Santa Fe Revisited

Our first few days in Santa Fe were hot, very hot.  Temperatures were reaching 100 degrees.  We just stayed inside the motorhome and kept cool.  After about our 4th day a cool weather front came through, brought rain showers and lowered the temperatures to a more normal 89-93 degrees.  Finally we can get out and about without feeling the heat.  First stop:  a favorite of ours, the center square in Santa Fe.  Only a couple of pictures here since we've been here before.

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Strolling along, this cat sculpture with a knot in it's tale got my attention..

and so did this lone sunflower.

We took a day trip to Ojo Caliente to soak in their hot springs.  It was a cloudy day so the temperatures were mild.

A drive to Taos means a visit to the "made-famous-in-painting by artist Georgia O'Keeffe" church
Rancheos de Taos

and a wonderful meal at the Ranchos Plaza Grill in it's historic adobe building.

We enjoyed another Santa Fe-favorite
Back Road Pizza.

Green chile chicken pizza and they are still winning awards since we were here in 2015.

and found some new favorites like the roof-top Coyote Cafe and Cantina.

We were recommended this establishment for their green chile cheesburgers..

Another day trip northward to Antonito, Colorado (a cool 7700 feet) where we found scenic landscapes....

 and a parade of collected, restored train track repair cars called Rail Speeders.
Antonito, Co is a depot for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Train Excursion.
We just happened to catch the parade when we stopped by the train depot researching ticket information. 

North of Taos, we stumbled upon these unique homes called Earthship Biotecture. We took the quick tour at their Visitor Center (which is a functioning Earthship home) to learn these ecologically built houses are constructed partially underground (the only windows face east) and are self-sustained by collecting sun energy and rain water. Yes, that means no electric or water bills for these homeowners.

The Visitor Center's interior was intriguing with it's greenhouse-like front porch space and decorative glass bottle exterior  We walked through a bedroom, the kitchen, bathroom and it's living room (aka, the Visitor Center's lobby).

You can see a sub-division of "earthships" off in the distance.  What a unique concept with an established community for support.

Visiting the 68th Annual Santa Fe Traditional Spanish Market, we found it very colorful and chocked full of fascinating sights and sounds.

With over 250 Spanish Colonial Artists from New Mexico and southern Colorado, we found all sorts of art booths to peruse.

More corn on the cob for us?  Yumm..the "roasted over coals and dipped in butter" kind this time.

"Have some corn?"

The traditional Spanish music and dance entertainment performed on the Santa Fe Square Stage was outstanding.  These girls were happy to display their dance costumes for me on their way to the stage.

What a fun time seeing the enthusiasm and energetic spirit of these young people, so proud of their heritage and willing to share it with others. 

And one more Santa Fe sunset..until next time.

More later as we "eas-on down the road" to Flagstaff, Arizona.

There's Goes Time..Flying By Again

It just amazes me how fast time seems to fly by.  One minute we're in Washington DC and then the next minute we are here in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  So, what happened in between the first of June and the middle of July?  Finally, here is a "catch-up" blog entry.

Leaving Washington DC, Ron and I traveled back to my Mom's home where we spent a week preparing for our family beach trip to the Outer Banks.  First, we needed to get her garden corn in the freezer and the blueberries picked.

"Have some corn?"

Ronnie, Mom and I traveled in our motorhome to Kitty Hawk, where we (Ronnie, myself and Little Boy) camped at the OBX Campground. We all spent a memorable week in Corolla, NC enjoying good times with my Mom, all of my siblings and their families.  It was a beautiful week of sunshine, waves and seafood dinners.  Ronnie and I drove to the beach house rental each day, giving us our own space while still spending quality time with Mom and my family.

Mom enjoying the motorhome's front seat view.

Family fun in the sand and surf..

Considering July 4th was the week after our beach vacation, Ronnie and I chose to stay at "Camp Coats" (Mom's) that week.  That was a good decision because Mom's peas and butterbeans were ready to be picked and there was one more batch of corn that needed to be put in the freezer.  It worked out for us all, we didn't need to plan for July 4th reservations and Mom had a little bit of help in her garden.

Leaving NC, we decided to travel west, looking for some cooler weather.  We never found any and in fact, we are still looking for some.

Our first stop was Little Rock, Arkansas.  The Downtown Riverview RV Park was perfect.  With great views of the Little Rock skyline and full hook ups (water, sewer and 50 amps of electricity) we were set to ride out an oppressive heat wave.  We plan to stop back by this nice RV park again one day to enjoy the 16 mile paved bike path, The Arkansas River Trail, which travels the downtown riverside area, crosses over to the RV park side and also goes by the Clinton Library.  Unfortunately, most of our time here was spent staying inside the cool motorhome, completing a Jeep brake repair at the Dodge dealership and a generator repair for the motorhome at the Cummins Shop.  We made the best of the situation by visiting the local breweries and the Clinton Library.

Views of the Little Rock skyline from our campsite.

We visited the Little Rock Saturday Farmers' Market.

We spent a hot afternoon inside the cool William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

The first exhibit you see there is President Clinton's 1993 Presidential Limousine.

There are many exhibits in the library that chronicle his eight years in office.  They are divided by events/legislation themes that correspond to the years of his Presidency.  There are just too many display cases and panels to include them all on the blog, however I found this exhibit of  Presidential Portraits by children pretty interesting!

The Museum also has shelves and shelves of these blue boxes.  We read they hold some of his presidential records and correspondence.  Because it is estimated there are approximately 80 million pages of records collected during his Presidency, these boxes shown here only contain about 2-3% of it.

There are display cases showing many of the gifts he and his wife Hillary Clinton received during the Presidency as well as a few of the invitations and menus to their State Dinners.

These hand-painted eggs, by Diana Manning of Mansfield, Louisiana, features a President on one side and his First Lady on the other.  They were given in honor of the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

President Clinton's Library was given this beautiful glass sculpture from Dale Chihuly, Titled:
Crystal Tree of Light.  It was made for display at the 1999 White House Millennium celebration held on New Year's Eve.

And I thought Sock's cat bed, given by Penny Taylor & Bill Ressl of Wickerart, was just plain cute.  Little Boy would like this, I'm sure.

I also found these displayed menus from the State dinners quite intriguing.  The food they served sounds scrumptious!  Chilled lobster..soft shell crab..pepper crusted Oregon beef..Orange Blossom Surprise with pomegranate sauce..yummm

There is a re-creation of President Clinton's Oval Office.  You can sit at his desk and walk around the room but no personal photos allowed inside that display room.  I made this one outside through a window opening.

Views from the Clinton Library looking across the Arkansas River and towards the Downtown Riverside RV Park. 

With all of our repairs complete, it was time to move westward.  A couple of "cooler" travel days lead us towards Oklahoma City (one night) and Amarillo, Texas (one night).  Thinking altitude would help alleviate some of the heat, we motored towards Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Yes, it still hot here but as they say.."Since the area has low humidity, it is a dry heat so it doesn't quite feel as bad."  Looking ahead to next week, it appears the forecast looks better/cooler with a change in the weather pattern.  Good, because we are here for a couple of weeks.  We plan to get our fix of delicious New Mexico cuisine, revisit a couple of our favorite places and maybe even find a few we have missed.

More Later.