Ginger: Epic Cross Country Road Trip August 28-29

Day 28: Saturday

Mesa Verde on to Santa Fe

We do a pretty efficient job of packing up after spreading out for 4 days at the little house and are on the road before 9. Waze is taking us a different way out of town than we’ve been going to the parks. More new areas to explore!

We miss a turn and Waze takes us 20 miles to a turn around. Well poop. But we’re back on track now and will just have a little less time to explore Mesa Verde. Those things happen.

We stop in Cortez for lunch at a great little family owned Mexican restaurant, La Casita de Cortez. I have a beef tostada and Nick has enchiladas. Both excellent. The owner had on a Georgia Tech hat! He had lived in Florida a few years and remembered how green Georgia is.

At Mesa Verde, we stop at the visitors center. Always a good place to start at a National park. For a short visit, the Mesa Top loop is recommended. I haven't been taking pictures of the visitors centers but each one is different and really tries to capture the feeling of the area. What fun it would be to design these centers!

There is a podcast from the National Park service of Mesa Verde that guided us along the stops on the Mesa Loop. It was made by a woman of Pueblo decent. Really nice way of reclaiming history that is often forgotten. There are 10 stops along the loop. The first one is Pithouses that basically just show wall delineations and is from about 600CE.

The next stop is the Navajo Canyon View

Then comes the Square Tower house which was built around 1200CE. This is quite amazing being really no closer to the top of the cliff as to the bottom of the cliff.

Back to some of the earlier Pithouses and early Pueblos with the bases of Kivas.

We can see across the canyon to Sun Point Pueblo which was from 1100 to 1200sCE. These have caves that have structures that house several hundred people.

The last stop is the Sun Temple which dates to around 1300 CE and has several rooms and kivas as well as view of the Fire Temple and Fire house.

We have a long drive ahead of us so don’t stop at the museum. We feel that we got a good feeling with the audio podcast.

As we near Alburquerque, a storm is coming in. Another rainbow! A full arch and double! Wow!

We’ve arranged to have dinner with Glenda Gray in Albuquerque[GW1] . She is the one who married us back in 2004 and the first full time minister for Emerson. She wisely chooses a Southwestern restaurant for us. It is quite large and obviously quite popular. One of the pluses is that they serve everyone sopapillas with honey at the end of the meal. All very yummy and the catching up was yummy too. Glenda has congestive heart failure and is quite limited in her activities. Her mind is certainly still sharp and we enjoyed witty conversation with her. We still need to drive on to Santa Fe so another visit leaving wanting more.

We get into our hotel about 10:30 at night. Couldn’t do that if were camping as we need to get in when it is still light to have time to set up camp before dark.

August 29, Sunday

The usual motel breakfast and then off to explore Santa Fe. What a cool ambiance this town has! It’s still a little early for many of the shops but activity level is definitely on the rise. The main square is for pedestrians only. One side of the square has several restaurants with people sitting outside under colorful umbrellas.

There is an antique car show setting up with classic cars angle parked with their hoods up to show off their meticulously clean engines. We stumble upon a show of local artists. There was one with nice metal totems. A photographer who made the photos into mandalas. Another with a photo of a Mexican woman making tortillas. It was a wonderful picture that he said he took many years ago and is still one of his favorites. One painter only painted clouds.

We stop in a jewelry store that carries jewelry designed by Kabana which is the designer we were looking at for rings when we got engaged but ended up buying a knock off at a shop in Playa del Carmen that catered to cruise ships. It didn’t hold up at all. We look at the rings and still really like their designs. Time to talk….

Our parking meter was about to expire so we decided to drive up to another area that is famous for their galleries, Canyon St. Mostly fine art so is a museum for us and not a shopping area. There was a long robe type garment that had a big painting of the virgin of Guadalupe on the inside. Interesting and beautiful but nothing I’d wear!

We decide we want to go back and look at the rings again. As we we’re walking, we see the one other dealer of these rings in Santa Fe. Let’s look! The ones he has are a little bigger and flashier than I really like. Back to shop number 1. Oh, which one????? My finger was a bit sore from trying them on over and over again. Finally, I decide which one is the perfect one. It really goes well with the wedding band that I have. I’m happy.

It's late afternoon now and we’re to meet Dave, who we’re taking a photography class from at 4. Our first 2 choices for lunch are closed so we go with plan C, a Oaxacan place. Smells good. Two young women are sitting outside drinking margaritas which they highly recommend. The margaritas were good and so was the food.

We are to meet David outside of the Sprouts store. He’ll be there with a baseball cap on. Yep! There he is. Another couple is supposed to come to. We wait until 4:15 and then head out in David’s car. We drive out of town and stop along the highway where there is a nearby hoodoo. David talks about photographing shapes and composing them into something pleasing. Take a photo. See what you like about it. Take another one correcting any problems you notice. We will come back and stop here on the way back to see how the different light changes things.

We head on to Chimaya, a little town that was originally settled by Europeans. It’s a dusty little place with an old store, an old church, some other little establishments. We take a few photos of the store and then head over to the church. Talk about lines leading into what you want to highlight in the picture.

We enter the church and see signs prohibiting photos. Oh, this little church is one of the sweetest I’ve ever seen. I SO want to take pictures as I already can’t remember what it was that made it so sweet and unique. I only remember the peaceful feeling I felt. There were wooden beams with geometric paintings. The stations of the cross were small. A small station with a few candles and fresh floswers.

The grounds outside the church are nice too with a small stream running along the back. An outside alter with lots of candles and many little vignettes hidden in the visual clutter. More photos. David then shows us some of the funky little places of the town. More photos What fun!