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Getting back to normal...
Oct. 9th, 2005 05:51 pmThat will take more than just today, but I did kick off the process. In the meantime, let me tell you about Taos...
The physical process of getting to Taos is more time-consuming than getting to Pagosa Springs, unless you fly in. (I seem to recall - though I may be mistaken - that United Airlines, which serves Durango, also flies into Taos, which gives that community a leg up on Pagosa, because our airport only handles general aviation.) If you're traveling by car, however, it's a pretty long drive from "civilization" (i.e., Albuquerque).
Along the way, Galina and I spied some signs for some wineries, which struck us as a curious thing. Wineries are found in places like California, New York, or even the Pacific Northwest, but... New Mexico? We stopped at one place (vinác, offering their wares from what amounted to a showroom on the highway) and sampled their wine, which didn't suit us, and then drove off the main highway a couple of miles to a winery - complete with vines and presses and barrels - called La Chiripada (I am told the word means 'an unexpected, wonderful discovery,' though it sounds a lot like 'черепаха' in Russian, meaning 'turtle'). There, we ran across some really nice wines, and it took some self-control not to walk away with a case (we bought 4 bottles).
As we got closer to Taos, the highway turned a corner and provided a wall-to-wall view of northern New Mexico that was quite different from the red cliffs and weathered sandstone along Highway 84. Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that, in what might be considered the "foreground" of the view, the ground fell away from a uniformly flat terrain, forming what appeared at first to be a huge mesa that I was looking at from a slight elevation. However, as my eye alternated between the road and tracing the cliff toward the east, it became clear that there was a canyon out there, carved through the landscape. I found out later it was a canyon carved by the Rio Grande, which starts its course not far from here and ends up defining the border between the U.S. and Mexico before emptying into the Gulf.
To the east of the canyon, Galina and I could see a lot of buildings spread out over a fairly large chunk of real estate, and we wondered if that was Taos. It wasn't. Taos isn't nestled in the mountains like, say, Ouray is in Colorado. Taos is situated pretty much in the middle of an open space, and although it is surrounded by mountains and ski resorts, it would appear these are located at some distance from town. Based on the tourist propaganda we picked up, the town is big on attracting visitors to town, with art and food as big draws. There are numerous galleries near the center of the city, and we decided to eat a lunch/dinner at a place called Ogilvies, located on the town square.
After eating and taking a stroll around the plaza, Galina and I piled back into our car for the trip home along Highway 64, which would take us through the Kit Carson National Forest and eventually merge with Highway 84 at Tierra Amarilla, a mere 63 miles or so from downtown Pagosa. Along the way, the highway crosses the Rio Grande gorge somewhere around 700 feet above the level of the river. Although the light was fading by this time, the view was pretty spectacular.
We stepped up our pace along the highway, as we could see heavy weather coming in from the west, obscuring the sun. Neither the failing light nor our speed prevented us from noticing how pretty the forest is, with the aspens turning from green to yellow among the ever-present pines. As we drove, the clouds blocked out everything behind them, even with illumination provided by lightning.
Eventually, the road started to wind down toward Tierra Amarilla, and that was when we hit the rain, which pretty much stayed with us all the way home.
Today has been a fairly peaceful day. Among other accomplishments, I cleaned the roasted green chili peppers we bought yesterday (something I did not do the first time I bought such fare, to my dismay) and piled the square table in my office with about 9 cubic feet of books whose absence I don't think I will feel very acutely in the future. Galina suggests I might want to go through the pile one more time to see if any are sellable on eBay; I don't know if it's worth the trouble.
The dim outline of what to do to improve my life appeared to me during an afternoon nap; I hope to flesh out this outline in the days to come.
Cheers...
The physical process of getting to Taos is more time-consuming than getting to Pagosa Springs, unless you fly in. (I seem to recall - though I may be mistaken - that United Airlines, which serves Durango, also flies into Taos, which gives that community a leg up on Pagosa, because our airport only handles general aviation.) If you're traveling by car, however, it's a pretty long drive from "civilization" (i.e., Albuquerque).
Along the way, Galina and I spied some signs for some wineries, which struck us as a curious thing. Wineries are found in places like California, New York, or even the Pacific Northwest, but... New Mexico? We stopped at one place (vinác, offering their wares from what amounted to a showroom on the highway) and sampled their wine, which didn't suit us, and then drove off the main highway a couple of miles to a winery - complete with vines and presses and barrels - called La Chiripada (I am told the word means 'an unexpected, wonderful discovery,' though it sounds a lot like 'черепаха' in Russian, meaning 'turtle'). There, we ran across some really nice wines, and it took some self-control not to walk away with a case (we bought 4 bottles).
As we got closer to Taos, the highway turned a corner and provided a wall-to-wall view of northern New Mexico that was quite different from the red cliffs and weathered sandstone along Highway 84. Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that, in what might be considered the "foreground" of the view, the ground fell away from a uniformly flat terrain, forming what appeared at first to be a huge mesa that I was looking at from a slight elevation. However, as my eye alternated between the road and tracing the cliff toward the east, it became clear that there was a canyon out there, carved through the landscape. I found out later it was a canyon carved by the Rio Grande, which starts its course not far from here and ends up defining the border between the U.S. and Mexico before emptying into the Gulf.
To the east of the canyon, Galina and I could see a lot of buildings spread out over a fairly large chunk of real estate, and we wondered if that was Taos. It wasn't. Taos isn't nestled in the mountains like, say, Ouray is in Colorado. Taos is situated pretty much in the middle of an open space, and although it is surrounded by mountains and ski resorts, it would appear these are located at some distance from town. Based on the tourist propaganda we picked up, the town is big on attracting visitors to town, with art and food as big draws. There are numerous galleries near the center of the city, and we decided to eat a lunch/dinner at a place called Ogilvies, located on the town square.
After eating and taking a stroll around the plaza, Galina and I piled back into our car for the trip home along Highway 64, which would take us through the Kit Carson National Forest and eventually merge with Highway 84 at Tierra Amarilla, a mere 63 miles or so from downtown Pagosa. Along the way, the highway crosses the Rio Grande gorge somewhere around 700 feet above the level of the river. Although the light was fading by this time, the view was pretty spectacular.
We stepped up our pace along the highway, as we could see heavy weather coming in from the west, obscuring the sun. Neither the failing light nor our speed prevented us from noticing how pretty the forest is, with the aspens turning from green to yellow among the ever-present pines. As we drove, the clouds blocked out everything behind them, even with illumination provided by lightning.
Eventually, the road started to wind down toward Tierra Amarilla, and that was when we hit the rain, which pretty much stayed with us all the way home.
Today has been a fairly peaceful day. Among other accomplishments, I cleaned the roasted green chili peppers we bought yesterday (something I did not do the first time I bought such fare, to my dismay) and piled the square table in my office with about 9 cubic feet of books whose absence I don't think I will feel very acutely in the future. Galina suggests I might want to go through the pile one more time to see if any are sellable on eBay; I don't know if it's worth the trouble.
The dim outline of what to do to improve my life appeared to me during an afternoon nap; I hope to flesh out this outline in the days to come.
Cheers...
