May 2019

Sean’s
Athlone, County Roscommon
Ireland
2019

Sean’s Bar claims to be the oldest pub in Europe, with a certificate from the Guinness World Records to back it up. The building dates back to 900 A.D. and they have a continuous record of the owners of the bar since that time (including a short stint of ownership by Boy George). It seemed like a good place to enjoy our first pint of Guinness in Ireland. The large collection of U.S. dollar bills taped above the bar let us know we are not the first Americans to have a drink there.

Three Doors Down
Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
2019

Kin Kletso
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
2019

Kin Kletso was one of the smallest great houses still standing in the Chaco Canyon area but on my hike one morning it was certainly the most dramatically lit.

Fajada Butte
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
2019

El Morro
El Morro National Monument, New Mexico
2019

It occurred to me that I’d been showing all these close-up shots of El Morro without ever setting the stage by showing the big picture of the area. So here it is. The area with all the inscriptions I’ve been showing is along the base of the wall directly in the center of the photo.

The Odd Couple
El Morro National Monument, New Mexico
2019

Today we are on our way to Ireland for a month. Once we get settled over there I will start posting POTDs from the Emerald Isle. Until then, I will continue to post photos from our New Mexico trip even though it always feels strange to me to be posting photos from someplace that I don’t live while I’m in yet another place that I don’t live. Too confusing!

Given the time difference between Montana and Ireland and that my usual routine will be disrupted, who knows what time of day the POTDs will actually appear, but they will show up sooner or later.

Social Media #26
El Morro National Monument, New Mexico
2019

Given what graffiti looks like today, I’m having a hard time imagining P. Gilmer painstakingly carving his name in block letters 160 years ago. In addition to his carving, there were others on the rocks done in carefully carved elegant calligraphy. Penmanship was obviously a much bigger deal back then, at least for some.

Besides his penmanship, Breckinridge’s other claim to fame was that he was part of an army expedition testing the usefulness of camels in crossing the deserts in the Southwest. While the expedition’s leader, Lt. Edward Beale wrote of success with the camels, the Army canceled the program when the Civil War started a few years later.

Social Media #25
El Morro National Monument, New Mexico
2019

This inscription, in Spanish, translates as:

“On the 25th day of the month of June of this year 1709, Ramón Garcia Jurado passed through here on the way to Zuni.”

Ramón Garcia Jurado was a Spanish settler in New Mexico. The Spanish ran a long costly fight with Navajo over these new settlements. It is likely that Jurado was on a campaign the Navajo when he carved this inscription.

It is interesting that the Puebloan Indians of the area (e.g. the folks at Zuni) were to a degree much more welcoming of the Spanish than were the Navajo. This is because the Spanish took some of the brunt of the treatment that the Navajo had previously lavished entirely on the Puebloans; i.e. it was an “enemy of my enemy” kind of relationship.

POTD: Social Media #24
El Morro National Monument, New Mexico
2019

As much historical significance the carvings on El Morro have today, they are still essentially an early form of social media (they might even be considered graffiti if carved today), so I’m including them in my series of examples of non-electronic social media.

This is one of the oldest inscriptions on El Morro, put there by the first Governor of New Mexico, Don Juan de Oñate. It was inscribed in 1605, which (as pointed out by the literature at the monument) was fifteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

Because It’s Mother’s Day
Silver City, New Mexico
2019

Everyone–good, bad, or somewhere in between–has a mother worth remembering.