Day 5 "Oh Ye'll Take the High Road and I'll Take the Wrong Road"

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 pesto time. These pine nuts would be great with that. We had decided to take the "High Road to Taos." Remember this, it will come up later in the post. We were driving along and suddenly we were no longer on the highway that we thought that we were. I must say that I have been getting very good and making U turns. Rob used to be reluctant to use his GPS, but he is embracing it at times. We finally got back on the correct highway and headed toward Taos. The scenery is beautiful, at times we are following the Rio Grande. Our plan was to stop at the Visitor Center to pick up a map and see if they know about the restaurant that we ate at last time that we were here. We are heading into town and see the sign for the Victor Center 1 mile ahead. I remembered that it was on the right side. OK, we have gone further than 1 mile. Pull over and put it into the GPS. We turn where instructed and do not see a sign for the Visitor Center. We get out and Rob goes to check the door. Um, there are people sleeping on the sidewalk up to the door. He then asks a city employee in the parking lot. Yeah, the Visitor Center is closed, but there is a kiosk on the square. OK, great. The last time that we were here there was a store on the main drag that had handwoven clothing. When Jim and Donna were here they kept commenting "Oh Andrea can make that." The owner asked them who "Andrea" was and told them to have me contact her. I called and at that point she had a weaver retiring, but wanted to wait to look at my work, she would get back to me. In early 2020 I called again and she wanted to hear from me in April. Well, we know what happened then. I could not find that store and do not remember the name. I looked up "handwoven clothing Taos" and found the name of a store. We find a parking place, not easy there and start walking to the sotre, or so we thought. Wow, we even get lost walking. I finally find the store. Hmmm, I do not think that this is the same store. I look around a little. The woman greets me and I talk to her. She is not really interested in carrying my stuff, I can send photos but she primarily uses local weavers. Well, that was disappointing. I cannot find the other on the main drag. Taos is a lot bussier that I remembered. I walked into a store called Andean Software. Beautiful clothing and some handwoven/handknit. We walk in and I point Rob to a chair. The woman in the store said that he had found the weary husband chair. I told her that I keep a small stool in my art show booth for husbands. She then said "oh that's were I know you from." Um, no, I just look like 500 other people in the US. She asks about my work and what I weave. I talked about my alpaca scarves. She is very interested and asked for my card. Who knows, maybe this will lead to something. We walked up the main drag to see what other stores that there were. A lot of stores are closed on Wednesday. Two places I would have liked to have gone into were not open. OK fine, time to put an end to this. We get back to the car, drink a lot of water and head for lunch. Rob had found a place on Trip Advisor for lunch. It got great ratings and after lunch we will head to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. We pull over to check directions again. Instead of sending us to the Taos Diner it keeps sending us to Taos Ciner II. I look it up, uh oh, Taos Diner is permanently closed and Taos Diner II is closed on Wednesday. SeriouslY, what is it about Wednesday? Rob remembers another place that sounded good. It is in the other direction so we will not go the the bridge. Fine, at this point the day is kind of a bust so who cares. We get to Mante's Chow Cart, with only two wrong turns. We get out and this guy knocks on the window. He mouths something and points to his cup? WTF? We decide to read the sign on the door. The guy opens the door and tells us that they are closed and only open for drive through. Fine, lets just get lunch. We pull up and order our burritos. They have some pic-nic tables in the shade. YAY! They were good, we also had soda with us. We decide that as long as we are this far we will go to the Rio Grande Bridge. If only we could stay on the correct road. Seriously New Mexico Department of Transportation, how about some more signs! Oh my, now I know why this is an attraction. They have a few people selling on the side. Ooh, one guy has some great Navajo necklaces. We talk a little, he tells me that since it was a slow day he would offere 50% off. Hmm, I will come back after we go to the bridge. We start walking to the bridge, oh wonderful, my fear of heights is coming back, but I amaze my self what I will do for a photograph. They have a fence, I can go closer. Here are a few shots of the bridge and the river from the side.

Now we head to the bridge. It is impressive and really, really high. I think that they want you to walk around and go through the parking lot. There are a few different paths and everyone climbs over the guardrail. Oh, we are high. I stop at the first lookout. Nice, when trucks go past I grab the railing. I could not find out what "Last Kiss" is for.

Rob walks on further as I take photos. I am fine not going any further. Rob comes back to get me and talks me into going further. I have one hand on the rail and I hold his hand with the other. We might be taking him for an X-ray of his hand later. OK, he is right, this is a great view. The last one is a close up of the river from above.

We had three trucks in a row go past. When trucks go over the bridge it shakes, the third turck was HUGE. In addition to my fear of heights I have a fear of bridges. Rob was starting to fear about the condition of his hand. Unfortunately this bridge has seen 50 suicides in 20 years. Hence why this is there. Oh sad that people can see a sight so beautiful but still take their lives. Please, hit the button and talk to someone.

We went back to the car, I had told Rob that I saw a couple of really nice squash bloosom necklaces and the guy said that they were half off. We went back and I asked about one, it had purple in it instead of tourquoise. It was not stone it was scallop shell. I tried on a tourquoise and really liked it. The guy gave me the price on it and I asked about the other one with tourquoise. He gives me the price, it was the same. Rob misses the "100" part of the price. The guy gives me another 15% off and another 10% off. Rob asks if the other one would be the same price, yes it would. I was stunned. He was telling me to get both. Then we realize that he missed the "100" on the price and I get one. I do not usually buy something like this an an impulse, but I have found that the side of the road people have better pricing. He sells for people on the Navajo reservation. I may still check the price of the necklace that I have seen in a window on our way to the square.

The stones are not polished like most, but I really like the texture of it. For that price I will be wearing it a lot. And I still want to find out what that beautiful necklace that I have been seeing on our way into town costs. Then we head back to Santa Fe, which involves going right through Taos, again. We know what road to take, wait, is this the road? Another U turn. We are finally through town, they have road construction going on in the middle of the main street. We know which way to go to take the Low Road back. Oops, this is the High Road, what did we take on the way here? It is a beautiful drive. We are following the Rio Grande again for a while. Are we supposed to be on this road? Turn around and go back. Oh, this is the road that we want. We are trying to use the GPS and the GPS wants us to take the Low Road. She finally gives up. We are uncertain again and go back to GPS, and we loose the signal. We are that far out that we cannot get cell service. We enjoy the scenery and reverse a few times. Then we start to head back into civilization, and road construction. It says "One Lane Road" ahead. We stop, put the windows down and turn off the car. Does this ever happen when you are in shade? Noooo. It is 96 degrees and we are in the sun. We have also run out of water. After 25 minutes we finally get to move. At last. The upside is that we get to drive on fresh pavement. We finally return back, it has been a long day. Tomrrow come along for our visit to the Ghost Ranch gardens. Hopefully the pine nut guy is in the same place