Taos, New Mexico

For the last week I have been relaxing in one place and getting to know Taos a bit.

This part of the world is so different that it takes some getting used to.  There's the wind, for one thing.  I thought of the desert as many things.  Hot, dry, bright, open, a different set of colors, but windy hadn't occurred to me.  Then I saw the signs along the highway that said: Zero visibility possible.  I saw miles and miles of low pines and sage and tumbleweed and other things I couldn't identify.  But what was there to reduce the visibility to absolutely nothing?  Then I saw that the wind was not just rolling tumbleweed across the road.  That dust was picking up quite a bit.  Thankfully, I was never around the zero visibility level, but I began to see how it could happen.  Especially the next day when an interstate was closed because of the dust.  I was beginning to learn that this country demands respect.  That was on the way to Taos.

So I was ready to hang out and just relax for a day or two when I got here.  There was a packet of mail to go through and laundry to do and maps to collect and go over and plans to make for day trips.

Even the maps here are intimidating.  I'm not used to seeing large areas marked as wilderness.  And the roads.  Taos is in a valley but it's still at almost 7,000 feet so mountain roads are involved in going almost anywhere.  I think the ones around here are actually the easy ones but to a New Yorker who is okay with traffic, but not so much with hairpin turns and descents you don't argue with, this takes some getting used to.  I'm taking it slowly in every sense of the word by visiting the old adobe churches in the area, some in Taos itself and some in the up to 70 miles away range.  Out here folks would think nothing of driving 50 miles to get to a particular restaurant.  The concept of distance changes when the horizon is so far away and the vista is so spacious.  It's something I keep shaking my head over.  Perhaps by the time my month is over, I will have absorbed some of that attitude.  And gotten better at mountain driving.