Taos, NM - 4th Wedding Anniversary trip - Part 2

After visiting the Earthships, we also stopped (again) at the Gorge Bridge that crosses the Rio Grande. We first crossed it coming into town. Now, I don't remember if I've mentioned this before but, I have a real fear of heights. When we planned this route, I knew we'd be crossing it but put it out of my mind thinking I shouldn't worry about it. It sort of snuck up on me. Since I was leading, I really had to focus on the road ahead so I wouldn't freak out. It isn't very wide and there are people everywhere. There are buses and little shops set up on the side of the road where people can park to walk across the bridge. There was also construction equipment on the side of the road, and lots of trucks crossing the bridge. As we rolled up to it, I started getting anxious. I managed it ok though and we pulled over so hubby could walk over it. I started to head out after him but stopped just at the edge and decided it was a bad idea for me to try that. So, as you can imagine, I didn't get many good photos of the canyon. It was pretty cool. We ended up crossing the bridge about 4 times I think. It got easier each time and was best when hubby was the leader and I could just look ahead at his helmet.

From there we rode up to the Taos Cow for some ice cream. That was a suggestion from the casita owner. It was a very nice ride. It's off the road that goes up to the ski resort in the town of Arroyo Seco. Arroyo Seco was a neat little town that I wish we'd had more energy to visit. Maybe next time. The ice cream was excellent and hit the spot on the warm clear day. We found a paved (yay!) parking spot  right in front of a historic cabin. That was neat.

It was a gorgeous day! I've never seen such blue skies. Awesome! (It was a bit hot though.)

From there we took a different route back into town. We thought we'd visit San Francisco de Asis Church. Along the way my bike started acting up again. I was having issues with it stalling for no known reason. I couldn't reproduce it (which was why that BMW place kept it so long, they spent a week trying to make it stall.) And it seemed to happen for no real reason. The temperature didn't seem to matter either. Anyway, before the stalling, it would surge as I was keeping the throttle steady which was, to say the least, unsettling. But, there was nothing to do really. We were on the road and on vacation. Some how we missed the turn for the church. I thought we'd see it from the intersection but we never did. So, since the bike was being weird, we decided to head back to town. As we hit the square, traffic became stop and go through town for a few blocks. At a stoplight I told hubby I wasn't going to wait for the bike to stall. I hit the kill switch and started it back up. As though rebooting it, the bike was fine after that. Weird and frustrating. (I did eventually get a proper diagnosis and fix once the vacation was done so don't worry dear readers. That'll be it's own blog post.)


Since this was our anniversary day, we decided to take the advice of our host and head to Orlando's for dinner. Mapping it out it seemed close enough to walk. We were a bit hot and tired from riding, and I was a little worried about my bike. And, we wanted to have adult beverages with dinner so, walking worked for us! Orlando's was tasty. There is a nice story on their web site about how they got started. Pretty neat I think. They use lots of family recipes at the restaurant. Hubby had this:

I had this:

Yummy! And the beer was nice and cold!


The next day we waited for hubby's dad to arrive. Hubby's folks live just outside of Albuquerque, about 3 hours away. Hubby and I had breakfast, I can't remember where. (The day before we ate breakfast at a place called Michael's Kitchen, which was also very tasty.) I guess I should have written this up sooner, LOL. Oh, I remember now! We ate our leftovers from Michael's. Our casita had a full kitchen so we brought our leftovers home and put them in the fridge. Thursday morning, we ate those for breakfast and hung around the casita until my father-in-law arrived. FIL rides a Harley Fatboy.

The three of us had never ridden together before. I'd been looking forward to riding with him for a long time. Even my hubby had never ridden with him since hubby came to motorcycling later in life, His dad has been riding for years though. We decided to ride the Enchanted Circle on this day. Unfortunately, I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted to. We rode a lot and dodged the weather a bit. Next time I'll get more photos. :-) We did stop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial near Angel Fire. I get goosebumps just thinking about it again. That's an amazing place with an amazing story. If you are ever in that area, you have to stop to see it and just be there for a few minutes. It has a fantastic museum that is incredibly well done, especially when you realize much of the funding for the place is through donations. There's even a small library. The outdoor walkway is so peaceful. The building is amazing as well.

 It's a very, very nice place to stop.I'm sorry I'm not more eloquent about the place. It's just some place you have to see for yourself.

We did have one close call on the road, riding the enchanted circle. Hubby was leading, I was second and FIL was behind. A full sized pick up truck veered across the double yellow right at hubby. Hubby managed to lean to the right and avoided the truck. I also pressed right and went right to move out of his way. I'm not sure how close he came to FIL since I couldn't see him. No blood, no foul. We continued on. With our headsets on, I could talk to hubby right away. I was more rattled by the incident than he was. Huge adrenaline rush! I'm sure I kept talking to him for a while before I calmed down. 


I'm sure we all have more close calls than we care to remember or even need to remember. There's really nothing to do about them except learn and carry on. But, it's one thing to have those close calls yourself. It's another thing entirely to see your loved one have a close call right in front of you. I was freaked out for the rest of the trip. I don't think hubby knows that. Even all the way home I kept thinking about that truck and what could have happened. It took me about a week after we returned home to shake that image out of my head. :-( We all ride knowing the risks. We just don't dwell on those things. We take precautions, take classes, practice our skills, etc. so that we don't have to think about what if; we just react and trust that our training will get us through. And that's exactly what happened in this case. We all did what we were supposed to do. In that moment, I didn't focus on hubby or the truck, I reacted to avoid the other vehicle. But, then I had to manage the visual for the rest of the trip. It's all good now. I can talk about it here and other times and it doesn't freak me out. Still. Grrrrr!!

We made a pit stop shortly after that. I was able to process the event, shake off the heebie jeebies and continue the ride a bit more focused. Here is my hubby and his dad. :-) FIL wasn't too happy about the double yellow creeper either. But it was a good day anyway. :-)

After the Enchanted Circle, we had dinner in Taos after dropping off the bikes at the casita. We walked to a brew pub on the square. Beers all around and some appetizers to share made for a nice dinner. I love wheat beers!

There was also music in the square. We didn't get a table on the balcony though. 

 After dinner we walked back to the casita.

FIL spent the night on the pullout couch so that we could all ride to his house the next morning.