Eastbound and down

It occurred to us last evening that we happened to be able to take advantage of a situation that was totally unplanned or anticipated.  The clocks went back last night, and today we go to Central time, so for us in this unique situation we don't have to do anything!  The clocks going back and then forward as we enter the Central Time Zone take care of each other so no time change for us.  Amazing the little things that excite you:-)

Our last week was spent in Santa Fe, and we tried to fit in a few things.  We had a wonderful lunch of the best green chili cheeseburgers in the world, and no I don't have any pictures this time, with Nancy and CT, and Tom and Karen at Santa Fe Bite.  We even met Tom at Bang Bite Filling Station, a fabulous food truck for another lunch.  

Santa Fe is quiet this time of year.  It's very nice to wander around the square without 10,000 of your closest friends, and the weather is cool and breezy, maybe a little too breezy.

Pretty quiet, even the Native American sellers area is quiet.

We also did one more thing we had wanted to, go back to Bandelier National Monument.  It is an amazing place filled with petroglyphs, ancient dwellings, some of which you can even go into, in a canyon where the ancients cut caves into the very soft volcanic tuff to enlarge naturally occurring openings called cavates.  After the middle of October the park enters its winter hours and you can drive your own vehicle into the visitor center, you have to ride a shuttle bus in peak season, 13 miles one way to visit, and there are few people there, always a good combination.  It was almost like we had the park to ourselves.

A very large kiva as you enter the canyon

A view of a large structure that is partly excavated

Some of the cliff dwellings
The holes you see in the cliff face were for vigas,
wood logs that supported the ceilings of the dwellings

We walked along the 1.2 mile Main Loop.

The inside of a reconstructed dwelling,
there are the vigas

Inside one of the cavates,
the black on the roof is smoke from fires, it actually
strengthens the roof

Jan going up to go inside

There is a very large structure, mostly missing now called the Long House that was 2-3 stories high, and the cliff wall above the roofs are covered with petroglyphs.

An example, you can see in this picture the holes
for the roof vigas, that they stood on to make the
petroglyphs.

After we completed the loop trail we walked another half mile to the Alcove House, a dwelling 140' above the valley floor accessible by 4 ladders.

A beautiful path

A view of a couple of the ladders

Up the first one

Making my way to the second

Jan going up the tall, tall second ladder,
no, chicken Bill did not go up

Jan's view down from the 2nd ladder

She even turned around there.  I'll tell you it is up there!  So after we made our way back the mile to the truck, having had a great visit on a beautiful day.  

So now eastward bound, and into heat evidently, we've been having highs in the low 60's, but it's supposed to be in the upper 80's when we get to Amarillo.

We were blessed with a gorgeous evening last night, no wind and comfortable temps to enjoy the view, the fire, our cocktails, and each other's company as we bid goodbye to the Southwest.

It truly was a beautiful evening!