USA September 2011

Photos are Aspens in the Pecos Wilderness, Ghost Ranch New Mexico and Sangre de Cristo Mountains behind my campsite at Mineral Hot Springs Colorado.

Housesitting in Santa Fe 4 September - 11 October 2011 then driving to San Diego for flight on 8 November to South America (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina) returning 14 December for January-March 2012 in Baja with my van.

30 September 2011 Friday (Santa Fe NM)
Spent all morning at the Dodge dealer again......this time for a tuneup since it has been quite awhile.....tomorrow off to Albuquerque for the Balloon Festival....at 4am for the mass ascension before dawn!

29 September 2011 Thursday (Santa Fe NM)
Finally, a cloudy day but no rain, which is much needed! Spent the morning doing more genealogical research at the Mormon Church Family History Center. Afternoon massage from our yoga instructor then did a quick sidetrip to Lamy just to see what is there. Lamy is about five miles down the road and it is the Amtrak stop for Santa Fe on the Southwest Chief route...and it is definitely out in the middle of nowhere!

28 September 2011 Wednesday (Santa Fe NM)
Road trip to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and then about a three mile hike amongst the beautiful rock formations.

27 September 2011 Tuesday (Santa Fe NM)
Hike near Santa Fe Ski Basin from Aspen Vista to Big Tesuque....aspen colors are stupendous!

26 September 2011 Monday (Santa Fe NM)
Morning yoga then spent afternoon studying CB radio options....I need to have a CB for my travels down to Baja in January. The clouds are moving in which is quite refreshing because the sun has been hot for several days now.

25 September 2011 Sunday (Santa Fe NM)
Before Rosa left, I bought a pool pass for the local community pool (I needed her to sign the paperwork and get her photo taken) but I have never had the time to use it.....and today is the last open day at the pool.....so I spent a few hours enjoying it under clear blue cloudless skies!

24 September 2011 Saturday (Santa Fe NM)
Visited the LDS (Mormon Church) Family History Center to do genealogical research....they provide free access to their websites in addition to ancestry.com, which I have found contains several errors, since it is updateable by all users. Stopped by the Saturday Farmers Market at the Railroad Station....quite busy for a beautiful warm sunny day. Home to watch 'The Kings Speech'.

23 September 2011 Friday (Santa Fe NM)
Road trip to Los Alamos (Bradbury Museum and Los Alamos Historical Museum housed in the Fuller Lodge), Bandelier National Monument (much is closed due to Las Conchas fire last June which burned over 60% of the park), White Rock overlook of the Rio Grande river and hiked the Tsankawi trail. Price of gas going north was $3.26 per gallon at the Casino so decided to fill up on the return.....good thing I waited....price at same station dropped to $3.16 per gallon!

The community library here has a good selection of DVD's so watched ' Day After Trinity' (a few days ago), a 1980 documentary about Oppenheimer, the physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb at Los Alamos in the 1940's. I was surprised that the folks at the visitor center and the museums were not familiar with the film.

22 September 2011 Thursday (Santa Fe NM)
Met Carolyn and Alan who are visiting from Juneau (they are on a two month driving trip in their new BMW from Germany). We walked downtown Santa Fe with Carolyn and I visiting the churches and Alan sitting on the park bench chatting with the locals. HaagenDazs ice cream for lunch then a cruise down Canyon Drive to view the galleries and then spent time at the New Mexico State Capitol built in 1966 (aka the Roundhouse, designed to resemble the Zia sun symbol when viewed from above). We walked the three levels above ground that are filled with beautiful artwork (600 pieces valued at $6 million!)....the fourth level is below ground and houses the House and Senate chambers.

21 September 2011 Wednesday (Santa Fe NM0
Afternoon walk to the community center for stretching class.
The sunrises and sunsets every day are just stupendous!

20 September 2011 Tuesday (Santa Fe NM)
Joined the Eldorado Hiking group (11 of us) for 7 mile hike (1500' elevation gain starting at over 10,000') to La Vega, Spanish for meadow or pasture land (where we did see a couple of bulls), at the foot of Santa Fe Baldy Mountain (12,622'). This is in the Pecos Wilderness. It is about a 25 mile drive to get there but the hike was well worth it....gorgeous sunny day and the aspens are just starting to change colors. We could also see the burn from earlier this year when much of this area was closed.

18 September 2011 Sunday (Santa Fe NM)
Finally a sunny day! Quick visit to an open house just to suss out the neighbourhood then annual bbq (brisket and hotdogs and hamburgers) at the local firehall with tours of the firetrucks. Saw a few of the Tuesday hikers there.

17 September 2011 Saturday (Santa Fe NM)
Flea market at the community center!

16 September 2011 Friday (Santa Fe NM)
Afternoon farmers market....tastings of rugelach pastry, fresh bread, fresh fruit, fresh veggies....purchased some fresh chard last week so bought some more plus squash, purple potatoes and capsicums.

15 September 2011 Thursday (Santa Fe NM)
Early morning walk to community center for yoga class then afternoon drive to town to shop at REI and Trader Joe's and to get a much needed pedicure! The weather here is ever changing....because of heavy dark clouds and wind, you think that a big storm will happen....and then it all just passes on by with no rain at all!

14 September 2011 Wednesday (Santa Fe NM)
Afternoon walk to community center for Stretching class.

13 September 2011 Tuesday (Santa Fe NM)
Joined the local hiking group for about five mile hike on one of the Dale Ball Trails with about 1500' elevation gain....we almost reached the peak of Picacho Peak! A bit of adjustment for me and my lungs because you start at 7000', not at sea level like in Juneau.

12 September 2011 Monday (Santa Fe NM)
Full Harvest Moon!!! Walked to the Community Center (over one mile) for yoga class, but it had been cancelled....but it was a nice walk there and back!

11 September 2011 Sunday (Santa Fe NM)
A day to catch up and chat with folks on the telephone!

10 September 2011 Saturday (Santa Fe NM)
Parked at Germaine's in downtown Santa Fe (she also owns a Roadtrek) and we walked to the Desfile de Los Ninos (Pet Parade) where there were animals of all sorts and even humans dressed as animals with a few bands to keep us dancing....part of the annual Fiesta de Santa Fe.

9 September 2011 Friday (Santa Fe NM)
Heavy overcast and cooler day here with rain forecast....afternoon farmers market.

8 September 2011 Thursday (Santa Fe NM)
Rosa and Gary's son Jonathan and his fiancee Laura arrived late last eve from Austin for Fiesta so we had morning chat before they were off to stay with friends in the city and to enjoy the festivities of Fiesta. I got back into my morning walk routine with my new NB Minimus shoes which are great and no need for socks! I no longer care for large crowds so will give the Zozobra a miss but will attend the parades of Fiesta this weekend. Zozobra burning was delayed over an hour (from 815 to 945 pm) due to high winds so am glad that I stayed home to watch it on the internet!

"Each year The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe stages the burning of Will Shuster's Zozobra, kicking off the annual Fiestas de Santa Fe on the weekend following Labor Day. Zozobra centers around the ritual burning in effigy of Old Man Gloom, or Zozobra, to dispel the hardships and travails of the past year. In 2001, Zozobra attracted over 32,000 spectators to view the conflagration ritual and fireworks show at dusk."

7 September 2011 Wednesday (Santa Fe NM)
Spent all morning at the Dodge dealer service center to have the fourth blower resistor installed and this time they did determine that it was also the blower motor. Also had them replace my air filter....it sure was dirty! And had them fix my side door handle which was falling off! Back to wash a few clothes and watch the storm brew! Evening viewing film Lincoln Lawyer which they had gotten in the mail (Netflix).

6 September 2011 Tuesday (Santa Fe NM)
Morning walk to the community center to get a pool pass even though they have shortened their hours to 8-11 weekdays. Visit to local library to get books on the area and then to the senior center to suss out the workout schedules. Rosa and Gary are busy packing and getting ready for their travels to Europe.

5 September 2011 Monday (Abiquiu to Santa Fe NM)
Drove to Rosa and Gary's in Santa Fe, with stops at Trader Joes and Whole Foods and Baskin Robbins!

4 September 2011 Sunday (Chama to near Abiquiu NM)
Beautiful drive south on route 84 through the colorful rock formations. Initially stopped at Echo Amphitheatre in Carson National Forest where there is primitive camping but right on the highway so continued a few more miles to Ghost Ranch (home of Georgia O'Keefe) where they have a campground far off the highway with hookups and showers(time to get clean before meeting up with Rosa and her family) and a swimming pool! The campsites are in a beautiful canyon surrounded by red rocks so a view in every direction. I made it back from my walk and the pool just in time before a very big afternoon thunderstorm arrived! I had visited here two years ago when I housesat in Santa Fe so is great to be able to stay overnight and explore a bit more.

3 September 2011 Saturday (Pagosa Springs CO to Chama NM then back to CO)
Not sure where I am going to find a campsite with so many folks out and about for the long weekend....heaps of stars to view this early morning (as is every eve and morning)! And it did start off as a bit of a frustrating morning with the RV parks in Chama booked or undesirable then someone recommended heading over Cumbres Pass to Trujillo Meadows and it was wonderful! I watched the Cumbres/Toltec Tourist Train (coal/steam/narrow gauge) depart the station in Chama (for Antonito) and then followed it up to the pass. The Trujillo primitive campground in the Rio Grande National Forest was close to full (campsites are spaced far apart) but I did manage to find one left near the lake. Great afternoon walk to the waterfall and down to the lake!

2 September 2011 Friday (Lake City to Pagosa Springs CO)
A three mountain pass day today.....Slumgullion (11361), Spring Creek (10901) and Wolf Creek (10850)....my van was not happy having to do all that work up and then down again, sometimes at 9% grade! Visited cute town of Creede with underground firestation and boring town of South Fork and very busy town of Pagosa Springs (Musicfest this weekend). It has not been easy avoiding the holiday weekend crowds with their boats and ATVs and big trucks and big RVs and motorcycles! Camping on the San Juan River.

1 September 2011 Thursday (Mineral Hot Springs to Lake City CO)
I had thought of driving over to Telluride to visit friends but the filmfest is happening (too many folks for me) and then I thought of driving to Ouray/Silverton but I had heard about the Red Mountain Pass (steep, winding, no guard rails) so have now decided to drive up to Gunnison and take the Slumgullion Pass through Lake City and Creede and then onto Pagosa Springs and Chama NM.

Wonderful camp overnite at Mill Creek (BLM) campground about ten miles down dirt road (Alpine Loop) south of Lake City. The drive up route 114 to Gunnison and then route 149 to Lake City was absolutely beautiful! Route 149 from Gunnison to South Fork is known as the Silver Thread due to all the mining activity in days past, and it is a gorgeous road! I camped near Lake San Cristobal that was formed by a huge landslide about 800 years ago and still visible....the slide blocked the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River to form the lake.