Farley Hits the Desert Southwest, Day 13: (About the Weather) This Is Bullshit

This morning we got up and visited Bandelier National Monument. I'd been bummed when planning this trip that the cliff dwellings outside Taos are closed right now.  But last night I did some agenda-planning and realized that there are cliff dwellings right on our way to Santa Fe.  So we stopped and hiked the loop past all the archaeological sites.

There was a frightening series of ladders
to get to the "Alcove House."

As I was reading the Santa Fe travel info last night, I learned they have something like 365 days of sun every year.  Exaggeration, yes, the but number was well over 300.  So, after a stormy night outside of Phoenix last Thursday and a continuously drizzly Sunday there as well, then traveling in driving rain on Tuesday, today in Santa Fe it was cold and cloudy most of the day, at least until the rain started.  As Marc said about rain in Phoenix, "This weather is bullshit."

We did manage to see a lot of sites.  We checked out the Santa Fe Cooking School's store, then wandered into the Georgia O'Keefe museum gift shop.  I wanted to see the San Miguel Mission and, in following Googlina's mistaken directions, we wandered up Canyon Street, where the majority of the galleries are.  We didn't go IN any galleries, but the outside sculptures alone were plenty to see.

What $108k can buy you in Santa Fe.
In Helena, it could almost buy my condo.

A little course correction and we found the church, the oldest church in the United States, built in the 1600s.  We also visited their capitol, which houses $6,000,000 in art in its hallways.

San Miguel mission

The New Mexico capitol is like a museum.
$6,000,000 in art on three floors.  I'm not sure
if they have a hawt governor, though.

Truth.  As told by one who now knows.

I'd read about a restaurant, Maria's New Mexico Kitchen, that offers 200 different margaritas, so that's where we stopped for an afternoon libation.  I chose "The Mike Smith," after my favorite jockey when I lived in Saratoga.  He used to work out at World Gym in August and I'd see him there.  I also had their green chili, which I'd read about in the AAA magazine as being the best in New Mexico.

To know him is to love him.

AAA's recommendation for best green chili
in New Mexico:  Maria's in Santa Fe.

As we wandered today, I picked up the local free newspaper to see what was going on in town.  I read a funny quote attributed to someone at the local cider house and wondered how I didn't previously know it existed!  So we stopped in there for a pint or two while the rain came down.  While there, we checked out the weather forecast for Colorado, as we planned to go north tomorrow and into Denver to visit friends Sunday.  I didn't believe Marc when he told me large parts of Colorado are under storm watch and Denver is supposed to get eight to 14 inches of snow.  That weather is bullshit, too.

So, we hemmed and hawed and debated different routes and finally settled on heading back down to Albuquerque to I-40, then back to Flagstaff (there just happens to be a Voodoo Glow Skulls concert there on Sunday; I love them but have never seen them) and Las Vegas (NOFX just happens to be in concert there Sunday and Monday; we've seen them lots of times but are always game for another), then somehow from Vegas to Spokane by next Saturday.

Before leaving Santa Fe, we picked up a few items at a Mexican market, one of which was carne al pastor.  Maybe I was mistaken about what I was ordering.  Marc threw it in a sautee pan and then said, "What exactly did you buy?  There are pieces of hot dogs and pineapple in here.  At least that's what I think these lumps are."  Yikes.  But we threw it in tortillas with a fair amount of cheese and ate it.

The last thing we did was attend a gallery opening at the Santa Fe Collective.  It was an artist who paints over old paintings she gets at thrift shops.  The idea sounded cool.  The execution as ridiculous.  There was glass over the old paintings and she slopped white paint on the glass over the top.  And there were five.  Five pieces of art at this opening.  More hipsters who ignored us than there were paintings on the wall.

With that, we jumped back into Farley and hit the road for Albuquerque.  The infamous freecamping.net site said you can camp for free at the Sandia casino just north of town, so that's where we are.  We did go in to gamble, with a $25 limit for each of us.  We sat down together at a blackjack table and Marc lost his fairly quickly.  I managed to double my money so we walked out even-Steven on the night!