Saturday, April 27-Monday, April 29

We traveled from the Gila Wilderness to Santa Fe on yet another curviest road in the world. This route took us over Emory Pass.

We arrived in Santa Fe late afternoon.

We stayed at a lovely hotel in a residential area right outside of town-Casa Culinaria. It looks like a private home and is full of art and antiques. There was no one around; just an envelope with our name and a code to our room taped to the gate. We finally saw the owner on the day we were leaving.

Santa Fe is a beautiful town; all the architecture is pueblo style with no exception.

There is no bad food in Santa Fe. The first night, we went to a place in town and had a gourmet meal at a very reasonable price. We asked our server, whose name is Polly, where she liked to eat, and she recommended a local place with live music. More about that in a minute.

On Saturday, we had an excellent breakfast, found a laundromat, and re-supplied at a local co-op. So far the co-ops we visited have honored our Belfast membership. At the one in Silver City, one of the staff members used to work at the Blue Hill Co-op! We’ve met several people from Maine-we’ve discovered that the world is not that big if you take the time to talk to people along the way.

In the afternoon, we went to the Georgia O’Keefe museum. I saw an exhibit of her work in DC in the 80s and have loved her art since then. This was the reason I wanted to come to Santa Fe.

This piece is called Rooted in Place and is one of my favorites from this exhibit. Andy and I stayed in the museum for a long time-some of her paintings brought me to tears and I was happily exhausted when we left. We found a local art fair and talked to some of the artists-there are several very high-end galleries in town, but we enjoyed the local stuff the most.

On Saturday night, we went to Tiny’s, the place that Polly recommended.

Everyone here seemed to know each other, and there were all kinds of people here.

This is Polly, who came in shortly after us. It’s not a very good picture of her…sorry Polly! She saw us and came over to talk. We learned that most of the people are musicians and have grown up together. There was a house band playing cover songs, and after a while some of them left the stage and some others got up and played a blues set. This rotation of talent went on and on-someone passed a tip jar and the music kept going.

The food was delicious! Polly is a drummer and song writer, and she was going to take a turn-I could have sat there all night, but we need to get an early start tomorrow, so…Santa Fe is unique and interesting. I like the architecture and the art, but it was Tiny’s that made me love it.

We drove by the St John’s campus and took a photo for Barrett.

Our next stop was one of my bucket list places; the Ghost Ranch just a few miles north in Abiquiu, NM. Georgia O’Keefe lived near here in a house that is not open to the public, and she stayed here often. Many of her paintings depict the landscape here. We saw her interviewed in a film and she said that she had traveled around the world more than once but had never found a place better than this. I can understand why. The ranch is owned by the Presbyterian Church and is a center for spiritual growth and renewal.

We didn’t get to stay long but have decided to come back some day and either stay in one of the guest cottages or camp nearby.

On Monday morning we left for Mesa Verde. At some point I realized I had left our little mascot, Buzz Roadkill, on the sign at the entrance to Ghost Ranch. He’s just a little toy from a Christmas cracker, but has traveled with us for many a mile, and we both felt sad…if he had to be left somewhere, the Ghost Ranch seems like a fitting place.

Today is Sunday, May 5. We have been off the grid for a while now and I’m behind on my posts. We’re staying in a hotel in Moab, Utah tonight and I will try and write a couple more posts.