Guess Who Is Speaking In Kit Carson's House?

October 12, 2011

Been off the grid for the last three days, traveling up the Pecos River from Roswell to Fort Sumner where I spent the night with my Uncle Bud and Jean Linn who have three farms along the river. Great visiting with them and getting caught up on Guess history. My Aunt Jean is the last of the Guess girls. Yesterday i followed the river up through Puerto de Luna to Santa Rosa, then jogging over to Anton Chico, up through the villages of Pueblo, Ribera, San Miguel, Rowe, the stage stop near Pecos, the town. These are all stops Billy the Kid most likely made as he gravitated between Fort Sumner and Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Landed at Due West Gallery on San Francisco Street near the Santa Fe plaza around noon. Unloaded my paintings for the big show that premiers Friday.

This morning I had breakfast with Johnny Boggs and Thom Ross at Harry's on Old Las Vegas highway. Great food. Left the boys at nine and drove the back way to Taos, through Chimayo, Truchas and Las Trampas and Talpa. The drive was spectacular with the trees turning bright yellow and orange and the little adobes tucked along the creek bottoms glistening in the fall air.

At Rancho de Chamayo I got a cell phone call from Paul Andrew Hutton who wanted me to give him contact info on Drew Gomber and Steve Sederwall because two friends of his were headed to Lincoln today. I had to pull over (shaky signal in the canyons) and call Carole at the office to email the info to Paul. As I sped on trying to make up for lost time, I was glad to finally be out of range of Professor Hutton. in fact, I turned my phone off.

Got into Taos at about noon. Drove right to Kit Carson's house and museum, parked and walked into the funky adobe complex where the most famous scout in the West lived for a time. And as I walked in the door, who's big, fat face is on a giant video screen yacking about Kit Carson?

Paul Andrew Hutton.

"Will that guy ever shut up?"

—Every student Hutton has ever had