Great, we didn’t have to get up especially early. Bill is always up early but I slept til 8. The reward was I made sausage gravy and biscuits. We both enjoyed that. Have enough sausage left for another batch. After showers we left about 9:30 for Santa Fe. We actually are not as far as Bill thought we were. We were right downtown in the Old City in about 20 minutes and it’s an easy drive.
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| Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi |
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| San Miguel Mission |
Once parked we headed right for the plaza in the old town. We decided to go on a bus tour. We got to see parts of Santa Fe that we would never have gone to. The art district where most of the galleries are is where the original adobe homes were and gradually artists’ homes, then their galleries. The interesting thing for us was all of the outdoor art at many of them. Lots of bronze statues of western animals, Indians, abstracts and yard art. There was a bronze Conestoga wagon with the trail boss out in front and a pioneer woman on foot behind. Then we saw all of the old churches from the outside, new building developments that have to maintain the same adobe style and the terra cotta color. The new homes cost 1 to 5 million, but the view is great! We also learned that the pinon trees which produce those expensive pine nuts only produce every 6 years, explaining why they are so pricey. Another thing we learned was the juniper trees are used to make both gin and turpentine, explaining why gin tastes like turpentine. After the tour we did some shopping from the street vendors. Along the sidewalk in front of the original Spanish governor’s palace on the plaza are native Americans who make and sell their jewelry. They just lay out a blanket and display their wares. Most only take cash and we forgot and only had about $100 between us. Picked up some nice Christmas gifts. We had lunch from a vendor cart on the plaza. It was a good deal for a good meal. $10 for 2 chicken fajitas. They were big with plenty of toppings. We just sat on a park bench and ate and enjoyed it more than an expensive lunch inside someplace. Then we went in some regular shops on the plaza and one was going out of business so we did a lot of Christmas shopping there. By now our parking time was about run out so we bought a bag of fresh made caramel corn for the road and headed to the truck. We stopped at the NM Visitor Center which is right beside the San Miguel Mission. I got directions to the Camel Rock which is on our way home. Then we went into the Mission which is the oldest church structure in the US dating to circa 1610. The altar is beautiful, but had been repainted since in the late 1800’s someone painted the altar wall with 6 coats of turquoise house paint. Later someone repainted the original wall from a photo. It is still an active church.
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| Camel Rock |
On the way home we did find the Camel Rock, and it does look like a camel. It’s actually right along the road but unless you’re looking for it you wouldn’t really pay attention. We stopped and took some photos then came back to the RV.
It was about 3 when we got home and Bill washed the truck and I vacuumed the RV. Boy, Xena and Molly leave a lot of hair. I’m used to Bill vacuuming several times a week at home and we haven’t been that diligent. I also did a small load of wash. We both wrote some postcards and Bill had some calls to return and I discovered a charge on my stolen M & I credit card and spent my time on the phone with them, then with the St. Louis police department. That was a fiasco. I called the number the police gave us at the time we did the original report and after several calls back from various departments, the last number I was given to call was the same one I started with. I was just trying to get the second charge added to the report so now they said to call the number and ask for a detective. Yeah, like they’re going to spend any time on my two charges. Will call tomorrow as I got burned out on the phoning today. We had our leftover venison burgers and hot links with some steamed cabbage with butter, lemon and horseradish sauce. Tried to do some posting but this WIFI is no better today than it was yesterday. I watched “House” and we watched “Castle”. Will try one more time to get a good signal and if not will read a while.
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