On Our Way to the Land of Enchantment

We drove across the panhandle of Texas towards New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. 

At 4pm mountain time we crossed the border, gaining an additional hour of day light. 

After a little while it really started to look like we were in the southwest. 

We continued to Santa Fe and around 7:45 we arrived in the city proper. We pushed on and headed for a campsite we had scoped out on freecampsites.net about 15 miles outside the city, at the Aspen Basin near Ski Santa Fe. We drove into the Santa Fe National Forest and proceeded to climb the mountains, over 10,000 feet in elevation. At a little over 10,200 feet we found our camp!  The air was thin and we could definitely tell we had climbed in elevation; minor tasks required considerably more exertion.

It was snowing lightly on the mountain as we arrived; we haven't seen snow since January in the western South Carolina mountains during the bitter cold snap of earlier this winter!

We awakened to a substantial coating of fresh powder Thursday morning, and the ski areas directly above us on the mountain appeared as though they could be opened for business!

It fell to 20 degrees F that night, the coldest temperature we had encountered in many months.  Fortunately, our van furnace worked great and kept it plenty warm inside.

The mountain peaks exceed 13,100 feet in this area, the foothills of the Rockies.

Ski Santa Fe located behind our camping area.

Within 48 hours we would see temperatures of 90 degrees F once again, at lower elevation in the heat of the desert day.

Copper Breaks State Park

Copper Breaks State Park consists of 1,898.8 acres, 12 miles south of Quanah.  Prior to the arrival of early settlers, this region was the realm of the Comanche and Kiowa tribes. It remained so until the pressures of a new civilization forced the Indians onto reservations in nearby Oklahoma. Near the present park area, Cynthia Ann Parker, a small child of the new settlers was captured by a raiding party near Mexico and grew up among the Indians. Her son, Quanah Parker, was to become the last great war chief of the Comanche nation. Cynthia Ann was recaptured during the Pease River Battle by the settlers and reunited with her relatives. However, she did not adjust well to the ways of the settlers and died in a relatively short period.

The park is beautiful and very peaceful. We enjoyed spending time here and hiking through the park. This was our camp at Copper Breaks. 

The next morning we packed up and continued west. 

Leaving Dallas

We are driving on I-35E. It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining bright, traffic is light, and we are heading off to a new place. Suddenly a mattress goes flying across the interstate, cars are swerving left and right, George is doing his best to avoid a collision, suddenly three red cars converge on one another then bounce apart as though in a pinball machine. As they do, two additional cars seem to burst out of the scene and become entangled in the mess in front of us.

Finally things stop moving, swerving, bouncing and scattering.  There is glass, auto parts, metal, plastic, springs (unclear if they were from a car or the mattress) and cars in various states of damage scattered across the 4 lane highway. We were the first vehicle not in the accident. We pulled over, called 911, then went to go see the damage and see If we could help.  Everyone seemed fine except for one of red cars. 

The police and ambulance finally show up. They take care of the two ladies in the mangled red car. It appears everyone is alright and no one suffered life threatening injuries. After providing a written and signed affidavit of what occurred we embarked once again with cautious haste and got the heck out of Dallas. 

The mattress flew off of the pickup truck behind the tow truck in this picture. 

The car facing sideways into the guardrail was the most badly damaged. 

One of the other red cars. It ended up on the other side of the highway then died during the crash.  A police suburban pushed it across the highway. The wheels wouldn't even spin. It just skated across the roadway. 

Who shot JR?

DALLAS!


Wait-- wrong Dallas.  We are not concerned with the early 80's prime time soap opera starring Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy.  The real question is who shot JFK?

The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the killing of President Kennedy and the wounding of Texas Governor John Connally, and that Jack Ruby also acted alone in the murder of Oswald.  The Commission's findings have since proven controversial and been both challenged and supported by later studies.

The Ramsey Clark Panel determined that President Kennedy was struck by two bullets fired from above and behind him, one of which traversed the base of the neck on the right side without striking bone and the other of which entered the skull from behind and destroyed its upper right side.^[126]

The Rockefeller Commission's work dealt with the head snap as seen in the Zapruder film (first shown to the general public in 1975), and the possible presence of E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis in Dallas during the Kennedy assassination.  The commission concluded that neither Hunt nor Sturgis were in Dallas at the time of the assassination.

The Church Committee concluded that the investigation on the assassination by FBI and CIA were fundamentally deficient and the facts which have greatly affected the investigation had not been forwarded to the Warren Commission by the agencies. It also found that the FBI, the agency with primary responsibility on the matter, was ordered by Director Hoover and pressured by unnamed higher government officials to conclude its investigation quickly. The report hinted that there was a possibility that senior officials in both agencies made conscious decisions not to disclose potentially important information.

The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations investigated until 1978, and in 1979 issued its final report, concluding that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The Committee concluded that previous investigations properly investigated Oswald's responsibility but did not adequately investigate the possibility of a conspiracy, and that the Warren Commission presented its conclusions too definitively. The Committee also found that the FBI and CIA were deficient in sharing information. Furthermore the Secret Service did not properly analyze information it possessed prior to the assassination and was inadequately prepared to protect the President.

Who do you think shot JFK?

We arrived in Dallas early Sunday afternoon and drove around downtown a little bit. 

We parked and headed for the Sixth Floor Museum at the Texas Book Depository, made famous for allegedly being the perch from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK as his motorcade drove past Dealey Plaza.  This is the original sign that hung outside the depository.

This was the view from the seventh floor. The "x" marks the spot where President Kennedy was shot. 

You can see two X's below, the first shot went through Kennedy's neck/upper thoracic area, and the second shot was the fatal head shot.

Sniper's Corner

This is the spot Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired the shots that killed President Kennedy as his motorcade drove past Dealey Plaza.  The corner has been reconstructed to look the same as the day Oswald stood there. Many of the original boxes were taken into evidence by law enforcement. These boxes are replicas. 

This is a replica of the rifle Oswald used. 

Dealey Plaza

JFK Memorial

Our mail did not arrive as planned on Monday so we visited the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The building is very impressive.  The cost to build this $250 million LEED certified (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) building is staggering and the most expensive presidential library to date, even with inflation accounted for.  The 80 terabytes of information presented via e-mails, photographs, and other artifacts sounds unbelievable.  Yet, the library is disappointing as far as presidential libraries are concerned. We did not find the exhibits interesting, and I left the library unimpressed with G.W's legacy. If you enjoy amateur portraits of world leaders, the presidents paintings do have their own entire half floor for your viewing pleasure. 

We really enjoyed the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin. Perhaps it is one of the better libraries, perhaps it's because we knew very little about LBJ's presidency, or perhaps enough time has passed over his presidency for history to reveal the impact his presidency had on our country and the legacy he left behind. Regardless, we did not think the $13 per person price tag plus $7 for parking was worth it... Especially considering LBJ was $3 per person with free parking.  

Here are some pictures of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. 

The wall below lists the names of those who donated significant sums to help found the library.


Beams from the World Trade Center

Saddam Hussein's sidearm when he was captured.

George and Laura Bush's Flight jackets for Air Force One.

A replica of the Oval Office furnished the way it was during G.W. Bush's Presidency.