The Anderson's New Santa Fe Adventure

Today's post will be written in segments. We have to be out of here by 10:00, no late check out available. We will drive down to Albuquerque, maybe stopping for the pine nuts truck on the way. You do realize that since we have plenty of time we most likely will not make any wrong turns. Rob is still waking up on close to Eastern time. I on the other hand... well, I do get up, eventually. We did most packing last night. This morning is just taking care of the last minute things, checking drawers, under the bed and loveseat to make sure that we have not forgotten anything. We got out of there in time and since I was driving we made one more try at finding the pine nuts guy. No luck. We are heading out of town and I see a sign handicraft sale. I commented that I wish that there was a farmers market. Rob asked why, so that we could buy pine nuts. Yeah, I know Ahab. Oh, there was one near where we stayed. He did not think that we would want to go there to buy produce on the day that w...

This is our last day in Santa Fe and our first day to really explore around the square. Rob starts packing the dirty clothes, we have to be out of here tomorrow by 10:00 am and our flight out of Albuquerque is not until 4:40. This does mean one more stop at El Modelo. We are getting something lighter to eat, not something that takes us 2 days to finish. After breakfast we got in the car and drove off to where I saw the pine nuts truck on Wednesday. Yeah, yeah, I am having my "Ahab moment" here. Nope, no pine nut truck. OK, water bottles filled - check, sunscreen, check - dorky tourist sun hats on, check. Time to take off for the square. Those selling on the sidewalk in front of the square are limited to members of the 23 federally recognized tribes in New Mexico. We are very lucky, this just reopened 2 weeks ago. Normally those selling are right noext to each other, now there is 6' between them and they extend around the corner. We were told that there is a lotter...

Today we were touring Ghost Ranch. Our tour was scheduled for 1:30, but we were instructed to arrive by 1:00. We decided to leave a little early so that we could eat lunch before the tour. Or so that we had extra time in case I was practicing my U turns again. Our plan had been to stop at the pine nut truck on our way out of town. Doh! the guy was not there today. One of those "you have to buy it when you see it" things. Kind of why I bought the necklace yesterday. It was a beautiful drive up there, the rocks started to turn reddish as we got closer to Abiqui. We followed the Rio Grande for a while, amazing how much greener things are close to the river. The amazing part was that we did not get lost on the way up there. There were a few last minute turns, but no U turns. On the way I see a mesa up ahead and see cars go up it. Oh no, not my favorite. I do it just fine if a tad slower than the speed limit but I am on the inside going up. Coming down could be interesting. ...

Did you ever have a day when you woke up excited about the day ahead and then reality smacks you in the head? Yeah, reality sucks. We started the day with frozen cottage cheese. Not the most exciting breakfast. When we travel I do the majority of the driving and Rob is the navigoar. He has this amazing ability to look at a map and remember where and when we need to turn. I call him Vasco da Gama. Every once in a while Vasco gets confused or in the case today the State of New Mexico is not exactly generous with signage. We took off with lots of water, my camera, a couple of sodas and hope for a great day. Just out of town we saw someone selling pine nuts on the side of the road. Tomas on the walking tour yesterday told us to look for trucks selling the pine nuts. He had some for us to sample and they do taste a lot better than what I have been buying. We went past too fast to stop but tomorrow we will be heading to Ghost Ranch. I have a lot of basil growing at home so it is almost pe...