…Yesterday I closed my post with Caroline having plans for pushing us in this direction towards Eagle Nest, New Mexico. Things will become clear soon enough.

Once more, I’m letting the reader know that these posts are arriving eight years after the travels were had. It wasn’t until February 2023 that I finally tried tackling the chore. As life and work often get in the way of things, so it was back in 2015, well, 2014 through mid-2017, for that matter. I feel that it’s better for these images to find a place on the blog, though the narrative is thin due to us not having notes to accompany the images.

Our primary objective is now to go home, but we are not interested in the most direct route, though south is the general direction we need to travel, so things are working out.

Oh, what’s that? It’s the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park, which sure feels like a strange bit of architecture out here.

That memorial would have been the turn-off had we intended to visit Taos today, but that’s not where we’re headed.

This is what I was alluding to regarding Caroline’s plans for how our altered path could play out. We are about 50 miles south of our motel in the small town of Mora, where the Mora Valley Spinning Mill is located and is open. Caroline is not holding that yarn for the sake of the photo; it is but one small part of what we’ll leave with.

Sixty-five miles west of Mora is the small town of Española and the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center, where they sell yarn and other fiber-arts-related stuff Caroline’s paws must fondle.

While Caroline busies herself lost in Yarnland, just over there next to Dreamland, I took up the designated “I’m not interested” section of the store, using my time of isolated sulking while yarn shopping to share this image of my newest handmade socks made from two shades of green yarn acquired at the Fiber Factory in Mesa, Arizona.

Here we are in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a quick visit. We’ve already had lunch at Tia Sophia’s, where they serve up New Mexican cuisine, and are now on our way to the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

The inside of the cathedral is not a very ornate affair, but that doesn’t matter; we still enjoy the ambiance.

After we did a quick walkthrough of the Palace of the Governors, we strolled around the corner to visit the New Mexico History Museum. These “finger-woven socks” made of yucca fiber weren’t the only things on exhibit, but as they are hand-woven, you can be certain that Caroline was enchanted by them; I suppose I should be happy that my wife uses soft wool to make my socks because those appear a bit rough on the edges.

Somewhere south of Albuquerque.

The next stop was at the World Famous El Camino Family Restaurant, famous because we’ve posted about it so frequently. Tampico steak, Mr. Wise? Well, of course. Where we stayed is of no concern as after eating at our favorite New Mexican diner, we could sleep on a bed of nails. Guess where we’ll be having breakfast tomorrow?