We spent the night at a small converted barn on a sheep farm outside of Mosgiel, New Zealand. While the town itself is relatively unremarkable, this is our first chance to get up close and personal with one of the major inhabitants of New Zealand: sheep.
And we are back on the road! This time, for are are traveling for some human-made scenery: the open air art gallery or East Jesus, in Slab City.
Como Park Zoo & Conservatory hosts a breathtaking collection of plants and animals from around the world. In visiting, we were immediately drawn to the Ape enclosure where one of the largest Gorillas in captivity reclined with an understated authority. That being said, it seems like the Como Park Zoo & Conservatory is a place to be seen, not described. So, here we go:
Before he adopted the pen name Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens grew up in Hannibal, Missouri—the template for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin's hometown. Today, the quiet town perched by the Mississippi is filled with callouts to Mark Twain and his famous creations. You can tour his home and learn about his complex relationship with the morals of his environment and the values he adopted later in life. In every quote, we are treated to the wit and wisdom of one of America's greatest storytellers.
The Chinati Foundation is a contemporary art museum. Its houses a collection of permanent installations across the rambling campus of a decommissioned air base. But it isn't a spot you just wander in to. No, It takes an appointment, a guide, and a lot of time.
It rained over the Arizona Desert as we drove toward Biosphere 2. Biosphere 1 (Earth) was pouring water onto the parched red sands of Oracle, outside of Tuscon. But inside the experimental environment of Biosphere 2, we might as well have been another world—which was the point.
We raced through Texas. We have plans for that state for a little later in the winter. Right now, we have some people to see further west. For all the fury of travel, we do make a point to get out of the car each day. Today, that stop is along the very small wedge of New Mexico that is traced by the 10: the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.
Medicine may be one of the most expressive examples of how society has progressed and improved over time. Doctors have done a lot of crazy and down right dangerous things in the attempt to heal people, whether their malady is real or perceived. When I asked a doctor friend "at what point in history was visiting a doctor more likely to help the patient than harm?" he didn't have to think hard. He immediately replied: with the invention of penicillin.