Our drive into Taos was one of the straightest roads that we've ever been on. Even I-5, despite its great length, has plenty of light twists and turns. I think we took two right angled turns on I-159 and that was it for two hours of driving. Dad could have pushed a stick through the steering wheel and taken a nap.
Taos has the look and feel of a ski town. There are lots of small shops and lots of local restaurants. We stopped in at Taos Mesa Brewing for pizza and beer after a long day of dune hiking and driving. We were pleasantly surprised by the variety of beers available, and doubly happy that they offered 5 oz pours. We are always hoping to try as many options as possible, and that goes downhill quickly when you're dealing with 16 oz of each beer.
Our cold front friend continued to follow us, and the nighttime temperatures were dipping into the low teens. We haven't seen any rain since our time in Sedona, and the snow that we've seen looks like it fell when we got our first snow in Santa Fe. Never-the-less, it is very chilly at night, and we've had to be very careful with water. We made the mistake of leaving our water hose hooked up our first night in the Grand Canyon and it was frozen solid the next day. A lot of the water pumps at the RV sites we've stayed at have been frozen as well, and they ask you not to leave them on. We have gotten pretty good at getting all of our water needs from jugs. The cold nighttime temps mean that we are also going through a lot of propane to stay warm.
Taos was a working stop over, so Dad wasn't present for most of the activities. On Monday Remy and Mom went to visit the pueblo village where many of the native people still practice the same building, cooking, and production processes that their ancestors did. Mom provided a run down of the house building process:
"They build all their houses out of earth, straw, and water .they make bricks out of the material. The bricks are stacked and then the face is smoothed over with the same mixture. The outside layer acts as a shield and takes the brunt of the force from the elements. The houses are resurfaced once a year after heavy rains."
Mom and Dad both did their best to wrap up all work projects by Tuesday evening so that we could enjoy at our next stop without any distractions. We stayed caffeinated thanks to Coffee Apothecary down the street from our RV park. They had excellent espresso and they opened at 7am. Many of the coffee places we've tried have opened at 7:30 or later. Blasphemy. Luckily the daytime temperatures have started to rise quite a bit, so we can comfortably do activities outside.
Comments