Yahoo, look at that! My 100th Post!

 

It took me about 3 years but I finally reached # 100! I don't know what that says about me but if you're still reading this I'd say it says more about you! So thank you! And if you have a little time, drop me a comment every now and than. I'd love that! 

A special thanks to Judy who faithfully does just that! Thanks, I really appreciate it!

 

 

So here we are again! Let's see, where were we? Oh, just over the border in New Mexico where we left the I-25 and drove to Eagles Nest, through Cimarron Canyon that started to show some pretty fall colors!

 

 

 

 

We spent the night at Eagles Nest Lake at a very nice National Forest campground:

 

 

 

 

 

 

That afternoon we drove the small 'loop' road into the mountains to climb the 9820' Bobcat Pass and into the beautiful canyon towards Taos.

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful fall colors again! 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we visited Taos, very touristy but with lots of beautiful adobe ...

 

 

 

 

....... and lots of cute, small shops with beautiful local pottery, silver, turquoise and tapestries:

 

 

    

 

 

 

Afterwards it was only about an hour to Santa Fe on a good road through the beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'd determined we needed a little luxury after a couple of days of "roughing it' at a truck stop, a Walmart and a 'dry' national forest campground, so we settled in for the night at the  Santa Fe Skies RV Park and went for the full hook-ups!

Which was really nice since we got hit by a nice big thunder storm just after hooking everything up!

So we ran the dishwasher, did some laundry, took a nice hot shower and watched some TV until the storm had passed through and the rain stopped long enough for us to make a visit into Santa Fe.

 

 

 

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi

 

Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, is basically a bigger version of Taos. The city and the surrounding areas sure have a high concentration of artists.

Lots of tourists and lots of junk for sale around the central plaza in the historic downtown area. The 'real' stuff you find in ridiculously expensive galleries that are definitely not in our budget but it's always nice to drool over.

 

We visited some of the historical buildings like the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi with the El Santuario de Guadalupe which is the oldest extant shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe in the United States:

 

 

 

 

 

And the The Loretto Chapel, a former Roman Catholic church that

is now used as a museum and wedding chapel. It is known for its unusual helix shaped spiral staircase (the "Miraculous Stair"), that may have been created by French carpenter Francois-Jean "Frenchy" Rochas, although the Sisters of Loretto and many other people credit St. Joseph with its construction.

 

 

          

 

We walked the historical downtown area and took a look at the colorful souvenirs and some of the beautiful art galleries:

 

 

 

 

The Palace of the Governors (1610) is an adobe structure located on Palace Avenue on the Plaza. It  served as the seat of government for the state of New Mexico for centuries and is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Native American artists sit under the long, shady portal of the and sell their handmade jewelry, pottery and other works of art. All items sold by the Indians under the portal are made by either the vendor you’re talking to, or a member of his or her family.

 

 

 

 

From here we finally made the short drive to Albuquerque to attend their annual Balloon Festival, that we have looked forward to since we went south!!!
I've decided to dedicate a whole blog to this incredible event so let's get over to a new one!