out the mystery.  She wouldn't tell us anything else--maybe she would take a bribe.

Madrid, NM

A short drive outside of Santa Fe is the funky little town of Madrid...

The town is noted for its artists, craftsmen and aging hippies.

Alexandra suggested we go there for lunch and some 70s nostalgia.

Several miles before we reached the town we were seeing signs of ....

....well, whatever.

And there is a whole lot of 'whatever'.

I really do miss the colorful cars of bygone days.

 Every house on the main street is a shop, studio, restaurant....

or "Body Bordello".

I couldn't resist...I took dozens of  pictures of mailboxes.

Both front and back.

I think #28 must be a misfit.

 We had lunch here at 'The Holler' and discovered a very unusual southern menu... the chef was from Florida. The food was quite good.

Even the wrought iron on this person's balcony was unusual. Mushrooms?  Hmm.

A thoughtful rest stop.

 This one's for you, Janice.

This town must have the smallest garbage dump in the country.  I believe every discard had been incorporated into an 'art piece' of one sort or another.  Kinda fun but I suppressed any urge to purchase a souvenir.