Leaving Taos

Just a quick update about what's going on since I updated the journal on Sunday.

Monday was a fairly mundane day. We carried a load of stuff that we had pulled out of the attic and gave it to one of the thrift stores in Taos. We then spent most of the morning at the laundromat in Taos. It's been a long time since Lois and I spent any time at a laundromat, and we were quite surprised at how much it costs to wash your clothes. We probably spent about $20 to wash and dry 5 loads of clothes. I would have estimated that it cost half that amount. One advantage is that using five washers and a similar number of dryers shortens the whole process considerably.

After the trip to the laundromat, we went back to the cabin, picked up the remainder of the stuff we were giving to the thrift store and a load of garbage to take to the dump. We also stopped by one of the sporting goods stores in Taos to pick up some hiking shoes that Lois had ordered. She says that they are really comfortable, and even better, they're red!

After we got back to the cabin, I worked on putting trim around the windows on the front of the cabin and caulking them so that they won't leak like they were prone to do. My carpentry work is not very attractive, but I think it will serve the purpose. Late Monday, we started loading the motor home for our planned departure around noon on Tuesday. We got a lot done on Monday, so I thought we would be twiddling our thumbs on Tuesday morning. That was not the case. We got up early and worked hard all morning completing the loading and getting the place ready for us to be gone five or six weeks. Have you noticed that no job takes less time than you expected?

When we left, we drove for a couple of hours to John and Ferne Lovelace's house northwest of Santa Fe. When we got there, Ferne was still at work, but John welcomed us and guided us to his perfect RV parking spot in his front yard, complete with water and electrical hookups. When Ferne got home from work, we had a tasty dinner, complete with an awesome spinach salad with strawberries and pecans.

John and Ferne are slowly but surely remodeling and restoring an adobe home, part of which may be one hundred years old. John is doing his usual craftsman/artist job, and I'm sure it's going slower than they would like, but I know that it will be a real showplace when it's completed.

John and Ferne are planning on spending at least one weekend at the Taos cabin in the next few weeks, and John may go up next week to do an assessment on some needed repairs at the cabin. I hope they enjoy the cabin as much as we do.

We left the Lovelaces' early this morning and drove to Albuquerque to return our rental car. We turned the car in around 11:00 a.m., and then had lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, one of Lois' favorite chain restaurants. After lunch, we made a stop at Petroglyphs National Monument, which is located on the western outskirts of Albuquerque. The Pueblo Indians in the nearby Rio Grande valley made the short trip to the west to a terrain that contained millions of volcanic boulders. These boulders were relatively soft and provided an ideal palette for carving tribal icons. Petroglyphs NM preserves thousands of these carvings.

Lois and I spent a couple of hours in one area hiking along the side of a mesa and at one point climbing almost to the top. It was a pretty hot day, and when we made it back to the motor home we were bushed. It was worthwhile though. Some of the carvings may be as much as 3,000 years old, and some, but certainly not all, are distinct and vivid. We were also disappointed and distressed to see modern graffiti defacing many of the petroglyphs.

We left Albuquerque around 3:00 o'clock and drove to Gallup, NM, a small city close to the Arizona border which is the gateway to Indian Country. Tonight, we're staying at the first commercial RV Park on our trip, and it's a different experience. It's more crowded than the state parks that we've stayed in, but the facilities are certainly nicer--including free wireless service.

In the morning, we're planning to leave early and head North onto the Navaho Indian reservation. Our first destination will be Canyon de Chelly National Monument, about which Frommer's Arizona Guidebook said:

"It's hard to imagine narrow canyons less than 1,000 feet deep being more spectacular than the Grand Canyon, but in some ways, Canyon de Chelly National Monument is just that."

If it's anywhere near as spectacular as the Grand Canyon, then we certainly should check it out.

After we leave Canyon de Chelly, we'll head west across the Navaho reservation through Tuba City, Cameron Trading Post, and into Grand Canyon NP through the East Gate at Desert View. Tomorrow night, we plan to stay with our dear friends, Larry and Shelly Thompson at Canyon Village. When I worked at Grand Canyon, I lured Larry away from the great state of North Dakota, and he and his wife and daughter have been doing a great job working for the National Park Service ever since.

More later.