Day 8: September 25, 2001
Exploring area around Santa Fe & Taos

Today we decided to drive around the Santa Fe and Taos area. There are two roads between Santa Fe and Taos, one called the low road (Rt 68) and one called the high road (Rt 76). The high road winds its way through some small towns and is supposedly more scenic, so we figured we'd take it north and then take 68 south on our way back.

Ortega's Weaving Shop Chimayo, NM

Man weaving in Ortega's Weaving Shop

Shortly after getting onto Route 76 we came to the tiny town of Chimayo, which our guide book explained had a few shops with native crafts, including Ortega's, the most popular. Apparently, the 7th generation of Ortegas are running the place; the first one started it in the 1700s. So we stopped there, and found two shops filled with wonderful stuff. The tapestry store had tons of rugs, blankets, and vests along with a few items of pottery. I chose two rugs to get, one to hang in the guest bedroom and one to hang possibly in the entry area. I don't usually find native rugs that appealing, but I think they start to grow on you after you see them a while, and this place had such a wide variety that I was able to find some I really liked. It wasn't cheap, unfortunately -- $54 for one and $65 for another, but I felt okay about buying them because it's obvious the quality is good and it felt good to help their business. Walendo found a little stone carving of a dog, so he bought one for his mom for Xmas.

Then we went next door, which had a wide variety of crafts and we practically bought out the place. I bought a ceramic serving dish with a beautiful pattern on it, and a stone vase for my collection. Walendo bought some Southwestern cookbooks, including ones with recipes for mango salsa so he can recreate the fish tacos he loved yesterday. Together, we bought some ceramic tiles with numbers on them so we can hang them on our house to display the address. We also bought a nightlight with a dog howling at the moon to put in the guest bathroom. Again, it felt good to give them the business and I was happy with all the stuff we bought. I like being able to look at the things around our home and remember the places where we bought them. I also like filling the house with things that you can't just buy at the local mall. The woman running the store said that business had been really slow lately after the terrorist crisis, but in fact it had seemed to be declining over the last few years.

New Mexico landscape

Before leaving, we walked down to the next gallery but it seemed to be closed, so we moved on. After more driving through high desert scenery, we came to another little town called Truchas. There were some little galleries along the street, so we parked and I started to meander through them. The first gallery was full of paintings that didn't appeal to me at all, but I was the only one in the shop and she was chatting with me, telling me about the artist. (The paintings appeared in the movie Spy Kids, which I'd seen part of on a flight but I didn't like it much, so I stopped watching.) I thanked the woman and then moved on across the street. This gallery had a lot more stuff I like, including some nice wood items and some lovely water colors. Again, the guy chatted with me and told me what was where, which made me a little uncomfortable. Then he asked, "what genre do you collect?" So I told him I don't collect, I was just browsing, at which point he backed off a little. After I got back in the car, we noticed that each gallery had an bright orange signs with a number on it, so we figured there must be some sort of art tour going on. No wonder they thought I was a serious collector. A little while later, we found out that we're in the middle of an annual art event in this area. It's called Taos Invites Taos, I believe, and it's like an invitational art competition. (I'm not exactly sure how it relates to all the galleries being numbered, but they must be connected.)

Taos Diner, a local joint

We decided to move on, and after that we didn't stop at any more towns but just enjoyed the high desert scenery. It's Georgia O'Keefe country, and you can really see her paintings in the surroundings. As we drove, Walendo worked on his cow sounds. George does a wicked immitation of a cow moo, and Walendo was starting to get the hang of it (though I think George is even better). It was pretty funny. Eventually, we dropped down into Taos. We were both hungry for lunch, so I looked in our guide book, which pointed out a few places, one of which it said was where the locals hang out and it had barbeque and big sandwiches. Walendo wanted to go there, so we searched it out. We found it by the address, but the name wasn't the same. (The book said it was Northtown Restaurant, but the place at that address was the Taos Diner. We're not sure if it was the same one recommended.) We went in, and it looked a bit like a dive but we stuck with it. Walendo got a barbeque sandwich and I had a grilled chicken sandwich. It was okay, but it was more food than I really wanted right then. Also, the waitress was a bit flakey.

Eagle carved with chain saw Taos, NM

Anyway, after lunch we drove back into the main part of town and parked on Bent Street, which was the very same street where Walendo had bought his two paintings last time we were here. We stopped into the gallery and sure enough, the artists paintings were still on display in the same room of the gallery. That was reassuring somehow. We checked out her new stuff and Walendo chatted with the person attending the gallery, telling her how much he enjoyed the art. We also found another gallery where we had bought some watercolors. That artist's work was no longer on display, but we did see a giant eagle carved out of wood with a chain saw, if you can believe that. It was pretty dramatic.

Gallery selling whimsical metal art sculpture

We continued to wander around Taos. Walendo mostly hung out with Libby in one of the courtyards while I buzzed around the galleries. I didn't see anything all that tempting, but it was nice to look. There were several patriotic displays, so I took pictures of them. Then we headed toward the main plaza, and we remembered that it's mostly filled with souvenir shops rather than galleries. We checked out a few, and Walendo almost bought some intersting wind chimes for Blatt, but resisted. Instead, on the way back to the car he bought an oddball outdoor sculpture thing that he said really reminded him of Blatt. I hope Beth likes it too. :-) At one store on the plaza they actually were selling American flags. We'd been looking for them all trip and couldn't find any, and there they were, half off, no less. They were plastic instead of cloth, but still it was better than nothing. I bought three in different sizes, for $1, $2, and $3. What a bargain.

Taos Cow ice cream Arroyo Seca, NM

By this time we were feeling "galleried out," so we decided to head back to the car and continue on. I had asked someone in one store if they knew of a good ice cream place, and they said the only one they knew of was Taos Cow in Arroyo Seca, a few miles up the road. We were planning to go that way anyway, so I was psyched. We found it without much trouble and I got a chocolate chocolate chip cone. Walendo got a malt. It was good, but nothing exceptional.

Rio Grande Gorge from bridge

After that, we headed toward the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, about 10 miles away. The bridge is 650 feet high, I think the second highest bridge in the US, according to our guide book. It's on a fairly minor road and it would be easy to just drive right over it without noticing if you didn't look down. (All the support structure is below the bridge, so it just looks like road when you drive over it.) We stopped before the bridge and walked along it (as other people were). When you look down, you really get a feeling of vertigo. It's a loooong way down. Pretty impressive that they can build stuff like that.

Landscape between Taos & Santa Fe

It was late afternoon and we were both feeling tired, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We had thought we would check out the town of Los Alamos, but decided against it. I wasn't expecting that much, but I was just curious to see what it looked like. Still, I was feeling anxious that we had to review two more chapters of the book that night, and I wanted to have enough time. On the drive home, the light turned soft during the magic hour, so we stopped to take a few shots of the desert scenery. I think we were a little too late, but maybe they'll show the feeling of it.

Back at the hotel, we were up very late going over the chapters. I read through two of them, and Walendo read two as well. Still, he had one more to go, but we called it quits at 1am. I'm glad we're able to keep moving on the book, but it felt a little like the vacation was over since we had to work so much. We spent about 6 hours on it just that one evening! And I didn't even have time to catch up on this journal, so I'm writing this three days later.

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