Meeting Moses at Journey's End

On one of our recent trips to NM, James and I found an interesting "treasure" off the main road, and a little hidden from view. You wouldn't see it unless you were looking for it, or happened to take a wrong turn that turned out to be a right turn. You might not see it if you were distracted by the "main attraction" at this spot.

Which I'll tell you about, because I don't *think* it'll lead you closer to the treasure.  And because I've thoroughly worked the place over. Lol.

The place I'm referring to is the very large "Journey's End" bronze sculpture practically across the street from Forrest's house. I'd seen the sculpture online, and a theory that was forming in my head solidified even more.

I'll try to explain. It's not a hard concept, but maybe difficult to illustrate the points.

"Journey's End" is a sculpture by Sonny Rivera (I'm unsure of any relation to Joe), and the description found on websites about the bronze is:

"In 2002, Reynaldo "Sonny" Rivera planted Journey's End, his massive bronze sculpture, at the entrance to Museum Hill off Old Santa Fe Trail. It captures a scene made familiar by repetition over a period of almost 60 years. In this sculpture, six tired mules struggle to pull a heavy wagon up a hill. One of the mules has stumbled. The muleskinner leans down to help the animal as it struggles to regain its footing. Passing the trail, a Puebloan woman looks on, while a boy waves at the lead wagon as he and his dog have run out from town to greet them. At this moment the trail boss points toward the end of the trail on the Santa Fe Plaza. So they will enter the plaza soon, marking the end of a long and difficult journey." (I highlighted some key points for emphasis)

So, these tired mules, after a long hard journey, are so close to nearing the end of the trail...but they never get there, because they're frozen in time on Museum Hill. For that wagon, the end is ever drawing nigh...

James and I searched that wagon and surrounding area for at least a couple hours on two separate trips. The sculpture is bordered by Camino Lejo. Lejo means "far away, distant" in Spanish. "Not far, but too far to walk?" 

Anyway, the sculpture had a lot of interesting features. The little boy to the right, for example, has a hole in his frayed hat. 

When researching the Old Santa Fe Trail, I learned that to enter the Santa Fe Plaza at the end of the journey was to experience "great joy." The trail was difficult and extremely hazardous, and the relative safety of Santa Fe was undoubtedly a welcome sight. 

But this poor wagon will never reach the end...it's frozen in a moment. 

There was this weird ceramic-tiled rectangle thing by the sculpture of the boy. I think it covers up electrical equipment, but I still poked around it...

We checked the wagon wheels, feeling all the seams:

We checked mule's and horse's hooves because of F's frequent mention of horseshoes...and in one of the Santa Fe videos on Dal's, the phalanges on a horse's leg is circled, but my eyes drifted down to the hoof, which is called a "coffin bone."

We even checked the animal's "private parts." I'll spare you those pics. Lol. After thoroughly searching the statue, we checked the trees, boulders, and....everything.

One rock looked like it had been sealed over. It reminded me of the way the San Lazaro Pueblo indians would hide important things in the walls. 

Although I was tempted, I didn't take it apart. The last thing I wanted was to be arrested for vandalism. 

We did find an interesting spot, with some obvious attempted camouflage, though...

I removed the rocks, and my breath caught as I pulled a peanut butter jar out of the shade. I immediately thought of Skippy, and F's frequent mentions of "plastic containers."

So, I excitedly unscrewed the lid, and found...a little notebook with a whole bunch of stamps. It turns out we found the cache of another treasure hunt you can find online.

But some of the stamps did remind me of the chase and the many rabbit holes one can explore.

There was even a unicorn!

After having completely scoured every inch of the sculpture and surrounding landscape, we decided to head toward where the guy on the horse was pointing. But first, we drove back farther on Museum Hill and were delighted to find...MOSES!

When I saw the tall statue, I was captivated by how much it reminded me of F's Vignette, "Well, Here's Moses."

Yes, that's me checking out the base and peering under Moses's robe. I'm glad no one was around as I turned on my flashlight and looked into his hollow body.

There were a bunch of little Moses-like wooden sculptures at a church in Santa Fe, by the way...

But Moses didn't hold anything but spiderwebs, so we continued our journey, and found joy wherever we ended up. That's it, right? Fun is where it's at, and imagination is more fun than knowledge. And we had a great time in New Mexico following wherever our imaginations took us.