Santa Fe, NM

Okay..here we are again!!  This time We ended up leaving OK City early Thursday afternoon around five, when I the weatherphile, learned that there was a big storm coming in to the area with high damaging winds, rain and the possibility of large hail.  Drove 3 hrs to Shamrock, TX to get out of harms way and shorten our driving time to Santa Fe the next day which worked out great!!  Arrived in Santa Fe at the Santa Fe Skies RV Park in snow showers, blowing wind and boy was it ever cold!!  They were still sking up in the moutains. Anyway, it has warmed up and we are really enjoying Santa Fe and our RV Site. I can sit here and look out the windows and see a panoramic view of the snow covered moutains and the high plains. I expect to see Clint Eastwood riding up any minute. We are on a mesa overlooking Santa Fe and its communities and at night it's like looking out of a plane window at the sparking lights below us. The facilities here are just great....they even have a long dog walk around the outside perimeter that is probably about a half mile or so which we, the dogs and the jack rabbits walk on at least once a day. We will hate to leave here.   We spent Debra's three days off exploring with days of wandering around the city at all the shops and galleries. Never seen so much beautiful gold and turquoise!   We will go down to the plaza area a few more times in the evenings. Santa Fe is one of the top three largest art markets in the world and the numbers are impressive...apart from the galleries downtown, it is home to more than 250 galleries and hundreds of artists, architects and craftspeople.  Canyon Rd alone is home to over 100 or more galleries.  We of course visited the Geogria O'Keeffe Museum viewing some of her permanent collection and learning a great deal more about her and her life here,  Very interesting person...one of her many Quotes that I especially liked was and most notable was " I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them then".  Her paintings of the areas around her home are beautiful and so much more so in person than in an art book. Also drove north to Taos about an hours drive from here and decided it was probably more inpressive in the winter since it is a big ski area.  Easter morning we went downtown and had brunch at this beaurtiful spanish hotel where they had this great ice sculture of an easter egg and flower vases (see photos)...the food was great too. :-) The first night here we ate at the Bobcat Bite's... a family owned local favorite since 1953 and about the size of a boxcar...known for their green chili burgers which I kid you not...there is no way anyone was able to get their mouths around these huge burgers!!  The name comes from that fact that bobcats would come down from the moutains for a hand out and now there are photo and paintings all over the walls of some of their visitors.  A fun place.  We also had lunch one day overlooking the Plaza sampling some of the local cuisine...of course we loved that too!! Ok...I did..being the one who lives to eat :-)...Our last dining out will be at a noted India resturant...can't wait.  We are on to Williams, AZ and the Grand Canyon Friday....and we will be back to share some more experiences and photos. As for these photos...think they are self explanatory except for a couple...the river scenes are on our way to Taos...yep, it's the Rio Grand and you might be able to make out the Rio Grand Gorge in the mountain shot.  Can you just picture the cattle drive across the river and the Indians lurking in the hills?And yes, that IS a camel look alike called guess what?!  Camel Rock! :-) in front of one of the SEVEN various Indian Nation Casinos one passes on the way to Taos. Well, that's it for now...as you can see, Fletcher all set for the next stop and further adventures!