Unfortunately I said yes and the clippers went zzzzzziiiiiiippppppp from back to front. Wasn’t a head shave but it wasn’t far from it. And Norm climbed in the chair after he saw what I looked like. Think he felt guilty because he found the barber.
Then earlier this year when in Taos, NM Norm and I went to a barber shop. The barber was Gill and I told him to just take a little off and shape it up. Gill did just that but he was so busy talking about his target shooting passion I think he forgot he had taken just a little off several times. And good sport Norm followed. Wasn’t as short as Fairbanks but it was close.
Then, to top everything off we were in Flagstaff, AZ traveling on our own. I thought it would be a good time for a hair trim, found a barber shop that would take walk-ins and off I went. There were two barbers in the shop, a man and wife team. You signed in on the appointment sheet and waited your turn. Both were cutting hair and no one was waiting so I was next. Masks were required while inside and even when they were cutting hair. The lady finished first and I was next in the chair. I said just take maybe a quarter inch off and shape it up. The good news is this was probably the neatest hair cut I’ver ever had, evenly cut, shaped nicely. Bad news is I think the lady is related to Suki in Fairbanks. I think she misunderstood take a quarter of an inch off as leave it a quarter of an inch long. But I won’t need another hair cut till after Christmas.
On this leg of our “ et’s stay at higher altitudes and take it easy” trip we stayed at Pendaries RV Resort (pronounced Pan-da-ray) near the hamlet of Rociada, NM, about 25 miles into the mountains north of Las Vegas, NM at over 8,000 feet elevation and pretty isolated. Pandaries is a mountain resort that has a very nice golf course, lot sales for houses, the RV park where we stayed and lot sales for people who want to come there every year and park their RVs, or leave them year round.
We drove to Las Vegas one day, (the original Las Vegas) and looked around town. Found out at around the turn of the century (1900s), Las Vegas was the largest and wealthiest city in New Mexico. It was the corporate headquarters for Santa Fe Railroad and also housed their largest repair facility. There were also many support companies for the Santa Fe Railroad in Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV did not exist at this time period). As we piddled around town we noticed every business we went in had help wanted signs posted. We asked what the issue was and the people said no one wanted to work while they were getting the extra money from the government. Maybe they will want to work when the checks stop in September. I believe in a hand up but not a hand out, I think it really hurts our society.
Railroad travel was in its heyday in the early 1900s and to support the wealthier travelers the exclusive Plaza Hotel and the Fred Harvey railroad hotel The Castaneda were both built in Las Vegas. Times were good. Then the Santa Fe Railroad decided to move to Santa Fe, NM. The relocation crippled Las Vegas and it has struggled ever since. A couple of silver and gold booms brought life to the town but both were short lived.
With the decline of Las Vegas the Plaza and The Castaneda fell into depression, disrepair and were both finally abandoned for almost 70 years. Luckily artist Tina Mion and her husband Allan Affeldt heard about the old, famous hotels about to be demolished, got interested in restoring them, got a group of investors together and raised enough money to buy The Caseaneda, the Plaza Hotel and the La Pasada Hotel in Winslow, AZ from the Santa Fe Railroad and are restoring them to their original state. They began with restoring the lobbies then are restoring one room at a time at each hotel. They are almost finished, the old hotels are beautiful and their business is booming. Glad to see some of these old landmarks being brought back to life and hope the tourist traffic remains high enough to keep them in business. They built them quite fancy back in the day.
Then we drove into Santa Fe one day to get some good “Happy Birthday” Mexican food. We picked the La Choza Restaurant because the restaurant had good ratings and had a lot of gluten free options for Priss. We decided to have a late lunch to beat the crowd, arrived mid-afternoon and still had to wait almost an hour to eat. For those of you traveling to Santa Fe, the wait was worth it. La Choza has some of the best Mexican food we have ever had, and the service was good. Give it a try. And of course after a good meal ice cream is always on the list. Priss had found a place that had a new twist on their ice cream so we gave it a try. They sell you one of many flavors of ice cream bar on a stick then they dip it in one of several types of chocolate. Then they coat it with your choice of many types of nuts, candy or fruits. Quite tasty and of course no fat or calories I’m sure.
After ice cream and Mexican food we waddled to the truck and tried to stay awake on the drive back to the camper. Had to turn the radio very loud.
Had a good birthday day. Three quarters of a century down and entering the fourth quarter hoping we have quite a few years of traveling, exploring and discovering new things and places remaining.
Another day in our lazy week we drove to La Cueva, a small hamlet with a store famous for its raspberries and things made from raspberries. We got there mid-morning and the little town was wall to wall with motorcycles. They were parked on both sides of the road, in driveways, alleys, under trees and anywhere they could find to park them. And more and more kept coming in. Bet there were two or three hundred. Many had pink ribbons, some had pink bras tied to their handle bars and we soon figured out they were having a rally to support breast cancer prevention. Unfortunately, there were so many of them we couldn’t find a place to park and had to leave without getting any raspberries, raspberry ice cream, raspberry shakes or raspberry candy. Should have gone back another day but we didn’t.
Just before we departed for Angel Fire we were talking to our neighbor and he asked which way we were going to Angel Fire. I said I wasn’t sure, I had plugged it in my GPS and it was 48 miles. He said it sounded like our route was taking us through Mora, Guadalupita, Black Lake then Angel Fire. He said we should rethink going that way because the road was so narrow he didn’t think we would fit in some places. Turned out to be a good conversation. It wasn’t far so we drove with just the truck to Mora which was no problem, but in Mora we had to take another “highway” which was almost a one lane road, very rough, had low hanging trees, extremly sharp curves and one small sign that warned vehicles with overall lengths of 35’ should not proceed. If you were traveling with a large trailer you would be in a lot of trouble when you reached the small sign. Then just out of Guadalupita the narrow road got a lot more narrow. We decided to take the long way through Taos and stay on the major highways, at least major for that part of the country. Couldn’t believe the State of New Mexico had no warning signs at the beginning of the narrow route. Cousin Norm sent us a copy of a warning on the website of the RV park where we were staying in Angel Fire warning their customers not to travel that route because for a lot of rigs it would be impassable.
Being in the Pendaries altitude above 8,000’ allowed for cool days and even cooler nights. The area is very laid back and slow paced, we enjoyed relaxing.
Later
-Tom