August 14

Saturday was our last day in the Forest Service Campground.  We enjoyed watching the Rio Grande flow past our front window for our days here.  We had kind of a lazy day, and in the evening we went into town to see a show at the reparatory theater in town.  It was a play written by Mark Twain called “Is He Dead?” and was about a painter who couldn’t sell his works unless he was dead, so he fakes his death, leading to all sorts of humorous situations.  It was a fun evening.

Sunday we moved back to the RV resort to do major loads of laundry which should set us up for the next few weeks.  We took another drive up into the honeycombed mountains and checked out more rocks and mine shafts (from the outside only!)

 

I love how the little plants manage to cling to the most inhospitable rocks in their own little rock garden.

    So, Monday we were going to leave Creede, but where to go?  We are planning to meet up with Bob and Sharon (Gerry’s brother and sister-in-law, for my non-family readers) at Alamosa, about 130 miles east of Creede, to see the great sand dunes, but not until Saturday or Sunday, so should we go north to Montrose and Gunnison, or even farther north to Glenwood Springs?  But then we’d have to back-track.  Maybe Royal Gorge, but how long can you look at one bridge, no matter how high it is?

Sooooo

We went to Taos, New Mexico.  I know, not exactly in the plan, but what are plans for if not to change?  It is nice and cool here, and a little lower altitude than Creede so I don’t feel like I’ve run a foot race just taking Gypsy for a walk.  This is the plaza in Old Town.  It’s a very artsy community and we’ve barely scratched the surface of the galleries.

There is even a bridge over a deep gorge here.  Granted, it’s a mere 650’ deep as opposed to the 1200’ Royal Gorge, but it’s here.  I think it’s gorge enough for me.

 

 

We paid a visit to the church of St Francis of Assisi, made famous by Georgia O’Keefe.  The church is made out of adobe and they resurface it every year or it would start to disintegrate.  Up close you can see the straw embedded in the adobe clay to hold it together.  There was an old adobe next to it that had not been treated so tenderly and it was easy to see what could happen without the upkeep!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

   And right across the plaza from this elegant, lovely church, was the first drive up bar I’ve ever seen.  Maybe there’s a different take on drinking and driving here.