24 States in 27 Days - Day 24:

November 2nd, 2012, Friday: Taos in the morning was sunny, but very cold - we woke to ice on the inside of our canopy windows. I was glad I’d worn my pants and long sleeves to bed that night, so the chill of my cold sweater and jacket wasn’t too painful.

Choosing another restaurant our new friend LIndsey recommended, we drove to Rickey’s for breakfast where we enjoyed bottomless coffee, terrific pancakes, bacon and eggs for me, while Brad had an omelet with toast. It was fun to watch the locals bantering with the chef and waitress. We tried to go to the library next for internet access but it didn’t open for another hour, so we parked in the same lot as yesterday and went photo hunting and window shopping, exploring a few shops as they opened. 

We really liked the small town, friendly feel of Taos. 

It warmed up by the time we were finished wandering downtown, so we peeled off our layers at the truck and drove to the library where we spent a few hours charging batteries and checking email. After the library we stopped in a couple of thrift shops and explored a few neighborhoods before heading out of town, north on 522, planning to turn onto hwy. 62. Somehow we missed that turn and again had to backtrack to the correct highway. 

Not too far down hwy. 62 we crossed a incredibly high canyon bridge! Of course we had to stop. It was the Rio Grande river way down at the bottom of this deep canyon. 

We walked out to the middle of the bridge, which was a bit freaky, considering how high we were! Back in the truck we continued north where we discovered a fantastic biotecture community we had to investigate. 

We felt like we’d landed on an alien planet! Oddly we also kept seeing yellow traffic signs with cows - and each sported a space ship sticker! The clouds were otherworldly too. 

As we climbed over the San Juan Mountains we stopped for some sunset photos. 

We knew it was time to start looking for a campsite, but not wanting to freeze up in the mountains we kept going until we dropped down the other side onto hwy. 84/64. On our road map I spotted El Vado campground off to the west, and thinking it wasn’t too far off the highway we headed that way and drove, and drove, dropping in elevation until we said “It’s going to be positively balmy by the time we hit the campground” and right then we saw a sign that said “ICY”! Ha! We were almost ready to turn back when we finally saw a sign to the campground. As we turned onto that road, we both exclaimed at the same time “4 miles?!” Yep, it was another 4 miles further. I’d been counting deer and rabbits the whole way, and by the time we pulled into the actual campsite we’d seen 19 deer and 6 rabbits! It was very dark and quiet at the campground which seemed pretty open and treeless---the little we could see with our truck headlights. We passed a sign that warned not to drive into the lake - whoa, ok! then chose a site near one of the few street lights, paid our fee, and settled in for the night. It was the quietest place we’d slept this whole trip! We were glad to have both down duvets that night. 

24 States in 27 Days - Day 23:

It's been a while since I've added another day of our 2012 cross country road trip adventure, and the thought crossed my mind when I realized it's been over a year since I started posting this journal of our travels, whether I should cointinue or not. Considering how some of my favorite photos are still to come, I had to keep going - especially since this was one of our favorite days! So, without further delay, here's the next installment, and a promise to finish this before 2014 is over. 

November 1st, 2012, Thursday: Waking to another blue sky, sunny day in Texas we enjoyed a decent continental breakfast downstairs then went back up the elevator to our room to shower, check email, and get ready to hit the trail. 

Texas

After a grocery run while in Amarillo, we continued west on I-40 through Texas and into New Mexico! Woot! 

West of Santa Rosa we exited onto hwy. 84 towards Las Vegas (we didn't know there was a Las Vegas in New Mexico - did you?) where we missed the turn onto hwy. 518 towards Taos and had to do a little backtracking. 

There we started climbing out of the flat grasslands into more mountainous, rocky terrain. Hello trees! We crossed over a couple of passes into Carson National forest where it was a lot cooler. 

There were a few glimpses of fall color, but most trees were already bare. We passed Sipapu ski resort area, then started dropping into the Taos valley. 

In Talpa we paused to take a photo of the decorated graves, remembering it was the Day of the Dead. 

We then turned onto hwy. 68, to Taos. 

It was interesting to see so many single story buildings, most in the southwestern adobe style. This route was Taos’s busy, commercial strip -  slow going, but soon we pulled into the town center. Finding a free parking lot, we stopped, tucked things away then put on another layer to go explore. It was 4:45ish and we could tell it was going to get cooler as the evening progressed. We wandered through the Taos Inn first, where we were given a tour of one of their unique rooms. It was cozy with a separate sitting area, fireplace, real low ceilings and door frames we had to duck under. We both agreed it’d be a fun place to stay some day. 

We walked into a nearby gallery where we chat with a very talkative fellow. He filled us in on the good places to camp and we were happy to hear most campgrounds in NM are free. After some window shopping we went into a cool vintage shop called Horse Feathers. There we met Lindsey, the owner. He was such a friendly fellow, we truly enjoyed our visit with him. He told us his favorite local restaurants to check out while Brad bought a spiffy western shirt. From there we walked up the block amazed by the color as the sunset bathed everything in a soft rosy glow. This is the southwestern light artists rave about! I was enamored, and wanted to start painting immediately, but had to settle for some quick pics with our small point and shoot camera. 

Once the sun was down we began to freeze, so we went back to the truck for warmer clothes. Hungry, we took off in search of the Guadalajara Grill, where Lindsey recommended we get the guacamole. We did along with ordering two chili rellenos to share. The guacamole was fabulous - everything is made on site. Delicious salsa too, a bit salty, but not too hot. However the chilies were HOT for me - I’m a wimp! They were quite large so we split them lengthwise and I was happy to see bits of cooked carrots and zucchini in with the cheese. They were tasty, but I liked the guacamole best. As we left we spotted the moon about to rise over the mountains, so I pulled out our telephoto lens and used the top of the truck cab as a tripod to shoot a bunch of photos. 

Since we weren’t through exploring Taos we decided to save some money and sleep in the Walmart parking lot. As soon as we bedded down about 9:30ish, almost immediately a street sweeper began to clean the parking lot. Oh joy. It zigged through the lot eventually shaking our truck as it buzzed multiple times past us. We wondered if it was trying to annoy us or trying to hurry and get through for us. Luckily we thought it was kind of comical, but finally it quit and we were able to sleep pretty well.