A Drive to El Rito and Beyond

Yet another crisp fall morning.  Out for a short walk to breakfast at the Bent Street Cafe and Deli.  The sign in front of our hotel looks particularly nice this morning.

This is not the first time I have passed this telephone pole.  In fact, I would guess I have passed it many times during every visit to Taos.  But the sunlight is just right!  It shows what remains of all the messages, signs, posters, etc. that have been posted at this prominent intersection.

Of course, after breakfast we went for a walk around town.  That is why we enjoy staying in the middle of town.  It is nice to get out when it is quiet and see the town waking up.  The shop owners arrive and begin to open for the day.  The fall colors are so wonderful, just had to have another picture!

There is Ed Sandoval getting his shop open and getting ready to start two new paintings.  Love that truck!  The color is perfect!

Well, the thing about planning a spur-of-the-moment trip is...there is no plan!  Everyday we get to go wherever we want, whenever we want, to do whatever sounds good!!  Looking at this sitting area outside our hotel room makes me want to sit in the sun and sip coffee...

 

But we better get out and tour the area.  We started by going south of Taos to the Rinconada area.  We took a small road along the Rio Grande River until we found the bridge.  We even got to exercise our 4-wheel drive!

 

There is that bridge!  With the 4-wheel drive engaged, we climbed up the other side of the gorge!  Even found a hiking trail, we need to come back to hike.

We had to stop for a photo op as we neared the top plateau.  The mighty Rio Grande looks quite small!  Wow!  There is nothing prettier than a New Mexico sky!

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Next stop was El Rito, New Mexico. 

Just a tiny little town!  The one and only place to eat was actually OPEN!  Too bad we brought our lunch, we could have eaten at El Farolito!  Maybe next time.  Instead we had lunch at picnic table located on the grounds of Northern New Mexico College, El Rito Campus(http://www.nnmc.edu).  This college has classes in silver smithing, wood carving and other local arts.

We are headed south to Abiquiu, New Mexico.  The artist, Georgia O'Keefe lived there from 1949 until just shortly before her death in 1989.  The influences of this area can be seen in her paintings.  The landscape changed as we left El Rito.  The rock and formation colors are much different than the volcanic rocks we had been seeing around the Rio Grande River.

Abiquiu is on my list of MUST VISIT again!!  The landscape is beautiful!  Now, we got back on the road and headed back to Taos.  We took a slightly different route back, went over the big Rio Grande Gorge Bridge!  I never get tired of that view.

We are going back to await a call from Larry's cousin, Jamie.  Larry has not seen her in about 40 years maybe!  She happens to be in Taos for a meeting and we are excited to see her.  Received her call and went to meet her for a quick visit.  Jamie and Larry seemed to pick right back up like they had never been apart!  We should have made more effort to do this before.  Though just a short visit, it was so much fun!!!!

What a fun day!  After a little dinner, it is time to listen to a little live music at the hotel.

The High Road

Good Morning from Taos!  Time for a cool walk to breakfast at the Bent Street Café and Deli.  Then a little walk around the shops.  Stopped by to see if Sherry Ubechel was in her gallery, but she is out painting today.  We looked at her new work, she is still doing beautiful, colorful work with heavy paint applied with a palette knife.

Well, what should we do today?  Let's take a drive up the High Road!  We can make a stop at the High Road Marketplace which is a co-op of artists.  This is beautiful time of year to head up into the mountains.  With views like this, why not take a drive?

Of course, we made a stop in Las Trampas, New Mexico to photograph the San José de Gracia Church.  This is a National Historic Church.

Back on the road to Truchas, New Mexico to do a little shopping at the High Road Marketplace and a short trip down the highway to Bill Loyd's studio.  He is a metal artists who works to "up-cycle" metal objects.  We have one of his bells made from an old compress cylinder.  Just wanted a couple metal ravens.  Good to see he is still busy creating new things with his reclaimed metal objects.

It is time for lunch, so we make our way to Sugar Nymphs in Penasco, New Mexico for a little lunch.  We were given printer paper as a place mat and crayons to entertain ourselves.  We chose to have a Quesadilla with a bowl of Red Chile Corn Chowder!  YUM! 

Okay, lunch is over.  So get back on the road, but let's choose a new way back.  We go back toward the Picuris Pueblo and take the highway down to Dixon, New Mexico.  More spectacular vistas!

At Dixon, we come to the junction of the main north/south highway into Taos.  Of course, we took another side trip.  The Rio Grande River cut through New Mexico making its way to the border of Texas and Mexico.  The Rio Grande cuts deep canyons and gorges, these are truly beautiful.  We stopped at one of the "closed" river side parks.  You can still park there, you just cannot use the restrooms thanks to the U.S. government shutdown.  The river is so pretty, just had to have a few pictures before we move on.

Time to head back to our room.  Need to get ready for dinner.  Larry is taking me to Five Star Burgers!  This is the perfect burger place:  wine, split the Five Star Burger and a basket of Sweet Potato Fries with Larry!  Prefect!

Taos! Here We Come!

Day Two's destination is Taos, but we have a few things to see before we get there.  First stop is my favorite car wash, Soapy Suds in Portales, New Mexico.  We managed to get tons of bugs, butterflies and other unidentified critters on our windshield!  But never fear, Soapy Suds to the rescue!  All clean and ready to hit the road.

We took the road to Clovis, New Mexico.  I have never been there before, so let's see something new.  The prominent feature coming into town was trains, more trains and more trains.  Trains from the east, train from the west.  Trains arriving and trains leaving.

Clovis, New Mexico rail yard.

The old Santa Fe Railroad sign still remains.

The pigeons keep an eye on all the trains.

And then an unplanned stop, Taiban, New Mexico.  Flying down the highway, something caught my eye about a block up a dirt road.  Larry, turn around!  Go back!  I need a photo!  The combination of grey skies, a decaying school house was a visual essay on the deterioration of education in America.

When you don't bring a tripod you get a funky view of the ground and a weird tilt!

Enough with the artsy photo attack!!  Finally, I put the camera away and we took off down the highway!  My next goal is lunch!  We are heading to Santa Rosa, New Mexico.  But a wreck several miles south of Santa Rosa brought us to a sudden stop.  Could not really see what happened, but it involved a semi jack-knifed blocking almost all of the highway.  We figured out we were going to be sitting there a very, very long time.  So it was time to bring out the electronic device, the iPad saves the day!  I found a very small ranch road that cuts across to another highway.  That is why I have a four-wheel drive vehicle, so here we go!  Turned out to be beautiful drive!  A primitive road through hills, rock formation and boulders.  Another one of life's happy accidents.  Well, maybe not so much for the truck driver!

And, now we arrive for lunch.  Several years ago when traveling in this area I read a tip about dining at Santa Rosa.  Do NOT get off of I-40 and head to one of the tourist-traps or fast food chains advertised on billboards for the past several miles, instead continue right past all of those places and follow the street as it curves around.  Stop at the Comet II and get ready to partake of authentic New Mexican meal.  My recommendation is the PDL Enchiladas.  PDL=Pueblo de Luna, they grow their own strain of peppers.  The meal is too big to eat the whole thing, but I did my best!  We had a visit with Johnny Martinez, he is the third generation owner/operator.  He helps with any task that needs done, or he talks with many of the customers.  And he assures us the tradition will continue as the fourth generation is hard at work in the kitchen.

After lunch, the GPS is set for Taos and we hit the road.  Oh, that lady in the GPS!  Again she tells us to take the wrong exit.  But I do not repeat the same mistake as before!  We ignored her and took the correct exit!  Everything was going as expected, and then I decided to go on a detour.  Highway 94 from Sapello to Mora.  It was beautiful and well worth every minute.

Now back to the original route to Taos.  The trees are well into their fall color changes and they are spectacular.   We stopped at a little roadside parking lot to take a few pictures.  There was a restroom, however, courtesy of the U.S. Government.......they are closed!  But none the less, we took our pictures and left.

 

We checked into the hotel and got ready to see Kate Mann sing and play guitar.  She was wonderful!  So talented!  She sang all my favorites.  It was a fun evening.