A Few Days in New Mexico ...

Well, unlike the other "A Few Days ..." segments posted so far, to introduce a few days of videos and posts, I can't say anything in reference to New Mexico being personally largely neglected and overlooked, though there are some "Bucket List" places I would like to revisit with my digital cameras.  Of the number of "nights spent" in particular states, it looks like New Mexico is #3.

1. Georgia 

2. Texas

3. New Mexico (estimated)

4. Arizona (estimated)

5. Oklahoma (estimated) 

I have been to all "four corners" of New Mexico (having been to the Four Corners Monument", I am speaking figuratively about the other three), with the SW Corner the least visited (to my great regret), just driving through between El Paso and Bisbee, AZ in November 1979.

In mid-2015, my first visit to NE New Mexico was spent visiting Clayton Lake State Park, followed by hours wandering the Clayton-Raton Volcanic Field.  As I was due in Albuquerque that evening, other than the Raton K-T Boundary site, the small dike crossing I-25, and some faulting in outcrops of the San Andres Limestone, I wasn't able to spend as much time in the area north and northeast of Santa Fe, as I would like. 

I have blogged before about the U.S. Hwy 66/I-40 corridor, another place I would like to spend more time in.  It truly is the "Land of Enchantment".

Because of the Geologic and personal importance of New Mexico, I have blogged about the state numerous times.  Here are a few prior New Mexico entries/posts:

White Sands National Monument

Bisti Badlands, San Juan Basin

Recurring Themes, Including New Mexico Experiences

Geo-Learning, Including Clayton-Raton Volcanic Field

What a Geologist Sees: Part 27

Get Your Kicks on Route 666 - Part 2 (Shiprock and More)

Get Your Kicks on Route 666 - Part 1 (Not my video)

Sky Island - New Mexico's Jemez Mountains

Carrizozo Basalts

Personal Photos of New Mexico Volcanic Features (Some labeled for Educational Purposes

A Post on Diatremes and Maar Volcanoes, including New Mexico Maar Volcanoes

Albuquerque to Gallup (Includes Albuquerque Volcanoes and other Geologic Sites along I-40 West)

A Video on New Mexico Volcanoes (Not my video)

New Mexico's Dynamic Geology  (Not my video)

My 1979 Summer Job in the Bisti Badlands (All photos are mine)

There are more New Mexico posts, scattered through my blog archives, but finding them and cleaning up scattered glitches takes time.

Route 66 Road Trip across Oklahoma

Because of family connections from my first marriage - of almost 31 years - Oklahoma has been near and dear to my heart.  The only part of the 383-mile long Oklahoma "Route 66 corridor" untraveled for me is the portion northeast of Tulsa. 

[A minor caveat: On the final leg of the 1974 Road Trip with my college roommate Dave, how we diagonally got from Dallas to St. Louis is a mystery.  My primary memories of it were driving through hours of heavy rains at night and - looking at a current map - it might have included the Route 66 corridor.  We probably intended to stop, camp out, and continue to his parents' home in St. Louis the following day, but the heavy rains nixed those plans.  Instead, we arrived at his parents' home late that night.]

The segment of the "Mother Road" between East and Northeast of Edmond has only been sparsely traveled between Arcadia and Tulsa.

Only time and circumstances will tell if future "van camping" adventures will include any sections of US Hwy 66.

For Those Dropping By ...

Being somewhat "trapped indoors" this year by the pandemic - aside from normal routine responsibilities - I have had an inordinate amount of time to think about my geologic past and what I might want to do if future opportunities present themselves.  Perhaps an informal Bucket List (or Geo-Bucket List), if you will.  (I have blogged about this more-than-once.)

One of my major goals is to revisit The Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Arkansas one more time (hopefully during cool weather).  I found a 37-point (.37 carat) "white" (clear) diamond on my first visit in 1973 (but lost it during 2011 home renovations).  Subsequent visits were made in 1978, 1984, and 2015 with no such luck.  While there in spring 1978, a couple from Dallas, Texas screening gravel near us found a brown 4-carat diamond and I got to hold it.

For those unfamiliar with the place, it is the ONLY operating diamond mine open to the public worldwide.  (Think about that.)  After you pay your $10 entrance fee, you can keep anything you find.  Anything.  That being said, there are no guarantees about finding anything, but if you do some advance preparation, it might increase your chances.

Here is a partial list of short videos and my blatherings about Diamonds and how to find them, with additional videos being posted (usually one per day, except for October 14, 2020, when I posted a flurry of 11 videos) as I found them on YouTube.

Other repeat and random posts are on the subjects of Gold (as several ancestors were involved in the 19th century Georgia and California Gold Rushes), travels on U.S. Hwy 66 (aka Route 66), the Chihuahuan Desert (where I lived while in El Paso from 1977 - 1991), and the U.S. travel writer William Least Heat-Moon.  So my primary goals are to entertain and inform.