Monday, Nov 7th, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Greetings!

Today was a little bit of housekeeping, and a drive through some memorable sections of Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The Touareg was seemed to be acting like we should check out its fluids. As I have been known to fry cars by not changing the oil, we decided to spend the morning getting all of them changed and topped, while we shopped at CampWorld and Home Depot. We then headed up the Turquoise Trail to re-visit a favorite stretch of road between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

I've decided that New Mexico has some of the most amazing clouds, with shapes and hues that seem to wrap around the mountains, sun, and moon. You probably noticed a few lately.

The highlight of today had to be the town of Madrid. It's one of several along the Turquoise Trail, and is home to a colony of artists. The first surprise was the best $20 lunch we've had in a long time. The place is Mama Lisa's. The menu isn't complex, mainly stews and salads. However, what they created was very complex. Pat's was green chile, with roast pork loin and green chiles. Mine was Angus beef burgundy stew, with cremini mushrooms, bay leaf and golden rose potatoes. The salad was a perfect combination of lettuce, thinly-sliced carrots and squash, pomegranates, with a rasberry sauce. Add two large lemonades, an extremely responsive waitress, and a six-table well-lighted dining room, and you get lunch heaven. I recommend everyone put it on their bucket list.

The second surprise was that we bought a six-foot alligator juniper (cypress) branch turned into a great piece of art. Kathleen Gronnan and her husband Joshua run this wonderful studio a couple of doors down from Mama Lisa's which features his rock fountains, Sarah Crall's paintings, and a variety of other works by friends of theirs. We saw one similar piece that was sold and being shipped to California. Learning the artist had another one across the street, we went over and fell in love with it too. It's being shipped out next week, and should arrive soon after we get back.

Here is a link to the complete set of photos we took today: Turquoise Trail

We're still unsure if we're leaving tomorrow, or staying one more day. It's getting cold, and we'll sleep on it.

Gregory