Before I start telling of today's events I need to pick-up a detail I missed yesterday. While here I have heard tales of all sorts of critters inhabiting the Chama area. The first seemed a real whopper - there are Elk in the Chama area. A likely story I thought until I saw an Elk cow and calf standing under an Aspen tree in close proximity to Lobato Trestle about 5 miles up the track from Chama.
When we came back this time there were signs in the RV Park, which handles a couple hundred campers. It sets in a large cottonwood grove right next to the Rio Chama. Anyway, these signs advised campers to remove bird feeders at night because of bears. What a whopper, a likely story I thought until we saw one crossing the highway less than two miles up the highway from Chama. This thing was a HUGE Black Bear, well it was big, It came across the road and trotted off down the slope at a place called "The Narrows" where the train goes through a narrow heavily forested canyon.
Today wasn't as exciting but we did enjoy the time together and our time in Santa Fe. We had three objectives the first of which was to buy one object, a hat. The second was to find Bullseye glass and the third to find some red peppers. In the process we were not going to buy anything but lunch, the hat and the peppers.
We had a very light breakfast before leaving and arrived at noon. After parking tie car near Governor's Square G we went to the store to purchase the hat. Got the hat and a new T-Shirt for G - $35. Lunch was good and cost $47, but it was good. We crossed the square and in the process heard beautiful music, look at the video to see and hear these wonderfully gifted performers:
G then suggested we look at the stores across the square. One had all sorts of leather things, I was thrilled at the thought of looking at then it was called "Outland." They had very nice clothing and hats. I found a nice hat and had to have it - $99. I felt like a social butterfly shopping for the first ball.
We went to Bullseye Glass. It is located in the corner an old, threadbare and ratty (this a relative term but it does describe most of Santa Fe which was founded in the 1500's so what do you expect?). commercial area of small businesses. We went in and talked with them, nothing to buy so we weren't out anything - you didn't think we go go somewhere without wasting money did you ? Perhaps you weren't wrong, but is was only $40 so that doesn't count, does it?
We figured finding the red peppers was a certain loss so we started back to Chama.
Santa Fe is a tangle of roads lacking any coherent plan or pattern. They evolved from over 400 years of progressive construction including not only monumental structures as the Cathedral and La Fonda but also a hodge-podge of tiny adobe homes and out buildings. The place was not designed for cars but people on foot and donkeys would be right at home. Through this some major streets were carefully constructed but the flow of traffic is difficult.
As we navigated through this G saw a place on one corner with red-peppers. Too late - we missed it. Then the challenge of how to turn around started. This put the Garmin GPS into apoplexy. Up one street down another. Into an street and a dead end. Finally back onto the main road and there it was. A fast right turn and a u-turn and we stopped. A fine fellow who spoke broken English helped us buy a nice string of red peppers and a small bunch of suspicious peppers all for $35. Yes, his name really is Pedro."
We drove back to Chama happily congratulating ourselves on fulfilling our commitments while not spending more than $300.
My credit card is a mess...
