Taos and how we arrived

We spent a very long full day here today in Taos, NM which is (was)on my Bucket list. Quite a place, an artists' enclave. Unfortunately the pueblo was closed to visitors today--so too bad for them they missed us!

I purchased a beautiful green pottery bowl from the artist, Mercedes Mercado in her gallery. It called to me--tones of green that are in our library/study at home with impressions of leaves around the bottom and up the sides in burgundy/brown/eggplant tones. And what set it off, pottery intricate beading all along the top rim and around each leaf. It resembles beading on antique silver pieces. I've never seen anything like it. It so called to me that I picked it up. That's a no no in the galleries, but I could not help it. Mercedes came right over to me, "Do you like my work?" How could she tell--only because I was nearly drooling. She told me she worked over two days producing it. Jerry's not as impressed as I am but he knew it would make the rest of the trip with us when he noticed my sighing. The bowl becomes our 41st anniversary bowl!

Other than that I purchased packets of various NM chile, including some from Hatch Valley. I'd had some of it years back from my friend Roberta whose Aunt sent it from Santa FE. The flavor is remarkable unlike any other..

Now yesterday would have been an easy drive from Denver, but noooo. We expected to arrive in Taos about 4:30PM; we did not get here until 10:00PM! CO has become much like CA and more like So. Calif, San Bernardino, etc. Lots of traffic.

For once we were glad to get to NM which is never the state we long to reach on our travels. CO from Denver to NM border is high desert--think NV! So the road to Taos was a nice diversion, into the mts. Everything was going fine. But past Angel Fire, 18 miles from Taos a 4:30PM, we came upon flashing lights & firemen in the road stopping traffic. Volunteer firemen. And there we were stopped.

There had been a fatal automobile vs. motorcycle accident along the road ahead. Guess which one had the fatality? A criminal investigation was underway. They closed all lanes so we sat for what was estimated two hours. Now this was a two lane mt. road. We in our RV bus with tow vehicle could not turn around and go back anywhere unlike the cars which did so. Ahh well, that's the great thing about the motor home--we have all the amenities so we could sit and relax. We were thankful we'd not been involved in this accident. Two hours later there we still sat. The volunteer firemen were trying to make the best of a bad situation too--they wanted to go home. We served them coffee and cookies which they appreciated. Then word came, "another two hours." Well still not much we could do..wait it out. I napped. Then the worst news came, "road will be closed indefinitely." Not good.

A highway patrol officer advised that perhaps they could let us proceed to the top of the mt. where there was a turn out which would afford us the chance to turn around and return back from whence we came. By this time it was pitch dark! They gave Jerry a ride up the hill to check it out. He decided we would proceed there and spend the night--the road would be open in the morning. I was ready to give up on Taos this trip. But we drove slowly up the hill--many switchbacks on this mt. rd. We pulled into the turn out to settle down for the night--it was now 9:10PM. Then the highway patrol officer knocked on our door announcing, "Good news. The road has just been opened, proceed to Taos." Well we were relieved but it still took another 50 minutes on a windy road, max speed barely 15 mph at times. And that is how we arrived 6 hours later than planned. But still safe.

This is a unique picturesque area of NM. Yet we must be in accident land--we saw 3 fender benders today on the pueblo road. For a town with a resident population of 6000 and innumerable tourists during the season, there is a disproportionate number of vehicle accidents. Taos is reportedly ripe with Indian spirits--perhaps the spirits dislike man's rubber wheel horses.