Sunday, September 13, 2009

Back to the Lone Star State

Friday evening we finished our Santa Fe week with several quick stops: Fiesta music at the Plaza, a free visit to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum, and a short "art walk" on Canyon Road for a bit of food, drink, and gallery gazing (I love art walks!).

Saturday morning we returned to the Farmers Market and bought a bunch of fresh food - tomatoes, carrots, sweet corn, honey, bread, and eggs (I love good Farmers Markets!). Then we hooked Tug up to Howie and started our journey toward home.

The drive on I-25 from Santa Fe to Las Vegas (the NM version this time) is very pretty. From there we followed the Santa Fe Trail route quite a ways toward the Oklahoma border on a slight detour to the northeast.

This photo is for Bob:


A strange - I don't know what to call it! - in the middle of nowhere:


Info about the Santa Fe Trail:


Sometimes the trail was more visible with wide tracks in the field next to the road, sometimes not so much (I believe it heads off toward the horizon here):


Our detour took us to the Black Mesa where we climbed to the highest point in Oklahoma. Photos and details are here:
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/highpoints/oklahoma.html

Other interesting sights and such:
* Two huge black tarantulas hanging out in the middle of the road (and a third one that wasn't so... alive)
* A Star Party gathering with a bunch of RV's, tents, and gigantic telescopes, hoping for clearing skies last night
* Odd smells while driving through several towns with feed lots and oil fields
* All-day clouds and rain today - how odd and refreshing! We're in Burnet, TX for the night, and it's still raining.

Tomorrow we return to Austin - it will be good to get back to "work" and to see a bunch of friends and family again. But I guess the blog will be a little less interesting for a while...

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