August 28-31, 2014 Salida, Colorado

 

On to Salida. We passed the Great Sand Dunes National park and the Colorado Gators Reptile Park. We didn’t stop, we wanted to get to the first come  first serve campground and get a spot for Labor day weekend before it filled up. We did stop at the Joyful Journey Hot Springs and have a nice soak. Here is John in one of the pools. Aaahhhhh.

This is the San Luis valley in Colorado, and these are the Sangra De Christo mountains.  John  got a pedicure in Salida. It made his feet beautiful.

We are camped at Salida East campground, which is  a free campground on the Arkansas river. We got a nice spot up by the trees. Sunset on a huge rainstorm coming our way over the campground.

Bev Gray lives in Salida, she is also a friend of John’s from Eagle in the early 70’s.  John cooked us dinner in the bus. The next day we went to the Salida Wine festival. These robots are at one of the booths at the festival.

Sue and Bev tasting, John and Sue tasting at the festival. They had wine, food, music and some other booths, like the robots. Great weather, nice way to spend the afternoon. Bev cooked us dinner afterwards.

Sunset had this weird kind of vortex in it. Laurie and Fred gave me these peacock feathers from their peacocks and I arranged them in my basket.

Our last day in Salida we went to the Mount Princeton hot springs. I have been going to the springs for years, but they have remodeled the place and added this high end spa and pools and some very fancy cabins. It is very nice and another nice way to spend the day in great weather.

August 27, 2014 La Jara, Colorado

I spilled tea on my computer and am very behind in my posts. I am using my older computer while I wait for my new one to arrive any day now. I could not edit photos till I got to this computer, or post anything. I was dying.

We are  back in Colorado on our way to La Jara. The train is the Cumbres-Toltec narrow gauge railroad. It runs from Antonito, Colorado to Chama, New Mexico.

The oldest church is in Conejos, Colorado. We are visiting Fred and Laurie, friends of John’s that he has known since he lived in Eagle, Colorado, in the  early 70’s. Here is the bus parked at their farm outside of La Jara.

Fred and John as we took a walk around their 26 acres. This caldera cake was made by Laurie and frosted by Suep. They cooked up a lunch of BBQ’d sliders and dinner of BBQ’d steaks.

Fred, John and Laurie getting ready to BBQ. They have a reindeer and this adorable kitty, Rosie.

Laurie and Fred Gonzales, their dogs Smirk and Sally in front of their house. Some of their livestock, the reindeer, named Houdini because he is an escape artist , a llama and alpaca. Fred feeding the llama and alpaca and John feeding the llama.

August 26, 2014 Taos, New Mexico

 

We had wanted to go to the Taos Pueblo –pictured above, but it was closed for the week. Boo. This is a photo of the pueblo off internet of it. Looks like it is really cool. We will have to come back sometime to see it. We drove by this nice field of sunflowers with the storm clouds moving in. Heavy rain is predicted. But so far there is bright sunshine.

San Francisco De Asis Church was built in 1772 by Franciscan priests.  You can see still see the straw glinting in the sunlight in the massive adobe walls.

This  is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen.  It is heavily buttressed with twin bell towers that exemplifies Spanish Colonial architecture. The church was not open.

This is the door to the parish hall that is supposed to have a miraculous, mysterious, luminescent painting called The Shadow of the Cross. They charge $3 dollars to see the painting. It was not open either. This house across from the church is what I think of when I think of houses in this area.

The Taos plaza. We went to the Kit Carson Museum. Kit is a well known  mountain man, army general, and masonic member.  The masons raised the money and restored his house and made it into a museum.  Kit and his family lived in Taos for 25 years in this house in the mid 1800’s.

The courtyard of the Kit Carson museum.

The kitchen in the Kit Carson Museum and his grave.

We had lunch at Eske’s brewery.

John and I on a high bench at Twirl toy store and play park. The guy taking the photo cut off the bottom of the chair, so you get to see John in it too.

This 1,272 foot continuous steel deck bridge was built over the Rio Grande Gorge. It is 650 feet above the river. There is a side walk to the observation deck mid bridge over the river. It started raining when we were on the bridge, you can see it moving in from down the river.  It has not stopped since. The weather service says it will rain until tomorrow, heavy at times.

August 25, 2014 High road to Taos, New Mexico

We took the back road to Taos, called the High Road to Taos Scenic Drive. It went through the Sangre De Christo mountains. Very scenic.

I had breakfast  this morning with Kathy and Bill Howard at the Chocolate Maven bakery and restaurant. It is a locals place that makes backed goods for much of Santa Fe. There is a glass window in the back and you can see into the kitchen and see them baking. They have a house in Scottsdale and one in Santa Fe.  I know Kathy from my days working on the Colorado Trail.  On the scenic drive we stopped in Chimayo at the Santuario De Chimayo. It is known for it’s holy dirt. In 1810 a farmer was praying in his field and claimed to see a light emanating from the soil. Upon investigation he found a cross, which is now kept inside the chapel. Legend maintains that the earth surrounding this cross has healing power. Many pilgrims come to touch the dirt in a pit inside the chapel, where castoff crutches and braces line the walls.

The Santuario De Chimayo chapel. The holy dirt is in the pit in the far room and the crutches are on the left wall.

After the chapel we had tamales at Leonita’s across the square. They claim to be the best tamales in the state of New Mexico. They were very good. Leonita, in the red shirt in the background was going to be a nun. She was working in the gift shop for the Santuario and was moving a refrigerator and got a hernia, so she was in the hospital the week she was supposed to go to the convent. Somehow she ended up becoming a stewardess for Pan Am in the 60’s instead. She flew on flights to bring troop to Vietnam and evacuate refugees. She if from Chimayo and has not returned and makes tamales.  A photo of the scenic highway with the pinyon and ponderosa pines. The grass was green and there were lots of wild flowers.

The High Road to Taos scenic byway, art in Truchas on the way, Sipapu ski area is in the area. Somehow I never think of Sipapu and ski area in the same place, and the MacDonalds in Taos.  The bus is parked at the Taos Monte Bello RV Park. Mount Wheeler is in the background, it is the highest peak in New Mexico, and has Taos Ski area on it.

We had dinner on the patio at the Taos Mesa Brewery. Good beer, decent food. Cool building. This raven sculpture was by their patio in the back. Nice views.

Sunset from the trail by the RV park.

Flowers on the trail by the RV park. Sunflower, tiny purple flower, yellow bushes, aster, blazing star and verbena.