Day 12--Gallup

Gallup is a small town in northwestern New Mexico with the highest number of millionaires per capita. It is a town of trading posts--or pawn shops of sorts. The natives bring their crafts into the trading post to sell or to pawn (and hopefully get their items back). We took a fascinating tour through the "store"--many antiques, rooms full of saddles and woven blankets.

This room was full of turquoise jewelry--all being held for pawn.



This room was full of Navajo rugs--mostly for sale. The ones you see here were about 3x5 feet and sold for $3000-$6000 apiece. One rug was for sale for $72,000. They are amazing, but I didn't buy one.

Many of the other rooms were like going through a Native American museum.

Shiprock

On the way to Gallup from Chama, we passed Shiprock, NM. Quite spectacular even from the highway!

Day 11--Chaco Canyon National Park

Chaco Canyon is home to some great Anasazi ruins.




















Anna Lee and Jerry--walking friends who introduced me to a new walking program called
The Spirit of Walking (American Volkssport Association) which maps out 10K trails in cities and parks across the country. Check out their website at www.ava.org.

Jerry and Anna Lee also do the blog for the caravan. It's a lot like mine, but check it out at www.landofenchantmentii.blogspot.com.




We even found a piece of pottery shard (but we put it back!)











Lois and David













The petroglyphs were unusual. I wonder what story they told.












A volcano plug that has eroded to a beautiful butte and had become a sacred place to the Anasazi as a solstice marker.

Day 10--Chumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

The next morning we set off for the train ride. We got to walk the tracks (haven’t done that in years!)









Andi and Steve

















The narrow guage train ride was 64 miles of fascinating scenery.









































The train is a 1920s version that is well preserved and maintained. The black smoke is from the coal burner and steam. We were able to spend time in an outdoor car and the scenery was even more spectacular--through aspen forests, through tunnels, New Mexico autumn at its best.

The sights, smells, and sounds made for a wonderful day.

Cowboy Supper and Show

It was time to dress up in our best “western outfit” and go out for dinner. I got to hang out with Bert, a real cowboy.








After a BBQ dinner we had a good old fashioned cowboy show.














A gorgeous sunset ended the evening.

Day 9 Chama

We made it to Chama and got set up in time to take the chairs and wine to the railroad trestle down by the river for a little party time and watching the train coming in to town.







Shelly and Kim are the caravan hosts and have done a superb job of keeping us all busy, having fun, and learning at the same time.





Guess who we ran into at the RV park? Pat and John--so we spent some time with them and later had to play a little “Hand and Foot”! We’ll run into them again in Albequerque.









Dennis and Leta














Here come's the train!



















John, Pat, and us by the river

On the road from Taos to Chama

The landscape changed dramatically in the short distance from Taos to Chama. We went from flat to evergreen forest to the beautiful changing colors of the aspens.










































The coaches stopped at a “large” parking lot, we had lunch, then off to visit Tierra Wools for some great back room tours of the dying, spinning, and weaving of Navajo rugs and tapestries. Cathy (one of the photographers for our caravan web album, http://picasaweb.google.com/landofenchantment0) and Jim bought a beautiful rug.