Monday 12/3 - Thursday 12/6

Left New Mexico feeling kind of burned out. Not sure why - maybe elevation, maybe too much butter intake vs exercise, maybe just too much time in the truck. Maybe it's the soon-realized fear of how awfully dull the drive across Texas will be.

Look, who knew these still existed?

Texas. The highlight here is that we found ("we" being Curt, finder of all things cool) a Thai/Sushi place just off the highway in Amarillo. Bangkok Tokyo looks suspiciously dilapidated/trucker stoppish from the outside, but it has comfy, tasty innards.
On the downside, we amused ourselves by pumping the ac (because winter weather is still about 85 friggin degrees by late morning) and counting off the number of coyote roadkill - more than 5, less than 10.
By the time we stopped for the night in Clinton, OK, I was toast. Blech, so cranky! Mr convinced me to hit the treadmill - starting to feel almost human again.

Judging from what we see out the window the next morning, looks like this part of Oklahoma is gearing up for another dust bowl. Pretty blaaaaahhhhhh. I need to come back one day and see Tulsa or something as the view from the highway is probably not a fair way to judge. Just want to see green again.

Curt asked me what was would you call an emotional person who studies rocks?
Aaaaaand, the answer is:
Sedimental
Ha!

We decide that OU stickers are nothing to do with Oklahoma University. Rather, they clearly stand for Orange Underpants. This leads to many ideas for business names - the Orangerie, Chrome and the Lumberjack's Widow just to give you a sense. We only ask for 10% if any of these work out for ya:)

Just drove by a suicide prevention billboard "r u ok?" Really? maybe I should take comfort at this - it is but the required misery of all who pass this way. It's not just us.

Seriously, I am looking forward to Arkansas. Oh crap, we are in Arkansas. Alright, I am looking forward to Tennessee.

Drove thru a massive bird migration - a bit surreal

Ha! Just passed Toad Suck Park - no, really. Actually, thank you Wiki for explaining the story to me. Clearly we should be drinking.

Wednesday, all was grey passing out of Little Rock. Curt got car sick for the first, and hopefully, final time on this trip from mucking about on his phone too much. So, he took over driving just in time to hit possibly the worst driving on the entire adventure - thank you Memphis!

Booked into Cookeville, TN for the night. Starting to look a little hilly - maybe tomorrow we can get home! Happy, happy, joy, joy! Think part of the harshness returning may have to do with the time changes. Somehow it was easier falling out than skipping back.

Nice overhead signs informed us yesterday that there had been 932 road fatalities so far this year. This morning, it jumped up to 933. Let us not make 934 in our enthusiasm to get home!

It is starting to get beautiful and we're climbing. Goodbye Tennessee, smell ya later.
North Carolina:):):):)
Curt thinks that the bare trees make the mountains look like porcupines - I think it looks like his chin whiskers (lots of grey bark - teehee)

Stopped in Asheville at the ever-popular Tupelo Honey and loaded up on grilled cheese w tomato soup - cozy environment, efficient/nice staff and comforting food - perfect for this grey day.

Made it home. Can't wait to see our friends and family and catch up on all the latest. For now though, just curling up on our aged sofa brings me the greatest joy.

So glad we made this trip and had the time together. It is really cool that Mr doesn't have to stress about returning to work for a little while. Not too many people get this great chance and he is savoring every last millisecond of it. Go Curt!

Saturday 12/1 - Sunday 12/2

Our time in Taos was really too short, but the pull homeward again is getting strong.
We plan to head back to Santa Fe. Dwarka and Larry suggest we go a back way & stop off to see the Santuario de Chimayo and eat at the Rancho de Chimayo. Heading off, we are seeing gorgeous views of Carson Forest and the mountains. Lovely!

One thing we have noticed are the ornate roadside memorials. Some of them are really spectacular and much better kept up than the sad cross with a half-rotted teddy bear we sometimes see around the highways where we live. The roads are somewhat windy and dangerous though and it seems foolish to stop or even slow down much (as much as we admire them, we don't want our families having to erect such things just yet). Eventually we came across a small graveyard where we could park safely. I always thought of plastic flowers as tacky, but in this context they work somehow.

This back route has been so much more interesting and pretty than the main highway. Curt was sort of icked out by it all until hanging out with our friends and seeing this way. Now I think he's caught the Taos bug too (despite the warnings from the oh-so-happy bartender last night - If you've met 5 types of people in Taos, then you've basically met everyone).

Settled in to a wonderful meal at the Rancho de Chimayo - a little kitschy w. the ladies working there all in ornate Spanish dress & ristras hanging all around, but still charming and backed by excellent food that really exemplifies SW cuisine.

Satiated, we drove around the bend to the Santuario. Beyond peculiar with the pit of healing dirt, "in memory of all innocent victims of abortion" plaque & big hands wooden Jesus just to name a few.

Moved along to the Potrero Trading Post (basically a gift shop) where we found a cool Fred Harvey bracelet for me, a coupla tshirts, some roasted piñon nuts and several types of dried chili powders. These last are like nothing you find elsewhere in the country - they have a flavor that is almost like sundried tomatoes. Please stop and get some if you're ever out there and send it back to me - yummy-yum!

Started to get late and with the sun setting, we headed out to meet backup with the main highway around Española and on back to Santa Fe. Booked in to the Hotel Chimayo which turned out to be a good location and perfectly adequate, but not as good with their customer service as the Anasazi next door where we had another really nice meal. They were getting ready to close down for the night, but seemed happy to stay around and made us feel not at all like the nuisance we must have been.

On Sunday morning we trotted out, but everything seemed slow to get going. There must have been places that open for brunch, but all we found was Starbucks (which, if you've been following any of the other posts, you will realize was really not a problem for us). There is something cool about being here off-season, but also (and to be fair, I've found this in every city/town I've ever known) it is a great feeling to walk around when everything is closed and all the good people are still in bed asleep.

Walked around and watched the Native Americans setting up their blankets in the plaza, talked with a woman from Israel who loves living here and enjoyed all the sculptures, art around the streets. We saw an old fella that looked like Gandalf with many pounds of silver and turquoise on his cell phone. Fabulous!

Stopped in at LaBoca for lunch. Tasty Tapas and fun wait staff. I love the way everyone here interacts. It's so easy to learn about life here and what people are into. 

After that, we walked around the perimeter of the downtown & over to the St Francis Basillica.

After sitting on a bench in the sun for a bit, Mr headed back to the room and I went inside the church. A gang of teenagers were pounding away on drums and it was amusing to me to hear this sort of world-beat stuff in such a setting. The stained glass was glowing, so I was a happy chicky.

Found my way back via Mira where I discovered the most awesome Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling) mask. The lady who was behind the counter suggested that if we were in town for just a couple of days, we should totally hit 10,000 waves hot springs & spa.
Can I tell you how much I want to do this?! Curt will have zero interest. This I know. It will not happen, but it would be such an awesome way to unwind and get rid of some of the griminess that a hotel shower can never fully penetrate. Clearly I must return with some of my girlfriends one day (no, not necessarily in my Subaru)

After crashing out in our blair witch, I mean, mission-style room (Not sure how they could possibly fit any more cross decorations in) we headed off to (you guessed it) eat another really good meal over at 315. Getting a bit od'd on local flavors, so a fabulous bit of French country cooking hit just the spot.

Tomorrow we will start back in earnest. For tonight, we are all walked out and well fed. Back to the room for some repacking and a zombie tv show.

Santa Fe leaves me feeling content. I am reaffirmed in my love for the SouthWest. Mr can now share in this - part of the great pleasure in this whole trip has been hearing what his interpretations of places and events are. Maybe he will write a blog about it someday:)

Anyhow, it is beautiful and quirky here in a way that is different while still being recognizably, very American somehow. I would like to return maybe for a few days in a May or October sort of time. If a trip was going to be longer, then it would make sense to really use it as a base and travel around to see more of this amazing state.

Thursday 11/29 - Saturday 12/1

Woke up bright-eyed & bushy-tailed (what does that even mean?) The canyon was so beautiful last night at sunset, so we're really looking forward to heading back today - looks like it's going to be clear and not too windy - perfect!

We went up to the South Kaibab Trail head from the visitors center (after watching the requisite school trip film). Only a couple of miles, but we passed thru some areas where the vegetation totally changed from being like an overgrown bonsai garden that smelled of Piñon to a burned out moonscape. They say if you hike down into the canyon, then - geologically speaking - it's like going thru millions of years of history. 

Even my wimpy-vertigo thing wasn't enough to keep me from enjoying the beautiful views. I learned quickly to walk away from Curt when he would sit dangling his leggies over the edge. He pointed out that I'm not so afraid of him actually falling, I just don't want to see it. I just felt like I didn't want to hurl my guts as he taunted me. Clearly we both need counseling. Whatever.

We passed some charming plague-carrying vermin and the amazing acrobatic ravens tossing each other about in the air (who needs Cirque du Soleil?). Took the bus up to Yak Point and walked down a little bit into the canyon, but weren't really prepared for a 3-4 hour adventure down there.  So, caught the bus back to the El Tovar Lodge and ate a spiffing meal. Imagine this is all horrid in busier seasons, but perfectly lovely in almost abandoned November.

Beautiful and peaceful as it is, think we'll drive on thru to New Mexico on this lovely day. We plan to go on 264 E rather than just back the way we came to 40 E. This route will take us thru the Navajo reservation, passing near the Painted Desert and Window Rock.

We drove thru a vivid sunset on the plains followed by a huge, full moon which lit our path the end of the way into Gallup. This was definitely a long drive, but so worth it. It is a strange, old world.

Everyone seemed really nice and all about the same. There was no rich or poor, just little groups of homes here and there. The fanciest vehicles we saw were the school buses. We watched as one ahead of us disgorged children. They would start walking off up a track and if you squinted your eyes, you could make out a dot of a house way back. These kids sure won't be obese any time soon!

Coming into Gallup, we were struck by the sense that the air seemed permeated by dust and there were so very many neon signs for casinos, pawn shops, etc. It had a very sad strip mall feel to it.
However, we found the hotel to be uber-comfortable and Jerry at the front desk made our trip to Gallup excellent by informing us about the hot air balloon festival starting the next morning. Yippee!
We ate a midnight meal at Denny's and hit the sack.

Up and at 'em early enough to find Red Rock Park and watch balloons starting to go up. We even thought about finding out if we could go up too, but figured that would possibly be a major time commitment + it was cold enough on the ground!

So much fun & the people there to take part as well as the fellow spectators were such an awesome group. Lucky us.

Took it easy over to Santa Fe & got in fairly early in the day. Walked around a bit and went to the O'Keefe museum. Kinda meh. There are some paintings of hers that I really love, but none that they had. Mr was unimpressed by her biography and talents. Too bad as I think he would actually like a lot of those old cow skull type compositions.

We pondered a bit - seems like a cool place. In the end, reasoned that however we went back we'd have to return thru the Santa Fe area. So, decided to put off further exploration and work our way up to Taos and Dwarka & Larry!

Kind of a grimy, blah drive out of Santa Fe & a bit of mad traffic coming thru downtown Taos. We booked in to the El Pueblo Lodge which was really comfortable, convenient and pretty, We thought about staying with our friends as they had offered, but we are messy piggies that keep weird sleeping hours these days. Know thyself.

A couple of hours to kill before meeting the guys at El Gamal for a wonderful vegetarian meal. So, we walked about a bit and wandered into G. Robinson Old Prints and Maps. Some charming old prints. We met Mr Stevens, the current owner. He put up with us and all our questions about life in New Mexico pretty well.

Moseyed our way up to the Gorge bar and the plaza. Watched the Christmas extravaganza as the sun went down. They had music, lights and all kinds of good fun goin on.

Dinner was, of course, delicious and delightful. I had forgotten how relaxing it is to be around Dwarka - even when he's all riled up because tomorrow is his birthday! Cheers!  Larry is so much fun and so interesting. Looking forward to visiting their home and studio tomorrow.

Saturday morning we slept in and then headed over to visit the fellows at their place outside of town on the way to Angel Fire. Really pretty winding drive up into the mountains/hills? A little terrifying though as other drivers seem to not always feel confined to their side of the road.

It turns out that they live on the sunny side - across the way there was still some snow on the ground.
We pulled up and were greeted by the lovely dog Paloma.

Such a picturesque spot where they built the adobe house. Sitting inside, I thought how lovely the light streaming in must be at different times of the day & year. They spoiled us with snacks, oolong tea and great conversation.

After lolling about a bit, we got to see some of Dwarka's paintings! I always feel a bit shy about asking people to bring out their art - it's a bit like asking some folks to undress or something. None of that discomfort here - and such a treat - just what I wish I could achieve. So, a bit of envy, not enough to be bad - just enough to make me want to take up my own brushes.

Then we headed down the hill to Larry's studio. I don't know how to describe it. There was so much going on - he is really a jack of all artistic trades. It was a little like stepping into Tom Waits mind or something. There are fantastical paintings everywhere from figures to instruments to dreamscapes. Huge canvasses and rounded panels. There are ceramic vases with bacchanalian faces and spinning sculptures made out of found objects. We are totally mesmerized. So cool.