We are back at Jojoba in sunny Southern /California. However, we had a couple of more days in beautiful Santa Fe. We decided to take a drive on the Turquoise Trail which is the back road from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. It is a National Scenic Byway and is about 50 miles long. Nice blue skies and a lovely day in the Southwest.
We drove through a few small towns. More on that later. We drove as far as the Sandia Crest which is a higher elevation with a Ski Resort. There is a tram that you can take in the summer but it was closed for repair I found out later. The southwestern look of Adobe houses which often have bright blue trim and doors is followed here with the blue ski lifts.
We turned around and headed back with a stop in the eclectic town of Madrid. It has a rich history from the early 1800's with the discovery of coal, to a mining town to an artist community. In its hey days it was famous for its Fourth of July parades, Christmas lightning and displays and minor league baseball with the first lighted stadium in the country. With the decline in coal production it became a ghost town. Then in the early 70's, artists and craftspeople and hippies arrived. There are still a number of art galleries in town as well as several good restaurants.
We ate at the Hollar, which is a great restaurant whose food is a fusion of southwestern and southern food. Also very dog friendly. We sat outside and our waitress brought Savannah a dog bowl of water and a dog biscuit. Savannah enjoyed her biscuit and we certainly enjoyed our food. I had a very southern dish of fried green tomatoes over smoked gouda cheesey grits with grilled asparagus spears on top. Sooo good. Joe had a pulled pork burrito that was also good. There were a number of other interesting items on the menu. We would definitely come back here when back in Santa Fe.
Loved the hanging shoes.
Another nice day. We drove back into Santa Fe on Saturday. Being the Labor Day weekend, it was very busy. There was arts and crafts market in the square along with the usual Native Americans selling their jewelry. We ate at the Shed with its standard southwestern and mexican food. We had eaten here before. It was good but we thought the Hollar was much more creative.
We had a good time in Santa Fe as we usually do. We had about 12 hours or so to get back to So Cal. We stopped at a state park near Winslow, Arizona for an one night stay. We had stayed there once before in our travels. As it was Monday, there weren't a lot of people there. However, we were all set up and just relaxing when a man knocked on our door and said this was there site. We had filled out a self reservation form and put it in the box for the payment. He said they had reservations though there wasn't a tag showing the site was reserved. We packed up and when up to the visitor center as we were afraid to just pick a different site. Well, it turned out the ranger had just given the couple the site as he didn't know we had already paid for that particular site. It hadn't been reserved and they could have just gone back to the ranger and said there was someone already there and he would have given them another site. Oh well, lesson learned. We got another site that was just as good. We got up early and made the long drive back to Jojoba, listening to an audio book that always makes the trip go faster it seems.
We got back to Jojoba in the late afternoon and hadn't even gotten set up when our neighbors Sam and Alice invited us over for a drink or two, which we did. They have a cute little dog, Teddy and just got another named Rusty. Savannah was happy to see her boyfriend Teddy and to make a new friend, Rusty. We had an enjoyable evening talking to Sam and Alice. We love traveling but it is nice to be back in Jojoba for a spell with its great people and lots of fun things to do. Then there is our great view of the Mountains from our site. Nice to be home.
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