The Land of Enchantment

Today finds us in Santa Fe New Mexico. We left Colorado Springs KOA a little later than I had planned on Friday, but still made it to Santa Fe about 5 pm. It was an uneventful trip over the Raton Pass and on the Santa Fe Trail.

We had some fuse problems upon doing light checks before pulling out and that took a few minutes to troubleshoot and fix. We had about 6 inches of rain in couple of days that we were there, reminding me of Monsoon Season once again. We are perched high upon a hill just outside of Santa Fe.

The view is gorgeous, and people are friendly, mostly our age group doing some fall traveling.

Saturday we went into the city and drove right downtown to the Santa Fe Plaza. Very busy narrow streets and no parking available directed us to the State Capitol Parking lot. We spent a few minutes having a bite of lunch and listened to a group of people protesting against the State's Employee Policies.
It just goes to show that there's lots of people everywhere that are very dissatisfied with the Government today. To just happen upon a demonstration on a Saturday is not usually a common thing. We left there before everyone else. Stopped and poked around in a gift shop and didn't find any bargains, but found quite a few items made in Pakistan and China that really turned me off. I was disappointed in not finding any more genuine Native American baskets and crafts. I'm hoping to go into the Navajo Nation and find some home made items later this week. We spent most of Sunday driving in the hills and the National Forest north of here.

The fires earlier this summer from Arizona played havoc with the forests and many roads and areas are closed.

There were lots of signs warning of Elk and Deer, but we only saw one deer cross the road in front of us all day.

We crossed the Rio Grande River and looked across the Rio Grande Valley not far from Las Alamos. We stopped at an information center at Jemez Springs, an Indian Community. They had a model of a Summer adobe home and dome oven.
Upon completing the circle of travel, we found ourselves back to Interstate 25 not far from Albuquerque. Pointed the nose back east for the drive home. About 30 miles we stopped at a rest/info center and I picked up some brochures on Grants and Gallup, which will be our next stop. When we got back up to speed, a large pickup loaded with hay grass bales came along side of us.

I said something about that not being tied down and not very safe, well, no more than getting that out...they pulled on ahead, a big bale flew out and landed in fron ouf us. A bunch of the hay flew up across our windshield and we skidded to a stop along the shoulder. NOT FUN....VERY SCARY! DH did a heck of a job keeping us from wrecking.I remember while skidding, all I said was "o.k,o.k.o.k!" and then we were stopped. So scared. I was shaking soo bad. KayCee got thrown around a little, but she was fine. Being the nice person he is, he got out and ran across and got the bale off the passing lane so that some poor other person wouldn't hit it. The pick up had stopped quite a ways ahead.....I being not so nice....and really shook up, got in the drivers seat, let DH get in.....roared forward, and chewed his ASS! Royally. He acted like he didn't even know what the problem was,probably just worried about losing one bale, and luckily we escaped any damage to the vehicle or ourselves. I did call the State Patrol and report it, but without damage they weren't going to pursue it. I feel sorry for the next person that's behind him one day and not so lucky! Be very aware folks...there's all kinds of idiots out there that do very dumb inconsiderate things....that could have been the end of us! I am very thankful to be here today to carry on our journey and write yet another long and boring post! Have a great Monday...we'll see ya down the road.