We made it to Santa Fe, no big issues on the short drive.
Remember this cloud...
This was a beautiful thunderhead, and we didn't think much of it.
We checked in at our next campground
and guess what...
That is the cloud from earlier in our drive. Fortunately all the rain the storm cloud was carrying bypassed us.
As usual, the first day is just a "relax" day, however, there was a Walmart run in it.
The next day we ventured out to scope out where some of the attractions were, arriving at Santa Fe Plaza (downtown) proved to be questionable as to our return. There was a lot of construction, and parking was difficult to find, although there was one public parking structure designed for smaller vehicles. There were several attractions to visit in that area.
We went to plan "B", we hit a local micro-brewery called Santa Fe Brewing Company.
From the bar area visitors get a view of the canning side of the house. The next area I generally don't add to a post, but this one was a fun one...
Lets move on.
As some of you may know, we play with our food, and here is another example.
What so special about a pizza? The crust for this pizza was made from shredded chicken, parmesan cheese and an egg. After the crust cooked I added toppings we enjoy, sausage, ham, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. I used a homemade alfredo sauce instead of marinara. This will be a repeat pizza crust.
Venturing out the following day took us to a Merrell shoe outlet, a bug and reptile museum, and lunch.
This is for all you bug lovers out there, the Santa Fe Bug and Reptile Museum.
Have no fear, just a model on the wall.
Our first introduction to the museum was Pickles Cosmo.
Talking with the owner of the museum we learned it was larger at one time, due to budget issues it was downsized and relocated.
This beetle can be found in deserts in California, Nevada, and Arizona. They guys can live a long time, one is said to have 17 years in captivity.
This beetle is so named because its defense mechanism, pretending to be dead when threatened by a predator. If this beetle is truly not dead it will have the blue waxy appearance, and if dead, it will have a black look to it.
Back to the blue exoskeleton. This waxy coating helps the beetle retain moisture. This beetle does not look for water sources, as it gets its water from the food it eats (plants).
It is always important to know your state insect in case you get into a superfluous conversation about insects. Here is the state insect for New Mexico...
This little monster hunts tarantulas. When the female finds a tarantula, she stings it (paralyzing it), lays and egg on it and buries it. The larvae will feed on the helpless tarantula. Do not panic, this wasp is not aggressive towards humans, but if you do get stung... OUCH OUCH OUCH... in other words it will be painful.
This museum is not organized, but not disorganized, I believe that would be eclectic.
Notice that the "eyes" are on the bottom side of the wings of this butterfly. The eyes do look like a set of owl eyes.
These Birdwing butterflies are some of the largest butterflies known as the species Ornithoptera. They have the name Birdwing because of the shape of their wings, and the fact that some of them are the size of birds. Many of the specie can be found in the South Pacific Islands, and Northeastern Australia. The black and brown specimens are the females of their species. They have become endangered because of collectors and habitat loss; many are now raised on butterfly farms in the tropics. The largest butterfly in this species is the Queen Alexandra which is endangered as well, and is illegal to import into the United States.
These guys got their name because of the black around their neck, looking like a collar. They can be found in Mexico and western United States. When I say "western", they really mean: New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
Time to move on to a "friendly" creature... the scorpion. The fascinating part about these creatures is their glow in the dark.
These guys can be found in California, Nevada, Arizona, Mexico, and Utah.
That African Whipspider is the lead in for the next exhibits.
This particular tarantula is named "Rosa", born (hatched) in 1999. She was the daughter of the museum owners first pet tarantula who was 16 years old at the time Rosa was hatched, but believed to be older because she was an adult already.
Enough with the big spiders already, right?
There were lots of bugs and reptiles to see, but the most fun was at the end of the exploration.
The Vinegaroon get its name from its spray defense mechanism which smells like vinegar.
I'm going to keep this one simple, this is how big a centipede was in the prehistoric era. Its what I call the "large print" version of a nasty critter running around today.
No excitement at the shoe store except to say we purchased six pairs of shoes at a good price, they were having a buy-one get-one half off sale, plus clearance shoes on mark down. I got a $90 pair of sandals for $30, and Carol got a pair of Merrell "croc" style sandals for $9.
We were talking about going to lunch at Dickey's BBQ after we finished shoe shopping, the sale reps suggested a place they preferred, called the Ranch House, so we took them up on their suggestion.
The Ranch House serves more than BBQ, but that was our focus today.
I ordered a full rack of ribs, and Carol had brisket. Each meal came with green chili cornbread, three balls of butter, and two sides. I plan two meals when I want BBQ, half those ribs went home for another meal. Because we were first time visitors to the restaurant we received a free dessert. Carol chose...
We had to work some of that food off so we headed to Sam's to replenish our meat supply, and pickup a flag since I forgot our other one.
The spoils of victory fighting shopping crowds...
We got our flag, and 20 ribeyes from the rib roast.
Because downtown Santa Fe was too congested for our liking we stayed in the outskirts of town. This next attraction was located in the outskirts, called Meow Wolf.
Meow Wolf is an adventure that affected all the senses in some form. There are five such attractions located in Santa Fe, Houston, outside of Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, and a sixth one coming to Los Angeles. Meow Wolf was an art experience not to be forgotten soon. Each location has its own theme. Santa Fe's theme was "House of Eternal Return".
Santa Fe's Meow Wolf was a bowling Alley in the early days.
The art isn't just inside, but in the parking lot as well.
The attraction is so busy that reservations are highly recommended, and it was a good suggestion that we listened to because the line had already grown quite long with fellow reservation holders.
We stepped inside for an experience that won't be forgotten, and one we encourage you to experience, at whichever location. This will be a photo ride with some small talk here and there.
The story was about a man and his son investigating caves, and the son disappears, into another dimension. The father invented a machine/device to look into other dimensions. Further in the plot the dad and wife hook up with another inventor to create another piece of the puzzle to allow travel into those dimensions. Here is what one will experience.
Through the door into another dimension...
Another door...
Remember the theme and dimension traveling.
Leading to the house:
Through a trailer... how appropriate.
There were two special appliances in the home that led to new areas of adventure:
Led to...
At the time we did not know where this went, and I was not going to ride the slide because the end required kneeling, and I had already crawled through one opening somewhere else. Later I did figure out where it ended at...
another opening in a different area on the first floor.
Continuing on.
We took a little snack break, but there was more to see.
Break is over, on to the second floor.
Through the closet and looking down on the first floor.
Back to the hallway.
Their bedroom actually had two secret passages, one of them Carol and I could not fit through, you will see what I am talking about a little later.
On to the next room of this maze.
This was the second exit, from the parent's bedroom closet, and about 12 inches wide. there was a baby grand piano in the hidden room.
There appears to be an apparition in the top photo.
WHAT AN EXPERIENCE.
