Chillin' in Santa Fe

Kate and I are in Santa Fe. The trip was uneventful, but long—we agreed that we tend to forget just how long it is between trips. The first day we went as far as O’Fallon, MO, just shy of St. Louis, then on to Tulsa the next day. The penultimate night we sheltered in Amarillo, TX, and finally made it here on Saturday. As part of our travels, we decided we needed to see some new sights. We’ve seen the Arch on the Mississippi many times, 

and the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. 

There’s not much in the landmark/sightseeing inventory around Tulsa; all in all, we need to find a new route. I’m going to work on that, but it’s not easy since my venerable Microsoft Streets and Trips program won’t run on this machine. It, the program, reports a licensing error, although it’s a legal copy. Since Microsoft doesn’t support the program anymore, I’m trying to learn to use a new travel planning program, but it’s a struggle. Ah, well, some people have real problems.

We’re enjoying our stay in Santa Fe, one of our favorite places to visit. We’re staying at Otra Vez, which, I’m told means “Another Time”. 

We’re up there on the second floor, on the right side of the second floor patio. The place isn’t fancy, but it’s pretty comfortable, and right in the heart of the old town. We’ve got a two-bedroom unit, so we have plenty of room to spread out, and we do that, boy, do we do that. I’m reminded of our recent stay in New Orleans, at a timeshare we own that’s right in the French Quarter. It is wonderfully located, but isn’t especially comfortable. We had a good time there: Kate took a couple of cooking classes there……Crab  and corn bisque, Shrimp Creole  and Bananas, Foster, We visited the World War II museum See Museum

The WWII museum has become rather amusement park-oriented over the years. There are several experiences that clearly belong further south at Disney World. There’s a train ride and submarine mission (the infamous Tang, which destroyed itself (picture) and a very flashy 4D (movie, actors, narration, moving props and simulated explosions) production called Beyond All Boundaries. It’s quite the deal. If you’ve never been there, you should go. If you have been there, you should go again: We all should remember what it cost to stop the evil that the dictatorships of the 30s and 40 let loose on the world.

We also visited Marti Gras World See World......Lots of Big Stuff

The only real downside to the trip was the train trip on each end of the visit. We had driven to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and left our travel-stained Toyota Highlander at a motel there, and entrained to New Orleans…….about two hours late. On the return leg, our experience was much the same. Amtrak is barely functional these days, and after the Republicans get through with it, it will probably vanish, or maybe be reduced to a couple of hand-cranked handcars that you see in movies set in the past.

Anyway, back to New Mexico, one of the very few states to be carried by Clinton, and to Santa Fe, about the most “progressive” city I know of. They’re very concerned with handicapped access to businesses; cars, like ours, with handicapped-labeled plates, can park damned near anywhere they want to, free.  Lots of panhandlers and Indian dancers... there are dishes of water set out for pets in front of many businesses, and a collection of rather eccentric people. Often, I can’t tell whether they’re hipsters or just bums. The city celebrated its 400^th birthday several years ago, but it’s the younger brother, or is that sister? to a place an hour’s drive to the north, Espanola, (established 1598) which claims to be the oldest city in New Mexico, or indeed, anywhere in New Spain, the vast area of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada that we stole from Mexico as a result of the Mexican America war of 1848.  See War President Elect Trump would have liked that, I think.

Espanola is a little town of about 10,000 souls and is rated by the FBI as the most dangerous town in New Mexico. We’re planning to drive up there today, to look around, do some shopping, and have lunch at Angelina’s,

See Angelina's a wonderful little local restaurant with the best carne adovada, I’ve ever eaten.

A couple of days ago, we drove to the tiny little town of Cerrillos (See Cerrillos). It has about three streets, a couple of bars and a church with a dead tree out front re-purposed and painted to represent a figure of Christ. You don’t see that everywhere you go.

We left Cerrillos after dragging main street  a couple of times and drove just a few miles further to reach the funky little art colony of Madrid…locally, that’s pronounced with an accent on the front end-- It’s not that city in Spain. In Ma’drid, there is a large collection of arty shops, handicraft shops, biker bars, and alleged artists working in metal, mud, stone and any other real or imagined medium. See Madrid 

Kate took a cooking class here on Thursday (I took the car in for an oil change.) In her class, they made Mac and cheese with green peppers, creamy tortilla soup, coconut caramel flan and citrus-cumin-based Mojo sauce, for vegetables. I’m sure it was time well spent and that I’ll harvest the benefit of it down the road.

Yesterday (Saturday 12 November) we sat out  to visit one of the museums at Los Alamos, the birth place of the Atomic Age and cradle of the atomic bomb. The museum was closed, so we headed for Angelina’s in Espanola for lunch. The crowd was overflowing into the parking lot, so we didn’t even stop—we had lunch at Lottaburger, an area burger chain, where we had green chili cheese burgers and chocolate shakes. It was a good wrap-up for a day that was nothing like we planned for it to be. Stay tuned for our next exciting adventure.