RVlog: Taos NM

We made Taos about noon Wednesday, and after mucking out the trailer, went for a drive around town.

The very first place Johnna wanted to go was the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, 12 mi west of town on Highway 64. The bridge was built in 1966, is 500 feet long, 650 feet above the Rio Grande and the second highest cantilever bridge in the United States.

Rio Grande Gorge.

The day was cold and windy. At the East end of the bridge is a parking lot where Indians from the Taos reservation set up there tables to sell jewelry and other crafts. That day there was only one vendor and her items were purely commercial. However, Johnna did find a beaded strap for her glasses. It cost $ 20.00 dollars and makes her look a bit like an old maid school teacher; but, she did need a strap. Johnna is using a camera this trip, and she's learned that taking off her glasses, and trying to hang on to them and the camera at the same time, while looking though the view finder, is awkward. The tendency is to lay your glasses down, which leads to all kinds of bad outcomes, stepping on them, walking off and leaving them, etc.

Anyway, I started onto the bridge to take a few pictures. I don't like high places and, even though the walkway is wide and has a high railing, I was nervous. About a quarter of the way from either end are two platforms that jut six feet or so out from the main walk way over the gorge, giving you a better look down at the river, 650 feet below. I took a deep breath and cautiously moved onto the platform to take a few shots. I've been on the bridge before but I hadn't remembered the unnerving vibration. The damn bridge shakes, constantly, and when a big truck moves across you really want to hang on to something; the roadway jiggles sharply several inches up and down. I moved closer to the railing, which I didn't trust to begin with, and pretended I was on solid ground. Easier said than done since I couldn't even steady the camera long enough to compose a picture of the rushing water and menacing rocks 650 feet below. I did the courageous thing, took a few shots, and got off the bridge. On my way back to safety, a big gravel truck came rumbling across the bridge, and just as the truck passed me, the driver released air from the air brake system. I almost jumped over the railing; I think he did it on purpose; I know he did it on purpose, the bastad.

So, our first day was eventful.

It was cold in Santa Fe, but not like Taos. The R.V. manager advised us to fill up the holding tank and disconnect the water,we did that night and every night we were in Taos.

Thursday it snowed all day, so we stayed in and kept warm.

Our museum round began on Friday with visits to the Millicent Rogers museum and the Hacienda de los Martinez.

We did the Millicent Rogers Museum the last time we were in Taos. It was opened in 1956 to display the large collection of southwestern art and artefacts assembled by Millicent Rogers. Main collections include over 5000 pieces of Native American pottery, jewelry, and textiles; Hispanic textiles, religious and secular paintings and sculpture (retablos, bultos, Christos) and domestic crafts, among others. The museum is non-profit supported by admission fees, donations, memberships and Museum Store sales.

Museum.

Millicent Rogers's portrait hanging in the museum.

Millicent Rogers was an heiress, granddaughter of one of the original founders of Standard Oil. Her collection is quite extensive.

Pottery.

Torques bracelet.

Millicient also designed jewelry and commissioned local artisans to make it. I don't like her designs very much, their too heavy and unimaginative. But as a collector she knew what to spend her money on.

For more reading go to: http://www.millicentrogers.org/

From the Millicient Rogers museum, we followed a dirt road to Hacienda de los Martinez.

Front entrance.

Part of one court yard.

The hacienda was built around 1804. It's a typical layout, courtyards surrounded by rooms with the door facing into the courtyard. Individual rooms are not that big, 15 ft. by 15 ft. or so, a convenient size for corner fireplaces to heat.

Each room in the Hacienda has a name. For example, the primary living area for the Martinez family is named Sala. This room would have been used for dining, sleeping, and a class room for the children. A smaller room next to the Sala is called the bedroom and may have been the children's room.

Other rooms are named, Chapel -- for the Martinez family and perhaps the surrounding area to be used for weddings and daily prayers.

Granero -- this room has three large grain bins, for wheat, corn and barley.

Trade Room -- merchandise from Chihuahua and, after 1821, the United States was on display here. The Hacienda may have been the first year-round mercantile operation in the Taos Valley.