The Big Escape

As for Rick & I, we escaped the arctic cold of the Northwoods and headed to New Mexico for 7 days.

There wasn’t really a reason for deciding on this state in particular, except that a)  it was warmer than home, and b)  I could buy more Turquoise for jewelry.

Oh, and the scenery.  Fantastic!

We decided to jump right in on our first full day by getting my Turquoise fix.  This is all Rick’s fault actually.

When he was in New Mexico a few years back doing some work for the BIA, he came across this shop and bought me a bunch of Turquoise.  I have been hording that stuff ever since because I didn’t know if I’d ever get any more of it.

Yeah, well, I got more and then some.

I’m not ashamed of this.  I did hold back some because we had more days to go and I didn’t want to spend too much money right off the bat.

Next we headed North to Santa Fe, but got distracted when we came upon the Pueblo of San Felipe.

We were curious as to the warnings of no pictures and drawings, but later on learned that this is typical of these communities.  The best way to describe it would be to compare it to a sacred place where privacy is respected.

Unfortunately I don’t follow rules very well and just had to get a picture of the Adobe ovens, or Hornos.  They are used as an outdoor oven for baking and roasting, and we found these in many places as we traveled the state.

We also came across a very familiar site:

Just can’t get away from those Casino’s, ya know.  We actually discovered that they were all over the state and didn’t hesitate in checking out 3 or 5.

We eventually made it to Santa Fe, and I have to say I was not impressed.  Perhaps it was because we didn’t venture off the main road to see what the town was really about, the case for this being the bumper-to-bumper traffic we encountered from the time we entered the city to the time we left.

Maybe a little more research (or some at all) of what the area had to offer would have helped.  Lesson learned.

But the drive was well worth it!