Thursday, 5/8/14 - Las Vegas to Taos & around the area

If yesterday's word was wind, today's was hail.  It was a tad chilly, as well, and windy to boot.   We left LV at 7:30 on NM-518 for Mora, Penasco, Dixon, Pilar & Taos.  We did some scouting around Embudo & Orilla Verde, but the wind and the threat of rain were a bit much - we decided to be "meek" instead.  Drove out of the gorge up to the west rim, then followed the west rim road to US-64, and across the Taos High Bridge - the river itself is pretty easy to bridge, but there are few places to easily enter the gorge, so this engineering feat was important for travel. 

We were going to head for the Plaza for  a while, but the aforesaid hail intervened.  The hail wasn't large, but there was a lot of it.  We saw 4 horses - 3 loud B&W paints and a chestnut - guess which one got shelter under the trees.

 Tid-bits by Sandra

• Election season in hot upon New Mexico. Signs proliferate; we counted 22 on one corner in LV.
• The Citizens for Honest Government have adopted a stretch of NM-518.
• Seen in the Mora Valley - a bright green & yellow house trailer.  It had as good a chance as any in the valley to win Yard of the Month - very little.
• Sign: 2 Gray Hares Disc Golf
• I wonder just who the customers are for Sugar Nymphs Bistro at Penasco.
• Also near Penasco - a scarecrow Sylvester - but he was green.  Tweety would be scared.
• A school bus painted in rainbow colors called the Bus Stop Ice Cream & Coffee Shop at the bridge.

 Lunch was a local tamale store and supper was at El Taoseno, full of locals (good posole!).
Today's travel was only 178.2 miles, 1074.9 for the trip.  Now we plan for tomorrow's search.