Santa Fe 2017

Back on the road again, finally. We are in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the month of August. The RV park, Santa Fe Skies, is wonderful. We have a beautiful site with a pretty little patio and a cute tree full of birds. It is the perfect place for coffee in the morning and wine in the evening.  The park has unique little sculptures all around the sites ( appropriate because Santa Fe is an art community, after all).  There is a 0.75 mile walking trail around the outside fence that is just perfect for walking Jax.  The sites are well spaced, not crowded up, and the views are nice with stunning sunsets and sunrises over the mountains in the distance. The temperatures are heavenly, 70s and 80s during the days and 50s and 60s at night.

High Road to Taos
Having heard about the interesting things to do on the High Road to Taos, we headed out for a day trip.  Our first stop was Nambe Falls and Lake in the Sangre de Cristo Mts.  To see the Falls, you have a choice of two trails.  One goes to the bottom of the Falls, but you have to get wet crossing the river in a few places. We weren't prepared for that, so we chose the second trail that climbs a quarter of a mile to a scenic overlook.  It was a nice hike, a little scary near the top where the trail got narrow and steep (no handrails ), but it was a beautiful view when we got there.

El Santuario De Chimayo

El Santuario de Chimayo was our next stop.  This small shrine is known for its healing earth.  It is considered to be the Lourdes of America, attracting over 300,000 thousand pilgrims a year.  It is one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage centers in the U.S.  Before the Spanish conquest of territory, the Pueblo Indians inhabited this area and believed that healing spirits were to be found in the earth at this site. People still believe it today. The walls of the rooms in the chapel are covered with expressions of thanks for the cures. There are discarded canes, crutches, braces, and wheelchairs, as well as pictures.  In one small room is a small pit of holy dirt that is said to have curative powers.

From Chimayo we drove to a small town along the ridge of the mountains called Truchas.  It is a small artist colony that is popular, especially during the Artist Tour that is held twice a year.  On the way to our next stop we found the Ortegas Weaving Workshop and Gallery.  Finally, we found our lunch spot.  I had read about this place, The Sugar Nymphs Café, in some brochures.  It is in the town of Pensacos.  They serve the BEST hamburger ever. But no fries. You get either soup or salad with it. The salad was fresh and yummy, too.

Five and a half hours after we left the RV we finally arrived in Taos. It was already 2:15 and we were tired.  I think we planned too much for one day.  We only got to tour about half of the Taos arts district before we gave out and headed back.  The way back was much shorter.  We drove the Low Road this time.  It follows the Rio Grande River and was a pretty drive, too. But no stops. We will have to go back to Taos to see the rest of it, as well as the Taos Pueblo and the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.

Large crowd for evening music at the Plaza.

Another day, another adventure.

May 11, 2017

Our new favorite restaurant in Tulsa.

Fried shrimp and red beans and rice

Fried crawfish and crawfish etouffee

May 9, 2017

Squirrel watching out the back window.

Our morning walk on the west side of the Arkansas River, with a separate walking and  biking trails. Coming at the end of the year on the east side of the river is a fantastic new 100-acre park system, connecting the east and west side by 2 land bridges (http://www.tulsaworld.com/specialprojects/gatheringplace/).  This park, when it is completed, is believed to be the largest gift to a public park in U.S. history at $350 million.  The funds were donated by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. The park will include a lodge, boathouse, several playgrounds, bike and walking trails, gardens and fishing piers.  Pretty impressive for Tulsa, OK.

Lunch at the Blue Rose on the Arkansas River.

May 5, 2017  Friday was such a beautiful day in Tulsa.  We decided to go to the First Friday Art Walk in the downtown Brady District.  Hey, Mambo is a cute little restaurant where we could sit on their patio, have supper and watch the people walking by. We had a huge pizza (their specialty), but could only eat half of it. Then we wandered through some of the small galleries, listened to sidewalk performers, searched the sidewalk exhibits, and enjoyed the eclectic mix of people that were there.  It was a really nice evening.

May 4, 2017

This beautiful mansion was home to another Phillips (Phillips 66 Co) family member, Waite Phillips.  In 1937 it was donated to the City of Tulsa for a museum.  The building is much more ornate than the Gilcrease Museum that we saw yesterday.  It sits on 23 acres and has beautifully landscaped formal gardens, complete with 2 water gardens, a rose garden, sculptures, and a tempietto (a small temple-like building).  There is another branch of this museum downtown.  We plan to visit it when we do the First Friday Art Walk tomorrow evening.

May 2, 2017  We took another short trip, this time to Tulsa, OK for a week.  Today was chilly and rainy, so we decided to go to the Gilcrease Museum where we could stay warm and dry. 

This world famous museum has the world's largest collection of art and artifacts of the American West.  It has a unique collection of Native American art, as well as clothing, household items, weapons, and other artifacts.  There are also old documents and items from early United States History. My favorite was the "live mask" of Abraham Lincoln's face and hands.  It could have been in the Smithsonian, but here it is in Tulsa, Ok!  It is a very extensive collection of 350,000 items with only about 4 per cent out on rotation.  Because of this, they are planning an addition in two years. We had a private tour with an excellent guide to show us around.  One fun fact is that we saw some of the artists whose prints we have in our small collection.

Gilcrease Home

Mar 10, 2017

We picked up our new camper, the Road Yacht.

Mar 28

Maiden voyage was a short trip to Bartlesville, Ok.  We spent one morning at the Price Tower.  It is the only tall, vertical building that Frank Lloyd Wright designed.  It was designed with a tree theme.  The copper has aged to a tree green and it has a central "trunk" instead of the 4-corner pillar design of most tall structures.  The interior is classic FLW, all angles, built-in furniture, minimalist décor. Even the 4 central (tiny) elevators cars are triangles and will hold only 3-4 people at a time. The history of the building of this tower is fascinating.  If you are ever passing through Bartlesville, take the time to take a tour of this unique building.

Saturday, Kay joined us and we went to Wooloroc.  This ranch ( now a museum) belonged to Frank Phillips who founded the Phillips 66 Petroleum Co.  Phillips was a very eccentric, very rich oilman and his ranch and collections are evidence of that.  We enjoyed listening to one of the docents share stories of some of the parties that Phillips hosted at the ranch.  The museum is mainly Western and Native American art and artifacts.  It is a very large museum and we spent half of one day there.  We would like to go back in the summer when everything is in bloom on the grounds.  It is a beautiful setting.