Kam's last day 😕

October 11 – What a beautiful morning!  Sun shining, a chill in the air and well over 100 air

balloons overhead!  It doesn’t get much better than this!

We didn’t have a lot planned today so I made Idaho sausage

 for breakfast and eggs, fruit and we shared a package of freebie Bimbo Crispy Wheels.  Everyone got showered and ready and we left for the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.  Of course we had a stop along the way!  Kam found a place 

that had a huge selection of Talavera pottery and was a nursery called Jackaloupe.  She and I went in and she didn’t find what she was looking for but I found a wool woven table runner.  I went out to show it to Bill and to get my wallet and he came in and took a look around.  I think he would have made some purchases if we had room or need for anything.  What a super place! 

Acoma dancer

The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center was having a week of special events due to the Balloon Fiesta.  We had never been and it was on Kam’s list of places to see so it worked out perfectly.  We were able to watch 2 sessions of Pueblo dances.  The first was from the Acoma Pueblo and the second was from the Zia Pueblo.  The costuming is spectacular.  Many of the costumes have been in the family for 40 – 50 years.  There were also native craftsmen set up around the central performing area.  The building surrounds the performing area which is round (according to customs) in a circular fashion.  The museum is most of the circle, which was very well done and touched on many aspects of tribal history and life.  The rest of the building has convention/meeting space, a restaurant and gift shop.  Of course we checked out all of the merchants but didn’t buy anything and spent a good amount of time in the museum itself. 

The Cultural Center is on native land and next door they own a gas station where the price is about .20 less per gallon.  It was good timing as we needed to fill the car anyway.  Then it was look for a lunch spot that was NOT Mexican food!  On the way however, we side tracked to the original shop where the selection of Talavera was the best.  Kam got her wall planter and I got a soap/lotion dispenser!  We had lunch at a farm to table place, The Grove Café.  It was a bit pricy but the quality was excellent.  Bill and Kam had sandwichs served with sides of bread and butter pickles and kale salad.  I had a salad with goat cheese, beets, almonds and more!

The airport is way out of town on the south edge of town across from the Air Force Base.

Chevy on a Stick

  Kam’s flight was at 4 and she wanted to be there around 3 to re-arrange her bags so she wouldn’t have to check a bag.  She was leaving her planter to our care to get it home safely.  Near the Air Force Base is the “Chevy on a Stick”.  It’s one of those interesting roadside attractions.  There’s no sign or information about who put it there or why but we saw it!  The car is covered with various sizes and colors of ceramic tiles.  We don’t get the “stick” part!

It was a short zip around to the airport, it’s not a huge one but was easy to navigate and there was no back up at the Southwest drop-off.  We said our good-byes and off Kam went her way and we circled back out and crossed town to do some shopping near the RV.  I wanted some New Mexico wine that I like and can’t buy outside of the state.  The best price was at Total Wines so I bought several!  Then we stopped at Bed, Bath and Beyond for coffee and hit Wal-mart last.  It’s a complicated area and we turned around a lot as one Google Map put us behind Bed, Bath and Beyond instead of in front!  We figured Kam was in Houston by the time we got home!

As I put everything away I got out our leftover Mexican food and some leftover stuffed zucchini and eventually we heated it up and NO MORE MEXICAN for a while.  It was a big TV night so we watched Mr. Mercedes, then Bill watched Seals and Blacklist, and we watched Designated Survivor.  I worked on the computer while Bill watched and switched to crocheting during Survivor.  I tried to read a while after but that didn’t last long.  We were in bed by 10:30.