So today we leave Colorado and head for Santa Fe, New Mexico. Colorado has been far more beautiful than I imagined. John Denver sure knew his stuff when writing the lyrics to the song that always made me want to go there. The Rocky Mountains are currently covered in snow on the peaks, and the snow is scattered amid the lower levels. The mountains are covered in fir trees which are living “Christmas Cards” with the snow sprinkled on their branches. All of the houses are like chalets with their timber structures complimenting the mountain sides and valleys. Creeks and ponds are frozen over but the sunlight on the ice makes them sparkle brilliantly. Horses are in the paddocks surprisingly without coats. I am guessing they breed them tough there. I needed more arms and hands to use all pieces of equipment to record our short time there. It was beautiful.....just magical.
The minute we crossed the New Mexico border the scenery changed. The mountains fell away and we were in very open land – still quite beautiful in a masculine sort of way. We came across cliffs and mountains which were different to anything I had seen before. I am still astounded at how this country side changes dramatically and you don’t see the same thing twice. The houses started to take on an Aztec look and we started seeing signs of poverty again. We were only inside the New Mexican border for a couple of minutes when we were overtaken by two police cars, and a sheriffs car – all with their sirens blazing and they were absolutely hammering in order to get to where they wanted to. I was sort of hoping it wasn’t prophetic.
We arrived in Santa Fe in the late afternoon. It has to be the most bizarre city that I have ever seen. Every single house, every single business, every single motel, and every single take away food outlet etc, are built in the Aztec design. They are square and brown/terracotta but are attractively so. It does make it hard to identify places however I am sure the locals don’t have an issue.
Churches seem to be excluded from this rule. We visited “Loretto Chapel” which is said to have experienced a miracle. It is to do with an internal stair case that was built without nails or glue, and by one man alone.....after the Sisters of Loretto Chapel prayed for 9 days (or something like that). I had never heard of it, however was keen to have a look. I completely understand that if I am to be entering a church, I do risk others lives as the mere shock from me entering the church would be sufficient to bring down the roof. However given that the sisters state that one miracle occurred there I was most happy to initiate the activating of another.
The church is a lovely old thing (am I meant to write church with a capital “C”?). As you go in via a side entrance (where the $3 admission is paid) there is a tree covered in coloured necklaces. I think the Bear said that they are rosary beads. There is also a drawing/picture of a lady wearing a robe although I haven’t got the faintest idea who she is. We entered the church which was quite small but very....*cough*....church like and my instincts were initially to completely run amok. The Bear turned on the video recorder so that we had an insider’s record of the roof falling in, but alas that wasn’t to be today. The mere fact that I had stepped inside the four walls was miracle enough apparently. To my credit I was relatively well behaved – my mother would have been pleased! This is not to say that I didn’t want to jump over the empty pews, have a yack to the great, late J.C, and blow out the candles that were lit....but I didn’t. We looked at the stairwell that had been built; I formed my own opinion on how it got there; and we left.
We exited the chapel via another side entrance that took you into a gift shop (just like at a theme park) where I seriously considered buying a bottle of holy water for $6.99 or something like that. Given that there were 100 bottles there for sale and could be refilled out of an urn look thing (marked with a sign saying "HOLY WATER" which obviously indicated that it was the real deal) I was concerned that one bottle would be less holy than the other. Short of buying all bottles or emptying all of the ones that I didn't buy, there was no way of being sure that I secured the holiest of water. I therefore decided to pass on this obvious bargain.
We arrived at our motel after dark and fairly much left again straight away to get some dinner. We are yet to find somewhere that has decent food here, so decided to just go to “Denny’s” again. It is a cheap place to eat and the food is nearly edible. I have also not seen it on an episode of COPS recently. It beats paying a fortune for food put that we can’t eat. I was particularly hungry given that we had not eaten all day and was almost desperate for an Australian steak and some vegetables. My head was pounding!
I nearly know the Denny’s menu off by heart now, but still scanned it for what I wanted. I didn’t want anything with bread or cheese (both of which are disgusting here) and wanted meat and vegetables. The closest that they had was “Country Fried Steak and Gravy” which came with “two sides of your choice”. The Bear had originally said he would was order this so I felt that was a great find! I ordered the “Country Fried Steak with Gravy” and selected mashed potato and corn as my two sides. The Bear ordered french fries and baby spinach with his. I was seriously looking forward to this!
Imagine my complete surprise when the plate came out with the food covered in white goop sprinkled with black dots. It totally smothered the pieces of steak and the mashed potato. The corn was pale and dried out. I tasted the American version of gravy and found it tasted like a watered down white sauce with too many peppercorns in it. The Bear made mention that this was the type of gravy he had with his “biscuits” (scones) at breakfast the other morning except it had mashed sausage in it instead of peppercorns. I recalled my terminology for what it looked like – cat vomit. However it wasn’t something that I found inedible and once I was able to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth I tucked into it. I was starving.
I cut into the steak and the knife went in easily. I stopped and wondered how - in a country that can’t cook for shit – they managed to cook a tender steak? Now I can burn water but the yanks are worse cooks than me, but the steak cut as though it were silk! I put it in my mouth and slightly gagged at the clag glue that covered it, and found it to be very crunchy on the outside and easy to chew on the inside. It tasted slightly familiar and nothing like the steak we have at home. I figured this was because I love my steak to be cooked bleu (where a skilled veterinarian can bring the cow back) and this was obviously well done. I tasted the mashed potato which had clag slathered all over it, and pulled a face. Now that was disgusting. I couldn’t work out of it was real potatoes or made from potato flakes, but it had some sort of cheese mashed through it. The cheese here tastes like moose poo and that taste could not even be disguised by the clag.
I continued to eat the steak however and wondered why on earth it tasted so familiar. I didn’t really like it but was too hungry to pass it up. There was two pieces there and I knew I wouldn’t get to the second, but wanted to at least finish the first as to not insult the cook. I have had too many waiters (or servers as they call them here) question me about leaving food on my plate. I was just finishing that one piece and commented to the Bear again that this tasted so familiar. He advised that he had made a startling observation – the steak was in fact mince packed down and covered in crumbs before being fried. A little like a frozen meat patty. The reason why it tasted so familiar is that it was similar to a squashed down rissole covered in bread crumbs. It wasn’t “steak” after all....or at least what I consider to be steak! So....my “Country Fried Steak with Gravy” and two sides turned out to be “Squashed Down Rissoles smothered in Clag” with moose poo potato and dried out corn. Needless to say I didn’t come close to finishing it....but at least hadn’t paid a lot to waste it!
We are off to Albuquerque tomorrow...and my mission for the day will be to find a food that I consider edible! It is all part of the American experience I guess...and I am still loving it!
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