Another day of Adventure

Adventure means that I was lost for most of the day.  I had no trouble getting from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.  The Loretto Chapel has an extraordinary staircase that has mystery attached to it.  The Chapel was run as a girls school by nuns and the choir loft was only accessible by ladder.  The  nuns prayed and in answer to their prayers a stranger, a master carpenter appeared and built this spiral staircase.  It is free standing and completes two 360 degrees turns.  After the completion, the carpenter disappeared without asking for any payment.  Whatever the story the staircase is marvelous.  I walked to the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi.  I saw the central Plaza.  I looked at many galleries and shops and realized I was bored with Santa Fe.  I wanted out so badly that I didn't even go to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

Next I headed for Taos.  I wound up on back roads, I'm sure there was a better way but that was the way the Garmin took me.  I went to the Kit Carson Home and Museum.  Kit Carson was an interesting man and didn't appreciate the legend that grew up around his name in the East.  In reality he was a very impressive person.  He lead Fremont on several treks to map the rockies and the West.  He led wagon trains and scouted for the army.  He married 3 times because his wives died in child birth.  I walked around Taos for a while and decided it was as commercial as Santa Fe.  I didn't love either one as much as I had the first time I saw them.

I set off, or so I thought for Abiquiu.  Since the Garmin wouldn't get me there I sort of was on my own, which was very wrong.  I got lost in the mountains going in the wrong direction.  I tried to correct myself and missed my turnoff.  I was up in the mountains with snow still on the ground in shaded areas.  I finally gave up on Abiquiu for the day, especially as there were no hotels in the area.  Garmin could get me to a hotel in Los Alamos so that was where I went.