The Thinking Putty Blog

Almost...But not quite...

Yesterday, in our holiday email announcement, I offered a free set of Christmas Thinking Putty to whomever was the first to send me a photo of themselves with the life-size Crazy Aaron cardboard cutout which lives at Ogelvie's Taos Bar & Grill in Taos, NM. 

Christopher Ledoux was quick to respond.  Perhaps, a little too quick!

"Attached is my submission!!!! Best I could do from Florida!!!"

Thanks Chris.  To all you putty fans, the offer still stands.  Score some Thinking Putty, get a nice mexican meal, and have fun doing it!

Roadtrip Epilogue

While the trip may have been unconventional, it was fun for us, as well, we hope for the many people we encountered on our travels.  We met interesting people in an unusual way and had some memorable adventures.  Surely, there were those who thought we were selling something or had other motives but the vast majority of the folks we met opened themselves to the adventure, as well.  Whether it be putty, a smile, or lending a helping hand, we’re all here together to share the fun!

Some Thoughts From Crazy Aaron:

I can't thank Cris and Jim enough for carting a 5ft tall foam-core Crazy Aaron around the American Southwest.  I am very appreciative.  I know that all of us at Puttyworld got a real kick out of watching his travels.  I hope you do as well.

If you have your own crazy idea involving putty or Crazy Aaron, let me know.  Maybe I'll be crazy enough to help make it happen!!

Roadtrip Day 15

With Aaron at his new home, Cris and Jim headed north to Denver for the flight out the following day.  There were still two last cans of putty to hand out.  On the way to Denver, Jim and Cris looked at each other a half a dozen times thinking, this would be a great place to get a picture with Aaron.  We missed his smiling face in the back of the Jeep, and even though he was a silent foam core figure, he did have a certain presence.  We arrived at the hotel, checked in, and rested from the trip.  

On the way out of the door of the hotel, Jim provided a can of putty to the desk clerk.  Out to dinner and back, packing up, and making ready for the final leg of the trip, a United flight from Denver to Omaha.  While having breakfast, Jim and Cris spotted a mom with two chatty little girls. That was where the last can of putty went, along with two Crazy Aaron t-shirts.  The mom thanked us and immediately the girls went to work creating all sorts of marvelous, creative, and interesting shapes with their new putty.  The smiles on their faces left Jim and Cris feeling that through Crazy Aaron we had helped increase the fun factor in a few lives.

Roadtrip Day 14

This was really the last day of our big adventure with Aaron in the southwest.  By the end of the day we had to find Aaron a good home and say our goodbyes.  We had a late start to the day and stopped by a coffee shop so that Aaron could catch up on his emails.  He had made so many friends on this trip and was still dizzy with excitement with regard to the places he had been and what he had seen.  And yes Lori, he did have enough underwear to last the whole trip.

We headed up to the Millicent Rogers museum.  It was a small museum that housed a variety of Indian art and jewelry pieces collected by Ms. Rogers.  After the museum visit, Jim and Cris headed to the post office to lessen the suitcase load for the trip back.  We returned from the post office and Jim had a nap.  While Jim was napping, Cris headed out to finish up some last-minute shopping.

You might recall that a couple with a condo in Santa Fe wanted Aaron at the end of the trip.  We did pass though Santa Fe but Aaron really wanted to go to Taos. We listened to Aaron and kept him with us the last three days.  Now we had a dilemma, how do we get Aaron to his new friends?  Well timing and distance kept us from meeting up with Coral and Michelle.  We called the couple from Santa Fe mid afternoon to try and arrange a meeting point somewhere between Taos and Santa Fe.  We were heading north, they were an hour south.  After some discussion and difficult choices we decide that Aaron should stay at Ogilvie's.  If you’re in Taos do stop by and see Aaron, let them know you heard about it at Puttyworld.

Escorting Aaron to Ogilvie’s we stopped along the way to take some photos in the main Taos square.  A young girl assisted with this effort, and of course, received some putty.  Arriving at Oglevie’s we spoke to the manager, who agreed to let Aaron stay.   After some discussion we said our goodbyes and left.   

We walked just down road to Graham’s Grille, where we had decided to have dinner.  It was a great place, with an interesting menu and a mod décor. We sat beside a couple from New Jersey who shared some of their experiences with home sharing, their travels, and stories of their grandkids.  At the end of the meal, we provided putty samples to the couple from New Jersey and to our waitress.  On the way back to the Jeep, Jim introduced himself to a man and his niece from South Dakota and Chicago, respectively.  All welcomed the gift and the idea of fun that came with it.

Roadtrip Day 13

Today was our first full day at Taos, rested and starting early we were ready to go.  We started by going to the Kit Carson museum.  This was a small humble home where a frontier hero lived.  It is unfathomable the distance that Kit Carson covered during his lifetime as a trapper, scout, and military man.  We moved through the small 6 room house reading about parts of Kit Carson’s life. 

We headed out to Bent Street to look for a new wallet for Jim.  As we traveled up and down the small alleys, streets, and squares, we marveled at the selection of art available.  It seems as though the entire town is focused on providing service and a unique experience to each person coming to the town.  Cris bought some do-dads, darting in and out of the shops.  The entire town/city is built using adobe style build, much like Santa Fe, but smaller.    As we moved from shop to shop we provided putty samples, all which were accepted with enthusiastic smiles and thank yous.

As lunch approached we looked for a simple place to eat, The Alley Cantina is what we found, and oh what a nice find this small Cafe was.  Entering a small passageway beside the restaurant we moved to the back and took a table with a umbrella.  We ordered a green chili stew, simple, yet fantastic.  At lunch we met two women, one from Louisiana and one from Dallas who took a trip with each other every year or two.  We provided a sample of putty to them and also to a couple from France.

After lunch we hit the road, out to the Rio Grande Bridge.  Stopping at the parking area there were about 6 vendors selling everything from Jewelry and wood benches, to fossils and rocks.  At this point Jim had Aaron with him heading to the bridge.  All of the vendors lit up and as Jim passed some of the vendors he provided samples of putty.  A man from Pennsylvania wanted to know about Aaron, he got a sample of putty, chuckled and wandered off.  Off to the heights at the center of the bridge, Cris took shots of Aaron with the Sangre Cristo mountains and the Gorge in the background.  We did notice traffic slowing, trying to determine what was going on.

Heading back to the Jeep, Jim, Cris, and Aaron headed out to the earthship.  Fully self contained, off grid earth homes.  The tour was fascinating; if you haven’t seen one, go.  Windmills and solar panels provide electricity to these structures made out of tires.  Water is used 4 times, reusing every drop in sensible and safe ways.  Aaron posed for a picture outside one of the structures.

Back to the Jeep, we headed to Arroyo Seco to visit the galleries that were there. The first one we walked into was a jewelry studio of Claire Haye.  Jim spoiled Cris; after Cris selected a few items, Jim provided a surprise purchase.   Claire was fun and her work was interesting.  Cris really appreciated the whole experience, including the branding; all the names were way cool.  Yes, you guessed it, Claire received a sample of putty as part of the experience.

Aaron, Jim, and Cris headed back to 125 Los Lomas Plaza and headed out to dinner.  Originally, we planned to go to Doc Martin’s, recommended by friends from Omaha and Santa Fe.  We escorted Aaron into the wait to be seated area and were beckoned from the bar area where a live jazz band was playing. At one of the tables, there was a small group who had seen us on the bridge earlier in the day and wanted to know what we were doing.  We explained our trip and found that part of the group was a couple, Robert and Diane, who were in the process of moving from Austin to Santa Fe. We provided putty samples and Diane, who was also a local artist, received some t-shirts for her grandchildren.  We returned to the other side of the establishment but in the end left Doc Martin’s as it was a tad too formal for Aaron.  We crossed over into the Taos plaza and headed into Oglevie's.  The wait staff immediately embraced Aaron’s presence.  We met Martina (originally from Germany) and Rudy from Taos.  A lively pair they were; we all chatted, laughed, and had a great time.

Returning to our cute casita, we called it a day…

Roadtrip Day 12

Today was another travel day, moving our base of operations from Albuquerque to the small artisan town of Taos.  We had found a great little Casita on vrbo.com and were looking forward to our last three nights of vacation in the northern New Mexico town.  Aaron helped us get our bags together while at the same time rifling through the souvenirs we had picked up along the way.   

We left right after breakfast, on the way to Santa Fe.   A friend of ours, Nancy, lives on the east side of town with her husband.  It’s a good thing that Greta was there to help us, the streets in Santa Fe, while quaint, go all over the darn place.  Arriving 30 minutes early, we decided to top up the gas tank in town.  After making what seemed to be 33 turns we arrived at a Shell station operated by a man who was originally from New Jersey.  Jim stopped to talk to the man, who had been to Rochester New York to go to race tracks up there.  Jim provided some putty and was surprised to see how excited this man became about the putty.

All filled up, we headed back to Nancy’s.  She has one of those half number addresses; really, it was a whole house, why couldn’t she have a whole address?  Nancy told us of her newly acquired horses and her efforts to acquire some property for boarding them.  While having mucked manure in the past, she was thinking she would be need an MME (manure mucking engineer) for the new property.   

Nancy and her husband, George, have a wonderful historic adobe house, or should we say houses, since they have a casita on property.  We chatted, laughed, and shared the stories of our trip with Nancy.   We met her two cats and saw George’s amazing old radio collection.  He has such neat stuff, really.  Then, off to lunch it was, down the roads and another 37 turns to the restaurant that was probably ½ mile away as the crow flies.   More chit chat, great food, and an overall wonderful Santa Fe experience was had by all.  Despite the rain, we are already planning our next trip to the Santa Fe area.  

Returning to Nancy’s hacienda (see, already it’s getting bigger), we received George’s Book, “The 10 Most Beautiful Experiments” and had it signed by George.  His name is George Johnson if you are looking for the book on Amazon, and it does come in the Kindle edition.  Imagine that, just wandering around, and we run into a great science writer.

Leaving Santa Fe it was still cloudy and raining, so rather than taking the slower more scenic view, we took the fast road to Taos.  It was surrounded by scenery; we can only imagine that the other route was more scenic; it does not seem possible.  Arriving at Mabel’s late in the afternoon, we decided to take it easy. The casita has 4 rooms and as Aaron stretched his legs he peaked into the standing cast iron stove, checked out the eating area, and looked at the various artwork.  Aaron was the first to discover the hot tub in the back yard. It seems we were set for this last part of our trip.

Jim and Cris headed out to a local Albertson’s to do some light shopping.  Calling it a night we settled in, relaxing in front of a small TV.  

More to come …

Roadtrip Day 11

We decided that the big event for the day was for the three of us to head to the Sandia Peak Tram.  The clouds and wind from the prior day that grounded the Balloons had cleared.  From Old Town the base of the tram was a short 15 minute drive.  Arriving at the entrance we paid a parking fee and provided the toll person some putty.  He appeared to be young, well to us anyone under 30 seems to be young now, so we told him not to let any of the putty get into his mother’s carpet.  He chuckled and thanked us for the surprise gift.

Aaron helped us collect our electronic do-dads and we headed up to the ticketing area where we purchased two tickets.  When we provided a putty sample to the ticket person, she was overwhelmed; she was very appreciative of her new gift and smiled.   We were herded onto a room (the Tram) with 139 other people, well really only 30 but it seemed like more.  Fortunately Aaron has been watching his weight and remains his slim ½ inch thick self. 

On the way up we struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger and her grand-daughter.  Passing out sample putty to the young girl we also provided some temporary tattoos.   They were from Dallas and were intrigued by our trip and Aaron.  The tram cables pulled us up thousands of feet past two towers to the tower at the top.  We looked down between tower 2 and the top tower; it did not seem that high but the Tram operator told us that we were 1000 feet in the air.   A spring at the top of the mountain enabled deciduous trees to grow at over 10,000 feet. 

 Arriving at the top we escorted Aaron to several overlooks before heading to the top of the Sandia Ski area.  The view towards both the South over Albuquerque and to the North towards a mountain filled vista was phenomenal.   Cris, Jim, and Aaron headed out for a walk in the woods where it was noted there might be bears.  Jim was calculating that by holding Aaron over his head, the resulting shape would be about 11 ft tall; certainly enough to scare off all bears under 10 ft tall.  Hmm, how tall is a bear when it stands up?  Jim reconsidered and looked at groups of Aspens forming a hedge alongside of the road and told Cris and Aaron if a bear shows up, keep the trees between them and pelt the bear with rocks or pine cones.  Cris was looking quite worried at this point and frantically looking around for potentially hundreds of bears.  Lucky for the bears, Jim and Cris saw none.

After a mile or so, Jim and Cris retraced their steps to the lodge, took some more photos, and handed out some more putty; to a man from Kent Ohio, to a waitress in the lodge, and an interpretive guide who was of German decent that indicated that putty with .. above the ‘u’ caused the pronunciation to change to ‘pitty’.  All were grateful of this new, albeit unusual, gift.

We boarded the next Tram down and along the way provided a sample to a Lady who lived near Whidbey Island in Washington State.  A man in the Tram asked if the Aaron adventure was like ‘Flat Stanley’.   Arriving now at the Tram base we ventured into the gift shop making sure that Aaron did not knock over any of the pottery.  We scanned the shop and made a beeline for some garish fridge magnets and a stuffed animal for a friend who lives a long distance from Nebraska.

We tried, unsuccessfully to have Greta help us with some sights; we first selected the Gruets Winery, arriving at a two story building with a Trailer park rather than a vineyard behind the building.  We weren’t quite sure what type of wine one would get from a trailer park (perhaps balloon wine?).  Feeling we needed a bit more fun we selected ‘tinkertown’.  A series of closed interstate entrances confused Greta who turned a 7 mile trip into a 45 minute journey that left us again, unsatisfied. 
Cris picked a national park that had Petroglyphs.  We ventured 30 minutes down the trail looking for ancient figures.  We did see what appeared to be more modern graffiti but minimal ancient figures.  We looked and looked but really saw only piles of rock.  Reading the literature it indicated that the figures chose who they reveal themselves to.  Jim thought that perhaps hallucinogenics were required.  It was hot, dusty, and it was getting late in the day so we returned.  Some research will be required before we return to that particular park again.

We returned to the same Church Street Café for the second time in as many days for dinner and afterward indulged in an ice cream cone.  We returned to the room to ready for our trip to Taos tomorrow, stopping to see a friend along the way.

Roadtrip Day 11

We decided that the big event for the day was for the three of us to head to the Sandia Peak Tram.  The clouds and wind from the prior day that grounded the Balloons had cleared.  From Old Town the base of the tram was a short 15 minute drive.  Arriving at the entrance we paid a parking fee and provided the toll person some putty.  He appeared to be young, well to us anyone under 30 seems to be young now, so we told him not to let any of the putty get into his mother’s carpet.  He chuckled and thanked us for the surprise gift.

Aaron helped us collect our electronic do-dads and we headed up to the ticketing area where we purchased two tickets.  When we provided a putty sample to the ticket person, she was overwhelmed; she was very appreciative of her new gift and smiled.   We were herded onto a room (the Tram) with 139 other people, well really only 30 but it seemed like more.  Fortunately Aaron has been watching his weight and remains his slim ½ inch thick self. 

On the way up we struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger and her grand-daughter.  Passing out sample putty to the young girl we also provided some temporary tattoos.   They were from Dallas and were intrigued by our trip and Aaron.  The tram cables pulled us up thousands of feet past two towers to the tower at the top.  We looked down between tower 2 and the top tower; it did not seem that high but the Tram operator told us that we were 1000 feet in the air.   A spring at the top of the mountain enabled deciduous trees to grow at over 10,000 feet. 

 Arriving at the top we escorted Aaron to several overlooks before heading to the top of the Sandia Ski area.  The view towards both the South over Albuquerque and to the North towards a mountain filled vista was phenomenal.   Cris, Jim, and Aaron headed out for a walk in the woods where it was noted there might be bears.  Jim was calculating that by holding Aaron over his head, the resulting shape would be about 11 ft tall; certainly enough to scare off all bears under 10 ft tall.  Hmm, how tall is a bear when it stands up?  Jim reconsidered and looked at groups of Aspens forming a hedge alongside of the road and told Cris and Aaron if a bear shows up, keep the trees between them and pelt the bear with rocks or pine cones.  Cris was looking quite worried at this point and frantically looking around for potentially hundreds of bears.  Lucky for the bears, Jim and Cris saw none.

After a mile or so, Jim and Cris retraced their steps to the lodge, took some more photos, and handed out some more putty; to a man from Kent Ohio, to a waitress in the lodge, and an interpretive guide who was of German decent that indicated that putty with .. above the ‘u’ caused the pronunciation to change to ‘pitty’.  All were grateful of this new, albeit unusual, gift.

We boarded the next Tram down and along the way provided a sample to a Lady who lived near Whidbey Island in Washington State.  A man in the Tram asked if the Aaron adventure was like ‘Flat Stanley’.   Arriving now at the Tram base we ventured into the gift shop making sure that Aaron did not knock over any of the pottery.  We scanned the shop and made a beeline for some garish fridge magnets and a stuffed animal for a friend who lives a long distance from Nebraska.

We tried, unsuccessfully to have Greta help us with some sights; we first selected the Gruets Winery, arriving at a two story building with a Trailer park rather than a vineyard behind the building.  We weren’t quite sure what type of wine one would get from a trailer park (perhaps balloon wine?).  Feeling we needed a bit more fun we selected ‘tinkertown’.  A series of closed interstate entrances confused Greta who turned a 7 mile trip into a 45 minute journey that left us again, unsatisfied. 
Cris picked a national park that had Petroglyphs.  We ventured 30 minutes down the trail looking for ancient figures.  We did see what appeared to be more modern graffiti but minimal ancient figures.  We looked and looked but really saw only piles of rock.  Reading the literature it indicated that the figures chose who they reveal themselves to.  Jim thought that perhaps hallucinogenics were required.  It was hot, dusty, and it was getting late in the day so we returned.  Some research will be required before we return to that particular park again.

We returned to the same Church Street Café for the second time in as many days for dinner and afterward indulged in an ice cream cone.  We returned to the room to ready for our trip to Taos tomorrow, stopping to see a friend along the way.

Roadtrip Day 10

We woke very early in the morning, planning to get up at 3 a.m. we slept to almost 4 a.m.  Rushing down I-40 in the dark (thank goodness the wind had subsided), we set our sights on the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.  We arrived about 45 minutes later than we would have liked.  Driving to the balloon park, we kept looking around every corner and curve but saw no balloons. We didn’t think that in an hour’s time, they could have all taken off (850 balloons) and landed already.  Passing through an intersection into a parking lot, we asked a worker for the latest – it turns out we didn’t miss the takeoff – it was cancelled because of high winds.

So we set out for the B&B, Casas de Suenos, where we had reserved the Taos room.  Arriving 6 hours before check-in we had slim hopes that we would be able to get a room when we arrived.  The staff did their best to bring back the check in time, and we headed out for breakfast in Old Town Albuquerque.  The architecture everywhere is based on adobe style housing with a light shade of terra cotta.  A square anchored by a convent and church had shops galore and Indian vendors offering crafts on sidewalks on one side of the square.  We found a small restaurant, Julia’s, at the back of one of the small plazas.  She wasn’t quite ready to open so we wandered and returned.  We had a great New Mexico breakfast, with eggs, beans, potatoes and sausage covered with red chili sauce dish for breakfast.

Back to the B&B. Our room was not quite ready, so we started handing out putty in the lobby. The first recipient was a professor named Emilyn from the Bay area. Emilyn then introduced us to Frank Peterman and later his wife, Audrey. They were a most interesting and engaging couple.  Frank and Audrey are both strong supporters of the national parks and naturalist organizations. After Jim bestowed some putty on Audrey, who was quite delighted by the randomness of it, they left in a rental car to continue their trip. Then, we went for another walk in Old Town with Emilyn, who had some time to kill before she headed to the airport. We ran up and down some alleyways and then went to the front of the Albuquerque Museum.  A set of sculptures of the early explorers of the New Mexico area consumed the entire corner near the street.

Just after noon now, we checked into our room and had a well-deserved nap.  Waking refreshed, Aaron was escorted around the property where a number of photos were taken. The desk clerk peered through the various windows in the lobby watching us. We’re not sure what she thought.

Later, Jim and Cris went out to dinner at the Church Street Café, while Aaron decided to take in C-Span in the room. He was glad to see us when we returned.

more to come ...

Roadtrip Day 9

Today we left the Grand Canyon area and headed to Holbrook Arizona.   Holbrook is also on Route 66 as we found out when we arrived.   We dropped off some laundry drove to the Petrified Forest.  It was extremely windy, hearing accounts of anywhere from 36 to 90 miles per hour.  Jim attempted to open the door at the entrance to the park and nearly had it ripped out of his hand.  We decided to leave Aaron in the car until later.

After paying the park entry fee and handing out some putty, we headed into the park.  Stopping at the first park building we entered and saw a short movie on the history of the park.  Apparently over 1 ton of petrified wood is still taken from the park each month despite the warnings.  In the area, there are plenty of shops selling the stuff from private lands around the park.

The power went out and came back on when we were in the building; the wind was causing havoc with the electricity supply in the area.  We left the building for a short half mile walk.  The wind seemed to be picking up pebbles the size of golf balls and pelting us with them.  It was really sand, but they hurt when they hit us.  We observed a small child being pulled inside by his mother, crying from the grit being forced into his pores.  We talked, actually shouted over the wind, to another couple on the trail, they were from England.  They took the high trail, we returned to the building on the faster low trail.  Back in the visitor center we purchased some odds and ends.  The English couple came in and said one of them had been blown over by a gust of wind.

We continued up the 30 mile road to the painted forest.  The view was more of a sandstorm rather than a landscape of layered sedimentary rock.  From time to time the sand would clear for 10 to 20 seconds and we would take a photo.  From what we could see, the white, pink, and green layers in the rock certainly did make the painted forest a site to behold.  We continued our drive, not stopping to hike due to the unusually high wind.  We took Aaron out carefully and took some quick pictures at opportune locations.  When exiting the park, two rangers were particularly pleased to receive putty.

Exiting the park we worked our way back west to Holbrook, stopping at a rock shop to buy rocks.   There was quite a selection of petrified word and more Indian jewelry.  We went to Adamana to see what was still there from the 20s when the park was opened, nothing except a propane storage facility.  Although Jim thought that this looked like an Alien holding facility with all sorts of odd sensors, electric fences, and big nasty signs around.  We took a photo of the Alien holding center for further research.

Returning to Holbrook we picked up our laundry and checked into the Wigwam hotel.  There were about 15 Wigwams with cars from the 40s, 50s, and 60s parked in front of each one.  Jim and Cris could not tell the models but we took some photos so Ken could identify them for us.  The Wigwams were about 25 feet high on the outside made of stucco and on the inside had standard 8ft ceilings.  A large bed, heater, air conditioner and bathroom were all inside each of the Wigwams.  Much of the town had lost power so we stopped to buy flashlights and candles for the Wigwams.  

Off with the laptop to have Mexican cuisine at a place with Wi-Fi.   Returning from dinner we could see that the Wigwams had power, but entering ours we found no power was available.  A handy man replaced and blew two fuses before declaring there was a short somewhere.  We spoke to the owner who provided a key to the next Wigwam down.  (We noticed that these were no-smoking Wigwams and we found this ironic).

In for the night for a very early start the next day, off to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival