Life is a Highway

Scouting Around

As I've mentioned before, the purpose of this trip is to see what it's like to be away from home for two months and to live here in "The City Different". Part of that is to get to know Santa Fe and its neighborhoods, and look at options for places to live. Yesterday Marie and I stayed around the casita, getting a few things done, and spent A LOT of time on the computer checking out the MLS listings. The real estate market here, like so many other places, is down, and that makes it a serious buyers market.  We bookmarked quite a few places to check out over the next few days. Yesterday evening we went to dinner with Janet at the Tesuque Village Market just outside of town. This is our favorite place to eat out here - same for Janet - and we sat on the wooden porch and had drinks and great food. Janet and I had the Market Burrito, with chicken and chorizo sausage. (Janet went with green chile sauce, I went with Christmas - half green/half red.) Marie had Chile Relleno, which she really enjoyed. Our favorite waitress, Laetitia, recognized us and made sure we sat at one of her tables. She's such a sweetheart - she calls each of us "Love". "What can I get you, Love." "I'll take care of you, Love." As good as the food is, we really look forward to seeing Laetitia each time we visit.

This morning we went to the Santa Fe Farmers Market - the REAL one this time. Saturday is the big Kahuna, and it was really hopping with vendors and customers. The place had a great vibe, a combination of down-to-earth, eccentric, energetic and City Different. We had a lot of fun and bought  cheese, chorizo and home-made tortillas. Next we headed off to the Santa Fe Flea Market. No, not that type of flea market. (OK, maybe a little bit.) Call it the Flea Market Different. Though it's been going downhill for awhile, we always enjoy visiting our favorite vendors selling lavender products, vintage Native American stuff and contemporary jewelry. Today we found out that one of our favorites was no longer there, but met a new guy who had great vintage Native American jewelry. Janet bought a great turquoise and squash blossom pendant and Marie bought a Fred Harvey pinkie ring. At another of our favorites, Janet bought a great heishi necklace. And, of course, Marie bought some lavender Shea butter. Marie's mom loved lavender, and so does Marie. I like it, but a little goes a long way - it can clear a closed space (like a car) in short order.

After picking up our mail, we plugged addresses into the GPS and did drive-by's of several properties. Some of them looked promising, and we passed them on to our real estate agent to check out on Tuesday. After dropping Janet off so she could get ready for the first day of her art class tomorrow - she's taking encaustics - Marie came home and made fish tacos for dinner. Excellent!! After cleaning up, we took a nice evening stroll through Downtown Santa Fe and the Plaza. It was a beautiful evening - slight chill in the air, slight breeze, mostly clear skies.

Tomorrow we'll check out some more properties, run a few errands, then hope to get home so Marie can paint a bit.

Two Busy Days

Yesterday, we got up bright and early and, with our friend Janet, drove to Taos. There are two ways to get there from Santa Fe - the High Road to Taos, very scenic and slow. and the quicker direct route. It's recommended that you take the High Road on the way up in the daylight, so that's what we did. The beginning of the route was brown, and plenty of it, though pretty in that rugged Southwest way.

In the small town of Chimayo, we made two very different stops. First was the El Santuario de Chimayo, an old Catholic church and shrine, said to be the most important Catholic pilgrimmage center in the United States.

Inside the church, where no photos are allowed, is a small room called el pocito (the little well) with a round pit, the source of "holy dirt", believed to have healing powers. In an adjacent prayer room are photos and discarded crutches, leg braces, body braces and casts of those purportedly healed. The photos, as well as an unbelievable number of baby/child shoes of sick and deceased children, is extremely moving. Though not Catholic, I came away impressed by the commitment and devotion these people have for their faith.

In addition to the church, the surrounding grounds are beautiful and quite moving.

Next we stopped at Ortega's Weaving Shop, famous for their rugs, blankets, jackets, runners, etc. Even if you don't buy anything, it's fun to look around at all of the beautiful patterns and colors.

Next we headed off to Taos, first climbing high into the Carson National Forest, then descending a bit into Taos. First, we headed directly to the Taos Pueblo, continuously inhabited for 1,000 years. It reminded us quite a bit of other pueblos we've visited.

Toward the end of our visit, we stopped in one of the residences for a fry bread fix. Janet had hers sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

Next we toured the Millicent Rogers Museum, which had an amazing collection of Navajo rugs and jewelry.

They also had a display of vintage spurs, which reminded me of that great cowboy wisdom, "Never squat with your spurs on." YIKES!!!

We finished off our day in Taos with an amazing meal at El Meze. In between power outages and emergency lighting - very romantic - we enjoyed an appetizer of buffalo short ribs, entree's of trout and melt-in-your-mouth steak, and decadent desserts. This was one of the best meals we've ever had, and I'd highly recommend it if you're ever in Taos.

Just as we entered the restaurant, it began to - brace yourself - RAIN! Some places in New Mexico haven't had rain in over 6 months, so this was truly cause for rejoicing. It rained all the way back to Santa Fe, and when we turned on the news, it was top story #1, 2, 3 and 4.

Today, we slept in after such a busy day, then got up to 42 degree temperatures and snow in the Sangre de Christo mountains.

We took a long, cool walk (with a few snowflakes), then went to look at a couple of condo's in the afternoon - nothing to write home about. We got home late in the afternoon, I had a coaching call, then we ate leftovers - but really good leftovers - with Janet while we watched the hockey game. All in all, two very busy days.

Adios!

Rug Pictures and a Very Interesting Day

First of all, as promised, are pictures of the Navajo rugs we bought. Here are the two small Two Grey Hills rugs we bought at the Toadlena Trading Post:

And here are the rugs we won at the Crownpoint Rug Auction. First is a small Tree of Life rug:

This is a Chinle style rug:

Here is a beautiful Pictorial rug, my personal favorite:

And finally, a multi-patterned Storm rug:

This morning, we - Janet, Marie and I - got up and headed down to the Plaza for breakfast at Tia Sophia's. This was a much-anticipated day, because Tuesday and Saturday are home-made chorizo (Mexican sausage) days at Tia Sophia's. Each of us had the special - scrambled eggs with chorizo, fried potatoes and tortillas. Mighty fine. Next we went to a couple of shops near the plaza, in particular the Chile Shop where we restocked dried green chiles and spices. Next we took Janet to the Farmers Market, where we again restocked, this time with raspberry chile jelly. We then ventured into a few antique and eclectic shops, including one with an amazing collection of vintage electric and acoustic guitars, some worth as much as $100,000! The owner, Eliot Michael, has traveled the world in the music business, and looked the part (in a good way). He was great fun to talk with, having been given guitars by the likes of Keith Richard and Jeff Beck. Oh, and his shop had cool vintage Native American items as well. Talk about eclectic. Next we went into a small shop chock full of beautiful Southwestern rugs, jewelry, spurs, buffalo heads, etc. Had a great time talking with the owner, Randy, again.

After a quick stop for drinks and a snack, we wandered by a real estate office and picked up a couple of brochures for promising houses and condos. We picked one that looked really nice and headed out to scout it out. When we got there, it looked worth looking into, but when we called the agent the best he could do was set up a tour on Thursday. From the parking lot of this condo I looked next door at a really attractive adobe style building and decided to wander over. Janet was game, Marie was a bit skeptical and away we went. So began an amazing couple of hours touring amazing condos in a beautiful building. The full time on-site manager/agent was incredibly helpful and informative, and to say we fell in love is an understatement. The real estate market is so depressed that these condos were actually within our reach. Nice to know that our dream of owning out here might actually have a chance. We left excited and hopeful.

Janet's casita was ready this afternoon, so after watching the hockey game over Upper Crust pizza (with chorizo, naturally), she headed there to settle in. Tomorrow we'll be driving the High Road to Taos and spending the day there with Janet. We've always wanted to go, and are really looking forward to it.

Back "Home" Again

Yesterday morning we bid a tearful farewell to Marc, Jerene and Kelly Place. It's always hard to leave our favorite place in the Southwest. At least we got to take 3 pounds of the famous Kelly Place granola and some of Marc's blue corn pancakes back to Santa Fe with us. On the way out, we stopped by the live archaeological dig near the wash.

They've found pottery sherds, bones and other evidence of Ancestral Puebloan presence during the 15th century. The dig is a popular part of Elderhostel programs at Kelly Place, as well visits from school groups. Here's a sample of some recent findings.

Finally, we had to climb back into our orange box - that's Sleeping Ute Mountain in the background - and hit the road. 
On our way to Durango, we had a great view of the snow still in place on the San Juan Mountains.

We took a new route back to Santa Fe, passing through Durango, Bayfield and Pagosa Springs in Colorado, and Chama and Tiera Amarilla in New Mexico. We arrived back in Santa Fe in time for dinner.

Today Marie had another yoga session and I took the Element in for its first oil change, further proof of how expensive Santa Fe is. $49 for an oil and filter change? Granted, I took it to the Honda dealer, but that's at least 50% more than I pay at my local dealer in Maryland. Guess that's what lack of competition does. Later in the afternoon our friend, Janet Olsen, arrived after driving cross country from Maryland. Janet always waits until the Capitals have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, then hits the road for the Southwest. So if Janet's here in May, the Caps aren't winning the Cup this year. We celebrated Janet's arrival with mojitos, margaritas and Marie's drunken pork on gorditas. Lots of good talk and laughter. It's great to have Janet here for the next few weeks.

I know I promised photos of the Navajo rugs we bought at Crownpoint, but I didn't get a chance to photograph them before dark. Tomorrow's another day ...

Rugs, Rugs, Rugs

On Thursday we left Santa Fe and drove up to Kelly Place in Cortez, CO for a visit. It's about a 5 hour drive nonstop, but, of course, we stopped. We grabbed breakfast, checked our P.O. Box and headed for Albuquerque. There we stopped at Target and Costco for a few things, then headed west toward Gallup, NM, then north toward Cortez. On the way to Cortez we stopped at the Toadlena Trading Post near Two Grey Hills, NM. Toadlena is still run as a traditional trading post, with food staples, household goods, etc for the Navajos who live in the vicinity (and vicinity out here can mean a long way). We talked to the owner's fiance about what they stocked, and she replied, "Only what the Navajo's will buy." They attempted to stock fresh produce, like broccoli, but said the Navajo's wouldn't touch it, so pretty much everything is canned goods.

 
 
The trading post is part business and mostly a labor of love for the owner, Mark Winter. Mark has long been a collector of vintage Navajo rugs, and was troubled by the fact that, unlike collectible art, there was no way to link the weaver to the rug. He leased and totally refurbished the trading post and started asking lots of questions about family trees, styles of weaving, etc. The area around Two Grey Hills is known for a style of weaving that uses natural colors - if it's not on a sheep they don't use it - and exceptional workmanship. (Like most Navajo rug styles, the name is based on the region, so these are known as Two Grey Hills rugs.) Mark had noticed a decline in the quality of the weaving, much of it based on the poor treatment - and prices - that weavers got from traders, galleries, etc. It's not unusual for a large Navajo rug to be on the loom for a year, and even smaller ones take months to make. And traders were typically offering only a few hundred dollars for theeir rugs. So Mark decided to challenge the weavers to make finer rugs, with the promise he would pay them more for them. If they brought in a rug and asked him for $500 for it, he'd take it and say, "I'd rather pay you $1,000 for a rug - make me a bigger/better one next time. True to his word, he paid them premium price for well-made rugs, and the quality of Two Grey Hills rugs increased tremendously. Now, the best Two Grey Hills weavers will only deal with Mark, telling the other traders that they had their chance but Mark treats them fairly.

On one side of the actual trading post is a museum where Mark displays a rotating selection of rugs, each "show" representing one family tree. There are rugs going back to the 19th century, and the workmanship is truly astonishing. For those of you not acquainted with Navajo weavings, they are identical on both sides, unlike most weavings that have a "good" and a "bad" side. Not sure how they do it, but the workmanship is the same on both sides.

 
On the other side of the trading post are several rooms displaying rugs for sale. after much deliberation, Marie and I bought two very small rugs. We really enjoyed our time talking with Mark and Linda, and highly recommend a visit to Toadlena, both for the rugs and the history.

 
Yesterday we settled in and enjoyed Kelly Place - I took a hike and Marie painted. Last night, as planned, we kidnapped Jerene, one of the owners of Kelly Place, and took her to the Crownpoint Rug Auction. A great time was had by all, and yes, we all bought rugs. (More about that in the next blog after we return to Santa Fe.) Today we're just hanging around and enjoying the Kelly Place courtyard, replete with colorful birds and cats chasing - but not catching - them. Tonight we hope to eat dinner with Marc and Jerene, and tomorrow we leave for Santa Fe.