Santa Fe

This town has Food and Art in addition to its seemingly never-ending sunshine. We were lucky enough to stumble upon the Friday night Art Walk on Canyon Road. There were at least 100 art galleries within about a mile. And there was a lot of seriously good art, in my humble, business-and-accounting-educated opinion. And Canyon Road is only one of several art districts here. Anyway, it was Serious and I felt out-classed at first when I saw women with tens of thousands of dollars worth of clothing and jewelry draped on their bodies. But it was quite a people-show and there were all types. Plus, as I've mentioned before, no one notices us when we are with Ruby. She was invited into all the galleries, plied with treats, exclaimed over. And she had no intention of buying a thing.

We also were lucky enough to be in town for the Saturday farmer's market, billed as one of the best in the country and I think i have to agree. Lots of farmers. The smell of roasting peppers was intoxicating. We stocked up again and our tiny refrigerator is stuffed.

The restaurant selection is endless, except we hate to leave Ruby behind. Fortunately, there are still tons of outdoor patios available and yesterday we had lunch at a Santa Fe classic called The Shed. Mark had his first Carne Adovada and posole, and I had my first New Mexico style enchiladas made with blue corn tortillas and New Mexico red sauce. Perfect.

Do you know the way to Santa Fe

I had no idea what northern New Mexico would look like. It's absolutely beautiful. Of course, this is likely the most spectacular time of year to see it. All of the campgrounds have been pretty much empty...hard to believe, with the weather still so gorgeous. It's very quiet and peaceful. And Ruby can run around like she owns the place.

There are art galleries everywhere, even on the backroads. Pottery, jewelry, woodcarving and weaving. My favorite by far is the weaving. Husband and I took a weaving class a couple years ago, learning just enough to appreciate the intricacies, the time involved, the looms, the yarns and strings. In my past life, I didn't have time to develop my hobbies...dabbling only a bit in knitting...but I love fiber arts...we'll see where it goes. I also love New Mexico. This sunshine, plus mountains and trees. Wow.

The photos are: 1) and 2) our campground at Chama, 3) and 4) the view from the highway as we drove south toward Santa Fe, 5) our campground at Santa Cruz Lake, 6) the valley near Truchas, on the high road to Taos. Wow, right?

Navajo Lake State Park, New Mexico

"New Mexico Bound" is the name of the directory on our laptop where I keep my trip photos. And we are finally here, in the land of Jim Chee!! Okay, I know I should probably be embarrassed to have read most of Tony Hillerman's New Mexico-based novels, when I could have used the time to read something more valuable, but it's better than watching TV, I think, hopefully, right? Anyway, we started our New Mexico journey in Shiprock, and I expected to run into Jim on every corner.  Shiprock, perhaps obviously, is named for a big rock, which impressively juts up 1,700 feet into the air. We actually saw it when we were many miles away several days ago in Mesa Verde...it's very distinctive. Sorry I couldn't get a good photo of it. 

Traveling east from there through Farmington, we settled in for two nights at a very nice campground on the San Juan River, which was evidently a big fly fishing spot, judging by the numerous fishermen standing in the river and several nearby flyshops advertising Orvis and other brands (though I haven't seen any Sage). Huge old cottonwoods make this a very pleasant spot. The weather is now exactly what I expected: cold nights and warm, sunny days. There was some obvious flash flooding here a few days ago, though, and we had a wet crossing on the road to the campground. We sent Ruby through to check the depth. No problem. 

We visited two more large Anasazi sites yesterday: Aztec Ruins (a misnomer, the Aztecs were not here) and Salmon Ruins (another misnomer, surely). Very interesting, but I have officially seen a lot of abandoned Anasazi dwellings now. On the way back to our campsite, we ran across a winery, stopped and had an unexpectedly good tasting experience. More wineries, fewer ruins, please!