Chapel of the Holy Cross

Pilgrimage (yet, still no vortex).

Designed by Marguerite Brunswig Staude, inspired by the Empire State Building in New York upon which Marguerite perceived a cross, had it not been for the Second World War, the Chapel would have been built in Budapest, Hungary overlooking the Danube, co-designed with Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright.

As fate (or was it the hand of god) would have it, the Chapel of the Holy Cross came to be in Sedona, where Staude, together with Richard Hein and August K. Strotz of the Anshen & Allen architecture company, ”decided upon a twin-pinnacled spur 80m-high jutting out of a 300m rock wall which Staude described as being as solid as the rock of Peter”. [source]

It was completed in 1956 and received an Award of Honor by the American Institute of Architects, in 1957.

On the other hand, the huge mansion simply known as ”The House”, obstructing the view across from the Chapel, was commissioned by Dr. Ioan Cosmescu, an inventor and biomedical engineer who obviously did very well financially, was completed in 2008 and received the ”Eyesore Award” by the local community, every year since.

Sedona, AZ

May 2nd, 2019

The Painted Desert

Landscape on a 120 miles (190 km) long by 60 miles (97 km) wide canvas.

The Painted Desert stretches from the Grand Canyon National Park eastward to the Petrified Forest National Park (where these images were taken), with a large portion lying within the Navajo Nation.

Petrified Forest National Park, 1 Park Rd, AZ 86028

April 30th, 2019

Sleeping with the Stars

Because, when you stay at the El Rancho, you will be sleeping in a room where a movie star slept. Like the Humphrey Bogard room. Or the Spencer Tracy one. Or may be the May West room – your pick.

And after a generous hotcakes & eggs breakfast, take a walk along the red brick walls, covered with autographs of every movie star that ever stayed here, and a few photographs of the staff of times past smiling at you. You will smile back.

When you leave, driving along the legendary Route 66 you’ll be taking with you a piece of history of the American West. Never in my wildest dreams…

”Joe Massaglia constructed the El Rancho Hotel in 1936 along U.S. Route 66 for Mr. R.E. “Griff” Griffith, brother of the famous movie director D.W. Griffith. El Rancho Hotel is a large, rambling, Rustic style building that still feeds the fantasy of the Old West in Gallup, New Mexico. Griff came to Gallup in the early 1930s and fell in love with the area, returning a few years later to build the hotel. From the very start, El Rancho was the center of the movie industry in Gallup. Both Griff and his brother encouraged moviemakers to use El Rancho as a base for crews and stars on location because of its proximity to striking western landscapes and the hotel’s rustic elegance. When it opened in 1936, the El Rancho boasted superior service and accommodations for roughing it in comfort. Its employees were trained by the famous Fred Harvey Company hotel and restaurant chain.” [source]

El Rancho Hotel, Gallup, NM

April 29th, 2019