August Trip to New Mexico - 2010 - day 13

Thursday - Dilly-dallied in Salina and finally got on the road. Nothing exciting to report except we got home about 2:30. I had forgotten how confusing it is coming through Kansas City on I-70....they need to make that easier. There was construction on the by-pass routes.

The total trip mileage was 2,894 miles and it seems like I've been gone for a month. I picked up Watson at the Vet...he was being treated for a urinary tract infection that came on after I left. His bill was over $500 so his vacation was pretty expensive.

Hotels along the way seem to be suffering from the poor economy and making cut-backs. I was trying to keep the cost down so I was staying in less expensive places but they were still costing more than they should have. They are providing less and upkeep has gone downhill. The Blue Swallow was a high point and the place in Salina was good but the Rodeway in Pueblo should be bulldozed and started over.

August Trip to New Mexico - 2010 - day 12

Wednesday -- Not much to report because we spent most of the day driving through Kansas (Kaaaannnnssssaaaassss - it's a long state). The traffic was light and there wasn't much road work being done so it was an easy drive.....just boring.

I've been surprised by how green everything is during the middle of August. Kansas seemed very green. This seems to be a wet year everywhere, not just at home. It's funny how we used to blame the weather oddities on El Nino or La Nina and now it is all chalked up to Global Warming.

Since the last time I crossed Kansas, about 8 years ago, there has been an explosion of wind turbines west of Salina....hundreds of them. That's good because they give you something to look at.

We got to our motel in Salina KS around 5:30 and ate at a local IHOP. That's about it.

August Trip to New Mexico - 2010 - day 11

Tuesday - We got up early and checked out of the motel at 8:30 and were on our way to drop Jeanne off at the airport. Jill & I headed north on I-25 toward Santa Fe. It was a pretty day to be on the highway and traffic was fairly light. We went through Santa Fe but didn't stop. I am not big fan of what Santa Fe has turned in to...it's choking to death on it's own popularity. We did drive past the plaza so Jill could see it but she wasn't much impressed.

We headed north through the series of Indian pueblos that stretch along the highway...most have casinos and some look like they are doing OK. At Espanola we began following the Rio Grande through it's gorge past Embudo and on toward Taos.

We stopped at Ranchos de Taos at the San Francisco de Asis church and took some pictures and walked around a while. The church looks nice....last time I saw it 2 years ago they were putting on a new layer of adobe mud and there were workers on scaffolds slapping on the wet mud. We went on to Taos and ate lunch at a roadside restaurant that turned out to be very popular with the locals and had good food. I had a Navajo Taco with beef and green chile sauce and Jill had chicken strips -- both were good.

We drove around Taos a while and then headed north to Questa and into Colorado. This is a beautiful route to travel. The scenery keeps changing every few miles and became very sparsely populated and mountainous north of Taos. There are places where you can see open country for miles with no houses or ranches in sight. The Sangre de Cristo mountains were on our east side all the way up.

We crossed over into Colorado and continued to San Luis and then to Ft. Garland. San Luis is the oldest city in Colorado. We turned west and headed past Blanco Peak (14,345 ft) through Blanco and then on to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

What can you say about Great Sand Dunes NP other than "Wow, that's a lot of sand"? It is really a cool spot. The sand dunes are piled 750 feet high and create a special environment. We walked out on the dunes for a short distance...it isn't easy walking in the loose sand...and took a bunch of pictures. The cloud shadows made the dunes change colors and made it really interesting. There were several groups of people on the dunes. We watched some slide down the slope on snow boards. Some others seemed to be intent on climbing up to the very top of the highest dunes. We circled around back to the car as the wind began to pick up.

We retraced our route back to Ft. Garland and got some gas and something to drink. Trudging over hot sand dunes makes you thirsty. We followed Highway 160 east to Walsensburg and caught I-25 and headed north to Pueblo and our motel. We had supper at an adjacent restaurant.

August Trip to New Mexico - 2010 - day 10

Monday - After my walk we went back to The Range for breakfast - the food was not as good as we remembered but was OK. Seemed like they didn't get enough sleep last night and couldn't quite get things right.

We had no heavy plans for today. Jill wanted to go to the vintage clothing store over by the university on Central Ave. We had a little delay while trying to find it but eventually got there. The place had some amazing stuff. When you think of buying used clothes from the 1950s or earlier you would expect to see some pretty grungy and somewhat worn out stuff but this place had nothing that wasn't almost in brand-new condition. You could tell it was all used but none that I saw was worn, stained, frayed or abused in any way. Some of it looked like it could be costumes (waitress uniforms)and some were vintage formal wear - tux with tails. They had top hats and some spiffy neck ties. I expected to find a zoot suit but there weren't any that I could see.

We drove up to see the Sandia Tram -- we didn't want to take the tram up to the mountain top but just see it in operation. they let you in for $1.00 per car to access the property. They have a deli that serves light meals and drinks and there are some trails around the area. The elevation is over 6,300 ft. and the tram takes you up to over 10,000 ft. in only a few minutes. We watched a couple cars come down and head back up and they move at a very fast pace. The weather was unsettled again and cooler than the last couple days. The top of the mountain was in the clouds so I'm not sure it was a good day to go up anyway. We took a few pictures and then drove back down.

Jeanne wanted to find the big cowboy statue that she had heard about...supposed to be in front of a motel on Central Ave. We had covered all of that and never saw the cowboy so I did some research and discovered a tall lumberjack at a Vietnamese restaurant and a concrete bust of a cowboy over on the Pan American highway. We found the lumberjack but he wasn't what we wanted so we eventually found the cowboy...or his top half..and Jeanne got some pictures. We all had our picture taken with the cowboy.

We went to the St. Clair Winery Bistro for some wine tasting but none of their win measured up to what we had at the Ponderosa yesterday. It was OK and I bought some to take home but it was not really as good as we hoped.

We went up to Luigi's Italian Restaurant (on 4th street at Solar) and had a late lunch/early supper. I had the gnocchi with pesto while Jill and Jeanne had some huge sandwiches. The food was just as good as the last time I ate there with Paul.

We were pretty well exhausted and had to get packed and ready to leave tomorrow so we called it a day and stayed in our rooms and rested up.

August Trip to New Mexico - 2010 - day 9

Sunday - Had breakfast at the Flying Star in Bernalillo and then headed up toward the Jemez Mountains for the day. This was a good day to get out of town for a while. We drove past the Zia Indian pueblo and turned north at San Ysidro. The scenery and views are beautiful. We stopped at the Jemez pueblo - Walatowa - and spent some time at the visitor's center. Jeanne bought several magnets -- this seems to be our main purchase item on this trip. They have some nice Indian-made things but also have stuff that looks Indian but is from Pakistan or India. The pueblos look very poor but the Jemez seem to have a lot of services and a good looking school. We couldn't get close enough to the Zia pueblo but from the distance it looked like it could use some help.

We continued up the highway through Jemez Springs and stopped at the Jemez Mission...a state monument. The mission dates from about 1621 and is a huge ruin of a church and associated monastic and support buildings. The mission predates the Pueblo Uprising and was eventually abandoned. The Indians moved down the valley away from the mission and established the current Walatowa pueblo village. We were at 6,300 ft. and she didn't want to push her luck so Jeanne stayed at the museum. Jill and I walked around the ruins taking pictures but Jill got a little spooked about the rattlesnake warning signs and went back to sit with Jeanne.

We headed back down the valley (Jemez Creek is a trout stream!!) and it was beginning to threaten rain. We stopped in a cafe called the Laughing Lizard in Jemez Springs and had some pretty good pizza. The place was family-run and pretty slow and we again we had to realize we were on New Mexico time. We went a few blocks and stopped at a shop called Weekends and looked at all kinds of 'alternative' stuff (prayer flags, smudge sticks, bumper stickers, etc.) and picked out a few things but the owner was involved in a long-winded discussion with another customer that went on about 20 minutes....so we had plenty of time to shop.

We had wanted to stop at the Ponderosa Valley Winery but it closes at 5 PM and we were running out of time. On a whim we decided to make the short detour to the winery and they were open and still doing tasting. This turned out to be the best wine we had on the trip. We figured we were stragglers and would get a quick visit but people kept coming in -- about four groups after us. Again, New Mexico time. The winery owners seemed happy to have the visits and everyone got the best treatment. Jill walked around taking pictures of the five dogs and the hundred or so hummingbirds. The storm caught us and things were a little wet as we headed back to Albuquerque but we could see three or four storms in the distance that looked impressive. We finally got a pretty good rain as we came into Bernalillo.

We ended the evening playing Uno and having a "happy hour" in our room.

August Trip to New Mexico - 2010 - day 8

Saturday - Started out with a nice breakfast at The Range...we need to get used to New Mexico time -- everything seems to move in slow motion. We went to the Aquarium and Botanical Garden. The aquarium is small but interesting and has a focus on protecting the oceans. It is always fun watching the human visitors watching and reacting to the fish.

The botanical garden is nice and shows the desert and dry mountain plants. We found a roadrunner living in the glassed-in desert house...must have come in by a window or the door. He tried to follow me out the door. There are a lot of plants I recognize from home that can grow in a dry climate. We didn't stay long -- the sun gets very hot even though the temperature isn't so bad or the humidity and it is fairly pleasant in the shade.

Our next stop was the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center where we toured the museum and watched some Navajo dancers. The museum is well done and provides a good overview of the various pueblos. The dancers were very good but they looked hot

in the intense sun. We had lunch in the restaurant. The food was good - I had mutton stew and a slab of peach pie - both were prepared as pueblo cooking and were little different -- especially the pie.

Finished the day watching flat-track roller derby -- very interesting and a rough sport. Every time we thought we had it figured out they seemed to change the rules. The team we were pulling for won. After the game we had a late supper at O'Neill's on Central.

August Trip to New Mexico - 2010 - day 7

Friday - the 13th - I did my walking thing in the morning again and got back around 8. We all went to the Flying Star in Corrales for breakfast and then looked through some shops and explored Corrales a little.

We went on up to Bernalillo and then up the hill a ways to my building lot. It met with some mixed reviews at first but nothing too negative. It is a little far away from the action but it is pretty accessible too. We had lunch at Abuelitos in Bernalillo and everyone got a taste of New Mexican cooking.

We went on to visit Old Town to see the Plaza area because it would be so crowded on Saturday during the salsa fiesta.

Had a great evening listening to a band performing at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center -- mostly classic blues with a great singer.

Went out hoping to see the tail end of the meteor shower but got to see a bazillion stars instead along with Mars rising over Sandia Mountain -- pretty cool. Also saw a jack rabbit that was about 30 inches tall -- looked bigger that some dogs I know.