Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Attack of the Killer Humming Birds by PITT DICKEY Fortunately for you dear Reader, I can’t show you my slides of New Mexico. This is the fi nal chapter of the annual “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” composition. In the last column, we were in Taos getting ready to mosey out to Abiquiu, N.M. We took the long route by the Philmont Boy Scout ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico. Forty-fi ve short years ago I spent time as a Fayetteville Boy Scout hiking the mountains at Philmont. Reports of the Boy Scouts’ demise are greatly exaggerated. Philmont is alive and well. Other than the Tooth of Time Mountain, the only thing I really recognized was the corral where the buses unload the Boy Scouts before they hike off into adventure. One major improvement is the addition of girls on staff at the snack bar/souvenir lodge. A tame deer wanders the grounds and poses for pictures. In Cimarron we enjoyed a tasty Bison Burger at the St. John’s Hotel. This fi ne hotel was founded by Abraham Lincoln’s personal chef after Honest Abe was called to Glory. Lots of famous cowpersons stayed at the St. John during its prime including Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp and Annie Oakley. As a result of a various cowboy gun fi ghts, there are more than 20 bullet holes proudly featured in the dining room. These are even more bullet holes than used to be in Saigon Lounge on Hay Street in its prime. Abiquiu is famous for being the home of the late great artist, Georgia O’Keeffe. Georgia, as you will recall, painted western landscapes, fl owers resembling lady bits and the occasional cow skull fl oating over a mesa. If you have Georgia on your mind, go to Abiquiu and check out where she lived the last 30 years of her life. Abiquiu has fewer residents than Cross Creek Mall on a rainy Tuesday morning. Commercially there is not much happening there except for the delightful Abiquiu Inn and the amazing Bode’s General Store. A curious fact about the wilds of New Mexico is that there are vast areas without cell phone or Internet service. What a concept. Unconnected in America? They said it couldn’t be done, but northern New Mexico has done it. You can get away from constant connectedness in New Mexico. For those in need of an Internet fi x, the Abiquiu Inn has wireless Internet bolstered by its incredible fi ghting hummingbird show. The porch at the inn has several hummingbird feeders which attract the angriest hummingbirds in New Mexico. Watching the hummingbirds jostle each other was like watching fl ying midget rassling. Those boys zoom in and out, bumping chests and threatening each other with severe bodily harm all day long while insulting each other’s Mommas. These birds be bad. Georgia’s house sits on a ridge overlooking amazing landscapes and Bode’s General Store. For a small fee you can tour Georgia’s home if you comply with certain rules — no cameras, no note taking, no cell phones. Despite the OCD rules, the tour is well worth it. Georgia painted the nearby Perdenales Mountain multiple times based on her theory that “if she painted it enough, God would give it to her.” She had her ashes spread on the top of Perdenales so perhaps God granted her wish. No trip to Abiquiu is complete without a visit to Bode’s General Store. If Bode’s doesn’t have it, you don’t need it. Everything from their prize-winning Green Chili Cheeseburger, to some of the fi nest Abiquiu T-shirts in the universe, to metal camping cook ware is available for your consuming pleasure at Bode’s. A short hike of about a mile from the Abiquiu Inn to Bode’s will meet all your earthly desires. At Bode’s you can get the Santa Fe newspaper, fresh fruit, and the latest KoKo Peli refrigerator magnet to fulfi ll your intellectual, physical, and metaphysical needs. On the way back to Santa Fe we crossed the amazing Rio Grande Gorge. You’re driving along minding your own business on a rolling plain and suddenly you’re on a bridge 650 feet above the Rio Grande river. It is a pretty impressive drop. Local entrepreneurs set up shop at the eastern edge of the bridge selling trinkets. On the western side of the bridge are colorful low environmental impact Jetson’s style houses of the future built into the plains on 15 acre lots. Ten days on the road and no bed PITT DICKEY, Contributing bugs. Go West! Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Womack Army Medical Center Presents September 18, 2010 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. All-American Entrance Clinic Mall TRICARE briefi ngs Vision Screening • Audiology Screening Nutrition Counseling Breast Exams & Mammograms Physical Therapy Education Blood Pressure/Cholesterol Screening Pharmacy Counseling Dental Screening (Oral Cancer Screening) Social Work Education Wills and Advanced Directi Prostrate Screening L For more information call Retirement Services at 1.800.535.6067 or WAMC Public Affairs Of ce 910.907.7247/9924 Please remember to bring a list of your medications for review. 6 UCW SEPTEMBER 1-7, 2010 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM ectives Representative from VA Medical Center Lots of other educational services available