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November 22, 2006
By Ben Moffett for Mountain Mail (This also appears in SmallTownNewspapers)
SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) -- The traditional media generally treats Bosque del Apache and the Festival with travel page politeness, but I’ve discovered the unvarnished truth more often comes out in the blogosphere. First, let me start with keynote speaker Julie Zickefoose’s webpage. If you read the Mountain Mail’s special section you’ll recall that she had posted a bluebird painting taken “On the Road to Magdalena” and promised to go back and take her kids, Liam and Phoebe on this year’s return trip.The bluebird photo is still in place, but she’s added a day-by-day, blow-by-blow report which makes extremely interesting reading. All of what she wrote is not necessarily favorable, although none of it is mean.
For example, she took a photo of a sign advertising a “Coyote Shoot” that was tacked to the foyer area at the front of the Owl Bar. On Friday, Nov. 17, she wrote: “New Mexico is different, a bit rough around the edges.” She said “The Owl Bar has its own charm, bathed as it is in cigarette smoke. It’s the closest watering hole to Bosque del Apache ... and as such it’s one of the only smoky bars I’ve been in where you don’t get weird looks when you walk in wearing binoculars.”Zickefoose titled her day’s writings as “Please Dispose Of Your Own Coyote,” which was on the coyote hunt sign. “The sign took a little getting used to,” she wrote. “Notice its two man teams (that are hunting). That actually makes me happy. I don’t know too many women who would sign up for this.”Owner Rowena Baca told the Mountain Mail, in her defense, that “most smokers go to the bar area” and she never knows what is posted on the foyer out front. Most people who frequent the Owl Bar probably think, as Zickefoose may, that the departure from traditional values is part of the charm of the place.Aside from those remarks, Zickefoose has nothing but good to say about her trip, including discovering live coyotes at the place where she did the bluebird painting. Her Saturday, Nov. 18, post was headlined “The Best Night of My Life.” How do you pass up a headline like that? She also gave major kudos to Socorro Springs Brewery, the local locomotives, and the Bosque del Apache. I’m selecting a quote on that for next year’s Mountain Mail Festival of the Cranes special section.I don’t have room to tell her whole story, but it would pay you to check it out. It’s illustrated with great photos of things we locals take for granted, and in general is good publicity for the entire area.* * * *Another blog, called barkingquark.spaces, also gets into the festival from a whole different perspective. The guy writing this, who I was unable to contact, wrote “as we were driving along, I noticed a few horses, some Texas Longhorn cattle, and a few cranes hanging out in a field. We pulled off and I made S take a photo of the first bird I saw.”The bird was a plastic pink flamingo held up by a triangular trailer hitch on the back of a dark pick-up truck that had seen its better days. You can find the picture at barkingquark.spaces.love.com/blog“After we left the Bosque, we decided to go to Fort Craig,” he wrote. “I had no idea what it was but ... figured it was one of those wooden soldier forts that you see in the movies. No such luck. We drove and drove on a very weird dirt road until we finally came upon a little area with picnic tables, restrooms and a small RV park area.“‘Where in the hell is the fort,’ I asked.“It seems the fort is just a bunch of rubble and ruins. I was kinda (ticked) because I thought, ‘Hell, if you have to travel down that road, the least you could do is put a snack bar out here. It was really in the middle of nowhere.“There was a warning at the trail head to watch for rattlesnakes and then the posting let you know the nearest hospital was 35 miles away. That was enough wilderness for me! We made a quick turn around a few of the ruins and then hightailed it out of there.”“Anyway, we had a lovely weekend despite the murderous meanderings of soldiers and Indians. I cannot imagine anyone every wanting to settle in this area much less just walk through the terrain. Between the rattlesnakes, the stickers and stickery brush, the rock, the heat, the lack of water, and the sand, I find it amazing that white settlers even survived. We did but it was only because of the really nice remote bathrooms.”I’ve excerpted a lot. You can (and should) read the entire post and take a look at the pink flamingo.You can reach San Antonio native Ben Moffett at benmoffett@comcast.net.
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