~Wednesday, November 11, 2020~
Day 150
Took Sadie to her nail trimming appointment, picked up some Starbucks then hit the road for Taos. While I drove, Jeff made follow up phone calls to Lance and Richardson’s RV (where we purchased the trailer). We still have items that need fixing. One of the biggest items is the shelf over our bed (it was actually warped when we purchased it). It spans across the width of the bed and has a center anchor point, which they already tried to fix by doubling up the middle support. One day later after we picked up the trailer, the shelf separated from the ceiling. At that point, we were too far away to go back. Enough of trying to fix it. We need it replaced, so we’re waiting on Lance’s approval for that. The other big item needing replacement is the kitchen counter. The top is warping/bubbling near the kitchen sink as it appears they never caulked around the sink. So, water has absorbed through the layers of plywood underneath the laminate. Anyway, to get these and a few other repairs done, we need to go back to California sometime in December. We’re just waiting until we know everything can be ordered and we have a date for installation before we make any concrete plans.
About 1-½ later, we entered the city of Taos. Tucked right under the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Taos stands out, as all around it are miles and miles of flat plains. The city, like Santa Fe has a central square (smaller scale than Santa Fe’s) and is very dog friendly. We were even able to bring Sadie into a book store where she scored a few treats. One of the highlights of the town was visiting the Kit Carson Museum (an outside museum) which was his home with his wife and 9 children for over 20 years.
This home, now turned museum, has been registered as a national Historic Landmark. Kit Carson was an American frontiersman, trapper, soldier, and Indian agent who made an important contribution to the westward expansion of the United States. While Sadie and I toured the courtyard there, Jeff went into the gift shop to see if they had any good books on Santa Fe. Rather than purchasing a book, he ended up talking to the store clerk for over 20 minutes. Jeff said she was obviously bored and in need of some social interaction. Luckily, Jeff had a primo excuse to exit the conversation…..”my wife and dog are outside waiting for me”. Good thing I didn’t go in or we would have been there another hour.
Taos is a delightful, charming town but due to COVID, it is suffering. A few of the shops we stopped in said they have suffered greatly this year with business down about 80%. There are so many art galleries, pottery studios, etc. I don’t know how they all stay in business. It just didn’t have the vitality that I’m sure it normally has with more tourists and more businesses open. We’re still glad we came.
On the way to our next stop we drove over the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
with amazing views of the long, deep canyon. But, we couldn’t just drive over it, so we parked the car at the visitor lot and walked over a section of the bridge. Jeff and I normally don’t have a fear of heights, but this bridge does make you a little dizzy looking down to the Rio Grande River 600 feet below. It is the 5th highest bridge in America.
Last stop….driving down part of the canyon to the La Vista Verde Trail. The drive down is quite steep, bumpy and windy for about 2 miles, until you get to the parking lot where we saw a few other cars. We were a little nervous leaving our truck there since we were pretty isolated. But, the hike was only about 2.5 miles to the overlook and Sadie was very happy to join us, though not off leash. We’ve been hesitant letting her off leash on most of the hikes in New Mexico due to prickly cactus and tarantulas. Once she’s off, she doesn’t go too far, but she feels she has free reign of the land, and we don’t want to see her injured of course. We got to the overlook right at dusk, running into a few other hikers, but no bighorn sheep as many reviewers had indicated. We didn’t stay long as we wanted to make it back to the car before dark.
We’re really liking New Mexico…..the Land of Enchantment, and we will be back.