Overland Park, KS funtime

Ah, the Kansas City area in the springtime...62 on the day we arrived a week ago, got up to 92 one day, 82 yesterday, then the storms moved through and it dropped to 58 today.  But everything is green, green, green!  After spending the past two months in the Southwestern deserts, the green is looking really great - if no a bit strange.

Clematis in Suzi's yard

We arrived with no problems from the truck, and only light intermittent rain on the trip.  Tuesday was spent relaxing from the 14 hour drive and running a couple of quick errands.  After work, Carl grilled up a great dinner, and we ate and chatted for hours.

Dinner on the barbie...

Since then we've worked out a nice routine.  Mornings are spent sleeping in (in the trailer next to the house), drinking coffee for an hour or so, working on the trailer or running errands, breaking for lunch, working on the trailer some more - then when Carl gets off work, helping him with house projects.  evenings are spent chatting over a late dinner.  Along the way I have started to learn to tie fishing flies, and have managed to complete three pretty decent looking ones.  Don't know if they'll attract any fish, but maybe we'll find time this weekend for Heinz to try them out.  

Last Saturday Heinz and Carl took off for a ride on their motorcycles, while Suzi and I headed to opening day at the Kansas City downtown Farmer's Market.  Not too much available in terms of local produce this early in the year (most of the veggies were commercially grown elsewhere), but farmers were there in droves offering flowers and vegetables, and bakers had lots of goodies on offer.  Picked up some great cinnamon rolls, flowers for the yard, and some fresh mozzarella for Carl's lasagna.  

Ah, come on, don't you want to buy a pretty flower for your yard?

Time for vegetable gardens

Ah, decisions, decisions...

Last Sunday was Mother's Day, so we spent it with Heinz and Suzi's "Tante" Gretel and her family.  We had a great pot luck lunch with steaks supplied by Gretel and grilled by her grandson Kevin, twice stuffed potatoes from Barb (Gretel's daughter), and salads from Suzi and I.  My broccoli salad went over well, so I've included it for your recipe of the day at the end of today's blog.

Gretel supervising Kevin's culinary skills

Barb and Gretel catching up on the family news

Suzi enjoying conversation after dinner

Heinz passed out after dinner

During the daytime, we've made some progress with the Airstream interior.  The settee is completed with five large slide-out drawers underneath, and the pantry and closet frame received coats of varnish.  Next comes the closet doors, dining table and the remaining parts of the TV cabinet.  So stay tuned for more updates.

Evenings this week have been devoted to installing tile in the kitchen of the house.  Over the past few evenings Suzi and Carl installed the underflooring and Carl and Heinz installed the tile.  Overall, things are looking good in the house and the trailer.

Starting to place tile... worked until 11:30 PM!  But got it all in.

Check out that finished product!

Work is done for the week, and we're all sitting out the back porch, laughing it up between groaning from the aching knees and backs from that floor  :)

The friends of the day are Suzi and Carl's "young-uns".

Frankie

Buddy and Sammy watching Frankie get in trouble

...................................................

Recipe Corner: Broccoli Salad

2-3 heads of broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces (discard stems)

1 lb. bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled

3/4 cup raisins

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1/2 medium onion, chopped small

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 to 1 cup mayonnaise 

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, broccoli through vinegar.  Add 1/2 cup mayonnaise and mix well.  Continue to add mayonnaise until the ingredients are coated, but not "dripping" with mayonnaise or turning white.  Amount will vary with amount and size of broccoli heads.

Gathering of the Nations Powwow and beyond

We last checked in with you as we lounged around Albuquerque for a week.  During that time we met up with some old Air Force friends for dinner.  We met at El Patio for a casual dining experience.  This is apparently their regular Friday night hole-in-the-wall dinner hangout and almost everyone in the place knew them.  But, wow, talk about more good food.  I had the chile rellenos and they came out with a nice thick layer of cheese (instead of the skimpy little dab you usually get) and a thin coating of cornmeal that was enough to cover the chiles, but not so much that you felt as though you had ordered stuffed polenta.  Heinz got enchiladas and was raving about them as well.  As a nice touch, the accompanying dish was potatoes instead of the same old rice side.  I only feel that it is fair to warn you that if you make it to Albuquerque and get to El Patio, the green sauce is HOT!!  Be prepared to have a fire in your mouth for quite a while.  After tasting it, I understood why our friends had ordered their food with the sauce on the side…some friends, they could have warned us!

During the week, we took in a couple of movies, The Conspirator and Water for Elephants.  Both were excellent flicks.  Water for Elephants takes place during the Depression and explores circus life, moral decisions, illusion vs. reality and of course, relationships.  The Conspirator was directed by Robert Redford and is about the trial of the only female accused of being a member of the conspiracy to kill Abraham Lincoln.  The case was unique in its time as she was a private citizen tried by a military tribunal, denying her the right to a jury of peers as guaranteed by the Constitution.  The movie is more concerned with the legal precedents the case established, and what should be the correct means and venue of determining guilt or innocence of a person rather than the actual guilt or innocence of Mary Surratt.  We highly recommended both films.

As Friday rolled around we headed off to the International Gathering of the Nations Powwow.  The Powwow occurs every April for 3 days in Albuquerque.  This year there were around 3,000 dancers from approximately 400 Indian nations, 30 drum groups, 200+ vendors, and 80,000 visitors from around the world.

The day started with the Grand Entry where all of the dancers entered the arena in a procession of color, drum beats, and native singing.  The dancers were dressed in feathers, buckskin, fringe, jingles, beadwork, ribbon work, blankets, turquoise, shells, bells, and quills, just to name some of the items used.

 

Prepping in the stands

Dancers at the beginning of the Grand Entry

During the Grand Entry

End of the Grand Entry - 2,500 dancers on the arena floor!

Following the Grand Entry, the drum, singing, and dance competition began.  Music for powwow dance competition and other activities is provided by a “Drum,” a group of performers/singers who play a large, specially-designed drum and sing traditional songs.  The number of members of a drum may vary, but are usually at least four to ten people.  Drums from different nations rotate the duty of providing songs for the dancers, each taking a turn and being judged.  Prizes are awarded at the end of the powwow for the top three drums/singers. 

The following is a brief description of some of the dances.  I quoted the descriptions off the Internet, but the pictures are ours.

Men’s Dances:

Fancy Dance: a dance featuring vivid regalia with dramatic movement, including spins and leaps.  Often this is the biggest crowd-pleasing competition of a powwow.  Aside from bright colors and non-traditional materials, fancy dancers are also distinguished by use of a two-bustle design on their regalia.  There are also two styles of the roach (headpiece): in the North, it is the same as the Grass Dance headpiece; in the South the roaches have rockers, two feathers on springs that rock back and forth.

Two-bustle regalia design

Feather roach - Southern style

Fancy Dancers in action

Northern Traditional: a dance featuring traditional regalia, using authentic design and materials, single or no bustle, and movements based on traditional dances.

Traditional Dancers

Grass Dance: a dance featuring regalia with long, flowing fringe and designs reminiscent of grass blowing in the wind.  Dance movements are more elaborate that the traditional dancers, but less flashy than the fancy dancers.

Grass Dancer

Women’s Dances:

Jingle Dress: a healing dance.  The jingle dress includes a skirt with hundreds of small tin cones (originally made from polished snuff can lids) that make noise as the dancer moves with light footwork danced close to the ground.

Jingle Dress

Fancy Shawl:  a dance originally danced in the northern part of the country, by a few women who were ostracized for their efforts by traditionalists.  It gradually gained acceptance over the years and has evolved to its present form.  The dance itself is a combination of intricate footwork that is choreographed extemporaneously in response to the beat and tone of the music from the drum and singers.  The appropriate style of this dance is one of a constant whirl of beauty and grace, rather than wild movements.  In addition to style and footwork, judges look for endurance, agility, and a good measure of showmanship.

Fancy Shawl Dancer - this looks like quilted material, but is actually all bead work.

Fancy Shawl Dancer - on this one, the cowl is beaded, but the rest of the shawl is quilted.

The Powwow also had the Gourd Dance that originated with the Kiowa tribe and is a society dance for veterans and their families.  Unlike other dances, the Gourd Dance is normally performed with the Drum in the center of the dance arena, not on the side.  It is also not a competition dance.  The dance was originally danced by warriors and has expanded to include military veterans, their families and those who have done exceptional things in their life.  For the Kiowa, the men wear red and blue blankets.  Red commemorates the Kiowa’s war against the Spanish and the blue against the U.S. Cavalry (other sources say that the red represents day and the blue is for night).

Gourd Dancers

Silver "gourd"

Gourd Dancers

The following are random photographs from the Powwow.

Getting dressed for the Grand Entry

Once dressed, she decided to join the dancers, even if they were 10-15 years older.

Traditional Dancer

Junior Dancer waiting to dance

Drum judge

This young woman was sitting just down from us, she told us that her regalia had been passed down from her grandmother.

Too young for regalia, but determined to get dressed up somehow:)

We were supposed to go back to the Powwow on Saturday, but the truck lost all electrical power on the way home on Friday night and it took Heinz two days to finally pinpoint the issue and put in a temp-fix - we'll fix it permanently once we get to his sister's house in Kansas.

Monday we hit the road again and drove east to Overland Park, KS.  Heinz’s sister is doing some projects on her house and we volunteered to be extra hands.  When not working on the house we are going to be spending time finishing up the inside of the trailer, so more pics to come on those upgrades.

Sunrise over the Sandia Mountains

Along the way, somewhere in Oklahoma

Rain, rain, go away - at least while we're on the road.

We spotted our friends for the day at the Gathering of the Nations Powwow.

Red Shouldered Hawk (I think...)

American Bald Eagle

Back in Albuquerque

Alas, we left the "wilds" of the San Juan River behind and came back to Albuquerque last Saturday.  Heinz finished out his time on the river with some nice catches upriver, but nothing to bring home for dinner...maybe on the next river or lake.

Fishing the San Juan River 

Fishing at sunset

Tree in bloom on the river

We've been keeping a pretty low profile here in town, doing a little shopping and a lot of lounging.  Heinz took most of a day cleaning and waxing the truck only to have 40 mph winds come through and cover it with a fine layer of dust.  

Friday and Saturday will be spent at the International Gathering of the Nations Powwow, so will have lots to talk about and lots of pictures to share after that.  

'Til then, hope you had a great Easter and here's your friends for the day.

Each of these little guys is about 3/4-1 inch long!

Hanging out on the San Juan River

We spent this past weekend doing some sightseeing…I think Heinz was trying to bribe me, if we played all weekend, he could fish all day for the following four days until we leave - that worked for me.

Saturday we headed west and went to Shiprock, NM to check out the Begaye Flea Market.  The market wasn’t much, 30 or so vendors, mostly selling used tools, clothes, etc., but there were some selling jewelry, and I picked up a great pair of earrings made of silver and White Buffalo turquoise that goes really well with the bracelet I got in Gallup.   

Leaving town we headed south and went to see the rock formation called Ship Rock (Tse Bit’a’I - winged rock - in Navajo).  It rises to almost 1,800 feet from the desert floor.   The only road that runs past the base of the rock is a two wheeled rutted dirt road, not recommended for anything but four-wheeled vehicles, so we stayed on the paved road and viewed it from a distance.  

Ship Rock (on the right)

Driving out to Ship Rock we noticed signs for Toadlena Trading Post featuring Navajo rugs - so off we went another 25 or 30 miles southwest.   The store opened in 1909 and has worked with the local weavers of the Two Grey Hills area ever since.   Along with being a traditional trading post, where you can buy anything from flour to aspirin to clothing, the post has a small museum exhibiting Navajo rugs.  The owner told us that he changes the exhibit every two years.  Right now the exhibit is of rugs woven by the women of one family from 1900 to the present day.  The owner gave us a great little orientation to Navajo weaving, and explained that completion of a rug can take up to 6 months for a small one and a year for a large one.  The women raise their own sheep, shear them (no electric shears here), and wash and card the wool by hand.  This step can take up to 3 months.  Then the weaving starts, this step is 3-6 months (or more) per rug.  The fastest weavers can only complete 2 rugs a year.  While we were there we were introduced to two of the local weavers, neither looked to be younger than 75 years old.  The weaving is apparently becoming a dying art, as the young people are not interested in spending the time necessary.  After hearing all that (and seeing the price for a small 8” x 12” mat …$175) we were too scared to ask the price of a full sized rug!

 

Antique rug from the 1920’s, still in almost perfect condition

Inside the Toadlena Trading Post

It was kind of interesting getting off of the main highways and on to the smaller roads on the Navajo Reservation.  The houses were scattered a mile or more apart and you could barely see many of them in the distance.  All of them had roads going out to them that were rough two wheeled rutted dirt roads.  In addition, the livestock all ran free with no fences to keep them in and off the roads.

Sheep along the road to Toadlena NM

A sheepdog and his charges

On Sunday we headed north to visit Mesa Verde National Park in southern Colorado.   National Geographic Traveler named Mesa Verde as one of the fifty “must see” places of a lifetime and it’s easy to see why.  The beauty and complexity of the homes and villages here tell quite a story about the early Puebloan (aka Anasazi) cultures.  The area was first populated around 750 AD and started with pit houses partially built in the ground and partially above.  By 1000 AD the people of Mesa Verde had advanced to stone masonry and continued to the late 1270’s when the area was abandoned for unknown reasons. We drove the loop roads looking at the ruins along the cliff walls and the pit houses that have been excavated.  Then after lunch we took the Cliff Palace tour.

Heinz checking out Balcony House across the canyon

Cliff Palace

Check out the cracks in the rock slab.  Archeologists have found evidence that the crack was there centuries ago and that the Ancestral Puebloans made efforts to shore it up with adobe plaster.  

Cliff Palace was estimated to have 150 rooms, three stories and house around 100 -125 people at its peak

Painting on the wall of an interior room, estimated to have been painted around 1100 AD.

Toeholds used by Puebloan people to move from between their farms on the mesa tops down to the cliff dwellings and back.  Imagine climbing/descending on these with a clay pot of water on your head, or groceries on your back.  Slip and you're looking at upwards of a 600 foot fall to the canyon bottom.

The weather is turning nice, warming up in the afternoons, while still cool at night.  The wildflowers are starting to bloom and the trees are budding out.  However, there is still snow up in the mountains.

Wildflowers at Mesa Verde

Wildflowers at Mesa Verde

San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Heinz spent Monday fishing, caught a nice one in the catch-and-release area and another couple in the catch and keep.  Unfortunately, they got away (AGAIN), so salmon was on the menu for dinner instead of trout.  On Tuesday he brought home two nice sized rainbow trout, so I sautéed them in some butter and olive oil, then browned some parsley and pecans in the butter/oil to drizzle on top of them.  They were absolutely delicious.

Rainbow trout with pecans

And our friends of the day…