I met Garland Seggerman at a bus stop on the old Route 66. A tall, older gentleman, he was folded into rather than seated on the bench. He uncomfortably crossed and uncrossed heavy cowboy boots bookending legs long and straight like lodgepole pine. His face lit up with a warm smile as I sat down. I greeted him, and asked what he’d been up to today.
new mexico
Tin foil hat
I survived a hundred degrees in blistering Roswell this month. It was my second visit. I was last at the UFO museum way back in 2000. Not a great deal has changed. Many photocopied documents and images are mounted on display boards, but there are a few new, weightier displays including a giant Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still.
ABQ Preacher location
Sometime around March this year I noticed a whole block in a downtown neighbourhood had been blocked off for filming. Whilst watching episode six of Preacher, which has filmed predominately at Albuquerque Studios, I spotted the location. Always the internet sleuth, I mapped some frame grabs next to street view. It is indeed 11th and Fruit in the pretty, downtown residential area, one of my favourite places for a stroll.
Not signposted
I found a couple of ways to spend a Sunday off the beaten track. Firstly to visit a restored church in Abeytas, a tiny town of about fifty people in Socorro county. The church is over a century old and was rebuilt in part with the help of recovering addicts. I was actually more enamoured by the completely unrestored adobe building next door.