Friday, August 11, 2000

We woke up a little late on Friday but went out to shoot the motels that we didn't get last night. We got a little hung up when we found an excellent motel with some great people associated with it! The Aztec Motel is a perfect example of the best reason that Andy and I do Motel Americana. Mohammed Natha and Phyllis Evans have taken the Aztec Motel and made it into a shrine to everything they love. Mohammed owns the motel and Phyllis lives there and together, over the years, they have created a virtual wonderland of art, kitsch and creative clutter. With items gathered from thrift stores, flea markets, garbage cans and other people, they have filled every foot of the public spaces of the motel to make a place that they and everyone who passes through can't help but adore. Andy and I were captured by the people and wonder of this place and tried to illustrate what we found through photos and writing which will hold a special place on Motel Americana. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there and wished we had more to spend. If you ever come through Albuquerque, the Aztec is a must see and insist on meeting the people- they are the best.

We finally headed out of Albuquerque in late morning and made our way westward along Rt. 66. We passed by "Sky City", a pueblo high on a hill. We were going to explore it more thoroughly, but our budget didn't support a tour. On our next trip to NM, we will plan more for this excursion. I am sure this will be a wonderful example of life among Native Americans. It was a beautiful site to see the pueblo on top of the hill- a very different kind of life.

We went on into Gallup and were ready for a stop. After leaving more film at the local WalMart, we got ice cream and then split up for a half-hour. Andy went to a Gallup history museum (Boring!) and Vienna and I went to see what was happening at the local Cultural Center. We saw some Native Americans selling jewelry and crafts there, from the road and wanted to explore more. The crafts were all very nice and I was able to get Vienna a little turtle necklace made by one of the merchants. There was something more that I loved, though. A Native American man with lovely long black hair was playing guitar and singing songs in his native language. I had never really heard this music before, and as I sit and listened, it was so beautiful that I wished I could sit there all day and just listen. I could tell that it was very spiritual music, even though I didn't understand the words. It was my favorite part of the day.

We finished off our day's journey into Holbrook through a beautiful thunderstorm. In this part of the country, you can see them from miles away and they are very neat. Holbrook holds one of our favorite examples of roadside Americana- the Wigwam Motel. There are three of them in the country: Holbrook, AZ, Cave City, KY and Rialto, CA. ( see Motel Americana for more) We have stayed at all three and this was our second stay in Holbrook. If you've never heard of them, Wigwams are villages of cement Teepees and you get to sleep (or "Do It" in the case of Rialto) in a Teepee when you stay here. It's just really neat to have a room that is a teepee, and amazingly, they are very cozy inside. Anyway, we really enjoy them and always plan on staying in a Wigwam if we are in the area. We had a nice dinner at a local steakhouse and relaxed all evening, looking at photos and writing postcards. We have taken 28 rolls of film so far and still have a few more to go. That's a lot of pictures.