We enjoyed a very interesting tour of the city, in a tractor/train; our guide obviously had a great love of his city, which always makes for a good trip because they fill lots of little bits in. Santa Fe is also a very large and important Art Centre mainly because of the beautiful scenery and the south western sunlight! There are dozen’s of galleries I saw some wonderful Bronze works of art - one of an Indian lady had a patch worked quilt bronzed as her cloak/cape it was sooooooo beautiful. We all know Santa Fe from the silver screen with cowboys, gamblers and lovely ladies along the “Santa Fe Trail” which was more of a trade route then for pioneers This wonderful bronze wagon with horses and driver, In front a young boy waves a welcome along with the trail boss, this is to mark the end of the trail which lasted 60 years until the rail road arrived. After the tour we went to see the “Palace of Governors” this adobe building was built in 1610 and is considered one of the oldest buildings in the United States, it was the seat of government under Spanish, Pueblo Indian, Mexican and the US territorial rule until 1909 it then became the state history museum, the building was very impressive and the museum it self was extremely interesting. Next we visited the San Miguel Mission Church another very old building which has been in constant use since 1610 when it was built, the bell on display was cast in Spain in 1356 but the most amazing feature is the staircase which has no nails or screws the wood was shaped using water when the carpenter had finished he left without payment for his very skilled work, the hand rail was added at a later date because the choir of girls were nervous climbing up to their seats. The staircase is quite something to see.
The Staircase!!
Our second day in Santa Fe we spent at the Museum of International Folk Art which I think is one of the most impressive museums I have been to, well we were in there ALL day, there is a collection from “The Girard Foundation” which consists of over 106,000 items !!! Made up into scenes of market places, villages and docksides from all over the world over 100 countries. It was amazing. Santa Fe was a wonderful experience. From Santa Fe we did some scenic driving to get to Taos which is an old Pueblo Indian village, still with a few people living full time, lots of people spend their days there making and selling their beautiful craft and art work, also home made bread and pies yummie!!
The End of the Sante Fe trail - the bronze statue is amazing to see!!
we are now travelling along the places I covered in June and July - seeing them at a different time in the year is very good, I am also able to seeing a little more as it is not so hot and so walking around is much more enjoyable, we had to go back to the garage in Farmington for Les, he was expecting some parts these had not arrived so we pushed on once again covering the San Juan Skyway which is so beautiful it’s a joy to repeat. I called into the visitors centre in Blanding to see the friends I made at the Quilt festival in June I was lucky enough to meet up with Norma, she was very pleased to see me made me feel very welcome and special I shall never forget that place. At Newspaper rock we meet 2 guys “Mike and J” on motor bikes they were so interested in our trucks we thought they would stay the night!! They were on their way to a “Folk Festival” in Moab which we decided to go to after we had been to Needles National Park I think this is one of the very best from a whole area of very good, the rock formation and colour is brilliant I felt as much overcome as I did in June. This part of the United States is truly magnificent also with lots of interesting history. Arriving in Moab we were able to find good parking for the day and stay the night, we were then able to enjoy 2 wonderful days, with glorious weather, fabulous music and great company, these were 2 very interesting guys who loved to talk and I have to say listen to our stories as well, we are hoping to be able meet them again next year in Alaska which would be great fun We then moved on to Arches National Park once more the shape, the colour, the splendour of the rocks takes your breath away - us Brits can only look in wonder all this beauty made from wind, rain, ice and sun. We had to go back to Moab and try to book our storage for the trucks over the phone!! Well what a laugh how frustrating that, these kind of things are so different here some times it’s very hard for us to understand, over the phone adds a further dimension, we managed after many phone calls a visit to the visitors centre for help and advice on said phone calls, then we had to get a money order because this company did not take credit cardL we went to a bank but they would charge us 15$ so they sent us to the post office where it was only1.5$ the poor guy in there retired after we had left!! He had, after lots of questions etc. made the order out for the wrong amount so we had to start all over again; thank goodness I had paid with real money and not a card!!! At last the company have their cash and we have 2 storage places in Prescott for our home coming!! We drove the wonderful scenic routes the ladies from Blanding sent me on last visit Bridges National Park, The Hole in the Rock road, wonderful, then down a huge cliff down which the pioneers had taken their wagons on the way to Bluff, I can only say what ever made them do it? I would have gone home long before I ever got here!!!! We parked at the bottom of the cliff for our night stop, ready to drive the Valley of Gods in the morning this is a very bad washboard dirt road; Les had first thing a starter problem a further problem round the drive. Once back on tarmac we had our morning cup of tea stop and decided to go back to Blanding to try and get Les’s starter changed as he had had one refurbished last time we were in Prescott. This seemed very simple and straight forward as we knew Blanding it would be a quick job, ha! ha! she says. When the guys in the garage changed the starter it blew the battery up, one terminal completely melted, melted to nothing, zap!! So we spent the rest of the day there (well and the night) with the garage trying to repair or get new starter and or new battery, in the end Les settled for a repair to his brand new battery and no starter, we were approximately 450 miles from our favourite garage in Prescott, with no starter we had to find hills to park on to get a running start, Oh! I nearly forgot the boys in the garage came back next morning to give Les a tow from outside the garage, then a tow down the road. Had we got really stuck I could have given a tow, (but I am only a learner) anyway we did good managing to get to Prescott where we parked in Wal-Mart on a hill. So now we are both in repair shops poor Les getting the starter fixed, it has blown up again, the guy in the electric repair shop had put a 12volt solenoid onto a 24volt starter! he had actually done this twice!! Me I am in the caravan repair shop having some running repairs done after 2.5 years on the road, tonight I am in a hotel having a very long shower!!!!
So my darlings that is my news up todate!! Take care all of you, see some of you soon
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