Around Santa Fe 2: Camel Rock, Dino Family

Another gorgeous day in Santa Fe coaxed Mat out of the minivan and to two more fabulous roadside attractions: the all-natural Camel Rock Monument in Pojoaque and the charming polyurethane foam Brontosaurus Family. But first we need to give a shout out to neighbor, Dave Duchane, who lovingly donated his collection of AAA maps of southern states for our navigating ease when we head east towards Winston-Salem next week. Thank you so much, Dave!

Mat thanks Dave Duchane for the road map collection

Camel Rock Monument looks like a camel sitting down for a rest and when you drive by at just the right angle it looks as though it's closing its eyes in a satisfied smize (smiling with your eyes). It also makes an impressive silhouette at sunset.  It sits just off the road, but far enough away that rolling Mat through the dusty grounds was not an option. And you can't get up close and personal since a chain link fence keeps visitors (and tasteless teenagers with spray paint cans) at a safe distance.  Mat thinks this would be a delightful spot for a picnic!

Mat points to Camel Rock Monument. Pojoaque, NM

Camel Rock sits safely behind its chain link fence. Pojoaque, NM

Closer to Santa Fe just off 1-25 on Dinosaur Trail is the Brontosaurus Family which guards the office building of a roofing company.  The polyurethane foam used in roofing has been lovingly sculpted with plenty of re-bar into a mommy, a daddy, and a baby brontosaurus by the late Larry Wilson.  His son now runs the roofing company and they love it when curious passersby visit and take photos.  A neighboring building has a T-Rex head busting out of it and in 2001 Wilson made quite a splash when he placed a dummy with a likeness to Osama Bin Laden in the T-Rex's mouth!

It's Dino-tastic! Brontosaurus family sculpture in Santa Fe, NM

Mat thinks this nuclear dino family is just precious.......sigh! Santa fe, NM

Around Santa Fe: Indians at El Dorado

Just outside of Santa Fe is a newly created community called El Dorado that has its own shopping center: La Tienda.  They allow artist installations in their outdoor La Tienda Exhibit Space and what is there today is a special treat: giant wood cutouts of Indians riding up on horseback!

Mat can sense the Indians riding up behind him at El Dorado's La Tienda. Santa Fe, NM

Seattle artist, Thom Ross, created these intricate paintings with 3 dimensional detail (note the fringe on the horses) because of an old photo he once came across: a 1902 Buffalo Bill Cody and the Wild West Show from Ocean Beach in San Francisco depicting 108 cowboys and indians.  He recreated every figure and installed them on that same beach in 2008.  La Tienda is proud to have about 70 of those figures (all Indians and no cowboys) on display for an indeterminate amount of time (read: if you plan on visiting, do it ASAP). Mat was blown away by the installation even if we couldn't get him any closer than the parking lot.

Don't be concerned, Raccoon! Those Indians are friendly.  El Dorado's La Tienda, Santa Fe, NM

Wouldn't it be a little intimidating having this audience watch you play horseshoes? El Dorado's La Tienda, Santa Fe

Artist Thom Ross' gorgeous wood cutouts

Three dimensional fringe detail on the horses

Mat's Santa Fe Gig: ARTfeast

Last night's ARTfeast Edible Art Tour was such a blast! We set up Mat in the hallway of El Centro de Santa Fe (a really cool art gallery mall) and sold tokens to ARTfeasters passing by, headed for art-viewing and treats like creamy green chile chicken soup from The Pantry Restaurant (one of our must-stop-in eateries in town) and curry chicken salad from another yummy restaurant, El Farol. We sold a bunch of tokens and donated all of the proceeds to ARTfeast.  Mat was thrilled!

Mat and Victoria are looking very professional and ready for the ARTfeasters

Mat met tons of new friends and fans, several of whom had heard or read about the Art*o*mat® program and were absolutely delighted to finally see a machine in Santa Fe. Corky and I are very proud to be able to bring the first machine to New Mexico. The tenants of El Centro were eagerly anticipating Mat's arrival and we hear tell that there was some strong competition as to in front of whose gallery Mat should be placed.  We ended up front and center, between The Signature Gallery and the JW Fine Art gallery. No one could miss us if they tried!

El Centro Manager, James Bottorff, thinks Mat is the coolest! He loved the origami art his token redeemed.

ARTfeast Managing Director, Diane Deane, delights in showing a customer the painting she got from Mat

Mat was very inspiring to some of the teachers that attended ARTfeast (whose students benefit from the money raised for their art programs) and their eyes lit up when I told them that, yes, artwork from student groups can be submitted to Art*o*mat® and ultimately placed in machines all over the country.  I bet Clark Whittington will get several Santa Fe art submissions based on the amount of creative juices flowing that night!

Rachel and Leah came from Denver to enjoy ARTfeast.  They had a hard time choosing which art to buy...

Mat met a really nice teacher named Gretel from Cerrillos, NM who allowed us to take her photo with the art she bought and she wanted to say "hi" to her daughter, Anastacia, who is studying abroad in India and may log on to this blog.  If she does, Mat says "hi" too and hopes she enjoys the fine art silk screened hankies that her mom bought for her as an ARTfeast souvenir.

Gretel from Cerrillos, NM loves the "fine art silk screened hankies" she bought from Mat

It was a great event overall and we were happily exhausted after a full day of volunteering, selling ARTfeast tickets in the office, and taking turns standing by Mat and telling the Art*o*mat® story to all of the feasters.

Saturday night was the ARTfeast Gala Gourmet Dinner and Auction, and we were proud to be at Director James Bottorff's beautiful table (Mat is not all that into gourmet food so he decided to stay home). The school kids made all of the place mats (120 of which eventually became "I Made It" plates to bid on at the auction) which we got to take home as a souvenir, and they also made 12"x 12" paintings for the centerpieces (that were also available for silent auction).

Table setting at ARTfeast Gala Dinner and Auction. Centerpiece paintings and place mats created by the students.

Victoria with ARTsmart Director, James Bottorff at the Gala.

The "I Made It" plates in the silent auction sold for big bucks and Corky and I were lucky to have "won" three of them (not pictured). All of which have been given to and will be on permanent display at The Pantry Restaurant.  We hope that our plates' student artists, Jasmine, Aryanna, and Alex, will bring their friends and family to "visit" their plates at the restaurant for years to come!

"I Made It" plates silent auction at ARTfeast's Gala Dinner

Silent auction of "I Made It" plates -got very competitive!

A themed set of 12 student made "Postcards from New Mexico" plates sold at ARTfeast for thousands at the Gala.

The individual "I Made It" plates sold for hundreds of dollars and the sets of 12 sold for thousands.  It is going to be a very successful year for ARTfeast indeed! The next morning was the ARTfeast Artists' Brunch where there was another set of 12 plates up for live auction. We were delighted to find out that the teacher whose students created the "Butterfly" plate collection was none other than our good friend Gretel!

Gretel stands proudly by her students' set of 12 butterfly "I Made It" plates for live auction at ARTfeast's Artist Brunch.

Close up of the butterfly set of ARTfeast "I Made It" plates

Wow, that was a busy and fun-filled weekend of fundraising. Now that our gig is over, we will be spending some quality relaxation time in Santa Fe before packing up the minivan and driving Mat ever eastward, towards Winston-Salem!

Day 5, At ARTfeast in Santa Fe

Mat is set up at El Centro de Santa Fe and ready for tonight's event, the ARTfeast Edible Art Tour. Hundreds of hungry gallery-walkers will travel through El Centro and 50 other galleries to see art and enjoy gourmet catered tastes at each venue. We hope Mat makes lots of new friends tonight!

Mat is set up at ready for the ARTfeast event tonight in Santa Fe, NM

Road Trip Day 4: Colorado and Corky's Birthday!

Road Trip Day 4 brings us through Colorado with the most beautiful blowy but sunny day -just perfect for Corky's 62nd Birthday! We had a dynamite sunset last night in Cortez, CO (the photo doesn't do it justice), and woke excited for the sunny day to bring Mat to our #1 favorite Colorado roadside attraction, the Hogan Trading Post along Highway 160, complete with giant wooden arrows and teepees.

Sunset in Cortez, CO

Happy 62nd Birthday, Corky!

The Hogan Trading Post was closed for the season, but that didn't stop Mat from wanting his photo taken in front of those great big arrows.  Corky felt like impaling herself on the arrows as a birthday tribute to aging...

Mat feels right at home with the plastic horse and giant wooden arrows at The Hogan Trading Post, Mancos, CO

Mat and Corky "enjoy" the giant wooden arrows at The Hogan Trading Post, Mancos, CO

Upon turning 62 today, Corky felt struck through the heart by the Arrow of Antiquity!

Laird stood by with Amber the dog as we offloaded Mat and got some divine Trading Post photos. Amber was happy to make her version of snow angels while she waited for us.

Laird and Amber the dog at Hogan Trading Post, Mancos, CO

The Hogan Trading Post, while it's open for the season, is a great place to stop and take photos and pick up a few essentials like a thunder egg, a bright red dyed rabbit's foot, a "genuine faux" tomahawk with a rubber blade, or some authentic navajo rugs and native american collectibles. It's also a treat to say "hi" to the owners' two beautiful French bulldogs if they are "working" that day.

The Hogan Trading Post, Mancos, CO

Mat at the Hogan Trading Post, Mancos, CO

Just a few miles down the road is our favorite little Colorado coffee joint and natural foods store, Zuma Cafe and Natural Foods and we nearly had a panic when we discovered that they were GONE from their usual spot.  They moved two doors down. Phew! Corky would get her birthday latte after all. The lovely owner/barista, Cynthia, was there and told us that they had made the move just last month and it took only one day since community members donated their time and pickup trucks. She said that it went so smoothly that there were no interruptions in sales that day. That's some team work!

Our favorite coffee shop in Colorado: Zuma Cafe and Natural Foods with owner, Cynthia

The Zuma Cafe and Natural Foods VW Love Bus beckons from its new location
Lattes in hand, we ventured further east to Pagosa Springs, where Amber could get a nice riverside walk, and then we pressed on southward to Santa Fe, NM, for ARTfeast  (see our earlier ARTfeast post to learn about Mat's debut gig) this weekend and then several days of hanging out in the Santa Fe area before we head east toward Mat's home in Winston-Salem, NC.

On The Road Day 3: Utah

We made it to Ogden, UT in the dark and rain and stayed the night in a familiar pet-friendy Comfort Inn and I wondered why the guy holding the cocktail in the lobby had purple and green blotches in his hair ...but then I remembered: It's Mardi Gras! We were too pooped to party and I was too bleary-eyed to do my "Day 2" post last night so "sorry, Grandma, for making you wait all day to catch up with our blog." And "welcome and thank you" by the way, to all the new members to our blog! We hope you are having as much fun viewing as we are posing Mat for photos in front of cool roadside scenery!

Pushing southward on I-84 brought us through Salt lake City, but we decided to forego any stops in that busy place and Mat didn't seem too interested in Mormon temples anyway. And in case anyone is interested, we saw NO campaign signs for Mitt Romney anywhere in SLC. Strange? We remembered how awesome the Wind Turbines at Spanish Fork, UT looked from the highway. There was an opportunity to get pretty close to them and park the van thanks to the helpful hint from the nice couple that run the Spanish Fork Texaco (who also informed us that the turbines are made in their native India).

Mat basks in the awesomeness of the Spanish Fork Wind Project (turbines).  Spanish Fork, UT

The video doesn't quite do the sound of the wind turbines any justice, but you can just imagine the sound of a jet flying high overhead.  We have seen plenty wind farms during our trek so far, but none as impressive as these, right next to the snowy foothills (and none that we could get so close to). We'll probably see many many more across the country.  It's the future of electricity production and boy, is Mat impressed!

Traveling up and over the snowy Soldier's Pass and many miles through the vastness of Utah and into the red rocks of Moab (where Aron Ralston was hiking and ran into some "rocky" trouble in 127 Hours) we stopped for a tasty lunch at the Moab Diner, the "home of the best green chile in town." It's just too slick and diner-y not to take a photo or two:

Moab Diner, home of the best green chile in town. Moab, UT

We left our late lunch just in time to make it to our #1 favorite roadside attraction in all of Utah: the famous Hole in the Rock. The Hole in the Rock is actually a blasted-out 5,000 sq ft cave home that was once the dwelling and restaurant of Albert and Gladys Christensen. It now operates as a memorial to the founders and it's a tourist must-stop with a $5.00 tour of the home (with its original furnishings) as well as an Exotic Zoo and outdoor art and nostalgia highway kitsch collection to drool over!

"Hole in the Rock," the home carved from stone that you can tour!   Moab, UT

Mat in front of the Trading Post at The Hole in the Rock.  Moab, UT

Mat checks out some cool old gas pumps and a wall of license plates at Hole in the Rock

The gracious owners, Erik and Wyndee Hansen, were darling enough to let us stay a few minutes after closing to finish our photo shoot (we learned that they close an hour earlier in the winter and we'd made it there just in the knick of time). Mat was delighted to meet Erik and pose for a picture with him.  We think that the Art*o*mat® program may have a new fan (and, Erik, if you are reading this, we REALLY hope you decide to add a machine to your menagerie -there is yet to be a host in Utah!)

Mat meets Hole in the Rock owner, Erik Hansen, in front of the cool dog bone jeep sculpture.  Moab, UT

Hole in the Rock owner and artist, Erik Hansen, hopes to join the ranks of Guinness World Records  with his latest creation in progress: a giant Saguaro cactus made of over 1,000 bowling balls.  That's a lot of balls, Erik! And re-bar too. He hopes to be finished well before summer and we wish him the best of luck in his "largest tree sculpture" Guinness category. We'll check up on his progress the next time we roll though town.

Erik Hansen's sculpture-in-process: Bowling Ball Saguaro cactus tree.  Moab, UT

Road Trippin Day Two: OR, ID, UT

We woke up in gray and soggy Pendleton, Oregon, checked the handy roadside attraction app on our iPhone, and chose to back track a mile or so from the hotel on I-84 to the US 395 interchange to find the "Gateway to Pendleton Cattle Drive" sculpture for our first Oregon photo shoot with Mat:

Victoria and Corky contemplate how to get an epic enough shot of Cattle Drive including Mat... 

The sculpture is located right next the freeway on-ramp and there is really no way to park the van close by.  The threatening clouds were looming enough to keep us from offloading Mat across the street and wheeling him over. And the grass around the Cattle Drive was recently aerated and very mushy so our only choice was to take the picture roadside.  We think that the cattle are so far away in the photo that they may appear to be plain old cows but they're not! They are actually a very cool collection of cowboys, cattle, and even a herding dog (our dog, Amber, even did a double-take and a "butt-sniff" to confirm that it was indeed a canine impostor).

Mat observes the Cattle Drive from a safe distance.  Pendleton, OR

Gateway to Pendleton Cattle Drive Sculpture    Pendleton, OR

A cow's-eye view of what the Cattle Drive is like

Continuing south with our goal of reaching Santa Fe by Thursday evening, we charged ahead.  Rain, fog, rainy fog, and foggy rain is all that Idaho along I-84 had to offer us so we just let Mat "sleep" in the car until the state was behind us.  We picked up an infamous Idaho Spud candy bar after a cozy dinner at one of our favorite country joints, The Ranch House Diner in Snowville, UT.

The friendly "Utah Hat Rack" at The Ranch House Diner. Snowville, UT

...And waited until the sun came out to take Mat's commemorative Idaho photo.

Mat with his commemorative Idaho Spud candy bar

We Hit The Road! Day One: WA,OR

Our Epic Art*o*mat® Road Trip Day One:
With Laird and the dog joining us in a two-minivan-caravan we rolled out of Tacoma in fog and rain around 10:00 am and made the decision to drive south via The Dalles instead of going over snowy Snoqualmie Pass and through Eastern Washington. It was a great choice because Highway 84 brought us by a couple of not-to-be-missed roadside attractions: Multnomah Falls, and the Stonehenge War Memorial.

Multnomah Falls is a magnificent 611 foot waterfall just steps from the highway and parking lot (so if all you can manage is a drive-by it's a very satisfying looksy).  The rain was unrelenting and Mat was refusing to come out of the warm and cozy minivan for a photo shoot but we had to pause (for a much-needed rest stop) and take a picture even if we couldn't include Mat. It was crowded with Presidents' Day tourists and there was a very busy restaurant that looked equally romantic and pricy with falls views. Maybe some other time...

Misty and romantic Multnomah Falls, OR 

When we got to The Dalles the rain let up a bit and we stopped for a lovely Columbia River view lunch at Windseeker Restaurant. They had a wonderful homemade navy bean and ham soup that warmed us up nicely.  A quick detour from I-84 back over the Columbia to the Washington side via Highway 97 brought us to the quirky-cool concrete Stonehenge replica: The Maryhill Stonehenge War Memorial.  We got some great shots of Mat in the eerie gray light in between rain storms.

Mat and Stonehenge War Memorial Maryhill, WA

The gravel parking lot prevented us from wheeling him any closer, but we were satisfied with the result -especially when two very hip Portland girls came over and inquired about Mat and what we were doing.  We failed to get their names but we hope they'll log on to this blog and leave a comment. Please do so, ladies! The best part was that they said they had seen an Art*o*mat® before (probably in Oregon). Art*o*mat® is everywhere! It's fun to run into fans.  We hope to find many more along the way.

It's Stonehenge. It's Art*o*mat®.  It's Art*o*henge!  Maryhill, WA

It's a very cool contemplative place -great for a picnic or just some quiet time for reflection.

Inside Stonehenge with windmills in the background.  Maryhill, WA

View of the Columbia River from Stonehenge. Maryhill, WA

Stonehenge War Memorial w/name placard in the concrete.