We awakend early and I made scrambled eggs and beef
sandwiches using the PPI mushroom sauce from last night’s meal and adding about
½ lb. of PPI steak pieces, three eggs, ¼ cup of Mexican crema and ½ cup of
shredded Manchego cheese. I placed the
sautéed egg mixture on toasted bagels smeared with mayonnaise and garnished
with slices of avocado. We stopped for
gas at Costco and then were on the road by about 9:00.
As we drove north the weather was mixed clouds and sun and
we saw the mass ascension of balloons stretching north for miles almost to
Bernalillo.
As we drove north the weather cleared and by the time we
reached Santa Fe he sky was clear blue and sunny. We drove on to Espanola and turned onto US 84
and went north on it until we arrived at State Hwy 142 and turned off to see
the first artists’ studios. Actually
gallery was not the right term.
What we
saw were an assortment of small handmade houses with built in studios on higher
ground with panoramic views of the Chama River Valley and Pedernal to larger
homes clearly designed for and owned by rich owners and artists who had sought
the quiet of Abiqui who had built homes in the bosque along the east bank of
the Chama River. The home owners had
opened their homes, guest houses and portals to artists to show their work. The artists who owned homes by the river
actually showed their work in their studios and rooms in their homes.
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| Georgia O'Keefe's the White place |
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| The White Place |
I was amazed by the variety of work. We visited approximately thirty locations and saw a bit of everything although there seemed to be lots of found object art sculpture. After we drove to the 9 studios on St. Hwy 142 we met 84 and went south toward Abiqui and saw another dozen galleries.
Here are some nice tables we say on St. Rd. 142:
The studio/site that impressed us most was the Parra Vineyard, just a few miles north of Abiqui on Hwy. 84 that
has a small group of buildings and 6 acres of grapes. We talked to the owner and he mentioned that
he raises mostly a hybrid of sylvaner/reisling and
sylvaner/gewertztramminier named Lake something
grapes. The property includes cabins for over night stays and is about three or
four miles north of Abiqui’s center, which is mainly Bode’s store and a coop
art gallery. After seeing the art
gallery we drove to State Hwy 554 an through Tre Ritos to Ojo Caliente,
arriving at the Hot Springs and hotel at around 3:30 p.m. we immediately parked
and made a reservation for dinner for 6:30 and went to the bathhouse area. The
bathing area has been expanded but the
old iron pool with its gravel bottom and the roofed soda pool are still as they
were years ago. Two new arsenic pools have been added as well as two new
smaller mixed pools. We did not visit
the private pools but I changed in the men’s locker rooms and Suzette changed
in the women’s changing rooms. We soaked
in all the pools except the large swimming pool with mixed water for 1 1/2
hours until we were heated, our skin cleansed and our joints mostly unwound and
muscle pain eased. We got dressed around
5:30 and we looked at the menu and did not see anything that jumped out as us
as fabulous, so at my suggestion we decided to go across the hwy. to the funky
Taos Trail complex, because at one of the studios on the Abiqui studio we met a
woman whose son was a chef at the Taos Trail restaurant , who said it served
the best steak in the area.
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| Ojo Caliente |
When we
arrived at the Taos Trail complex of restaurant, brewery, rooms and bungalows,
we were shown to a lovely enclosed patio adjoining the restaurant. Suzette said, “I have never had a bad meal at
the Ojo Caliente Restaurant.” And a little later after we ordered an Alaska Ale
and a taste of porter brewed on permises, Suzette said, It is nice to eat
outside. The temperature was still quite
warm until the sun set, so it was very pleasant sitting on the patio. A band was getting set to pay as we arrived
and as we ate a guitarist, drummer and percussionist began playing jazz. We ordered a BBQ Plate and a Caesar Salad
made with homemade croutons. We were
surprised when the food arrived and it was apparent that we were being served
Sysco prepared foods. Although the
romaine was extremely fresh and the croutons were cut up bread sticks, the
dressing was that creamy peppery Caesar dressing you usually served at chain
restaurants ($10.00). The ribs did not
seem to be smoked on premises but were three large ribs that were meaty but not
smoked to the point that the meat fell off the bone when cut or bitten into,
like I grew up with in Texas. Instead
the meat was tough and we had to fight to get it off the bone. Suzette thought it was Sysco ribs without any
extra cooking to tenderize the meat. A
little disappointing but a lesson that one’s instinct to try a new restaurant
is not always a good instinct. It would
have been a better choice to taken dinner at the lovely dining room at Ojo
Caliente where the food was predictable and well prepared on premises by a
trained kitchen staff. The three large
ribs were served with a bowl of beans, and BBQ sauce, probably from a can
($24.00) and a side salad. The only thing that seemed to be prepared on premises was the baked potato. So we probably
saved a few dollars for an inferior meal on a patio with music. As Suzette said, “It was with a lovely
outdoor eating experience with food that was not good or bad, just average.“
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| Patio at Taos Trail |
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| Ceasar Salad |
At around 7:00 we drove home and were home a bit after 9:00
and hit the bed pretty hard after a wonderful sunny warm day of driving in the
Chama River Valley in northern New Mexico and soaking at Ojo Caliente.
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