Back on the Relics Road

Said a fond goodbye to Cousin Steve, his horses, and Corrales this morning. Oh, and my camera, which never did turn up. No clue. It didn't get laundered.  I think I zero-attention-spanned it -- was walking somewhere with it in my hand, when - look, a bird!  So it's on a fence post somewhere on the property.  But I was NOT making this trip without a damn camera, so we detoured by WalMart and I bought another one. What are you gonna do?

We left town via the Musical Highway, where if you drive a steady 45 and edge over to the rumble strip, it plays America the Beautiful. Seriously.  One of my daughters happened to phone at just the right time and hear it with us, so she will vouch for the truth of this. Your tax dollars at work!

Then we drove on to TinkerTown Museum, a shrine of folk art, commitment, and eccentricity. (Yep, echoes of last year's theme.)  The artist was fonder of miniatures than I am, but the place is so jammed with memorabilia, vintagery (is that a word? It should be) and jackdaw collectibles that it's just right up my alley anyway.  Another chapter in the book of Just Do It - follow your own passion to the best of your ability, and perhaps your gift will be a gift to others, too.

I didn't know that the artist was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 57, and only lived a few years after that. So Just Do It also means Just Do It Now.

We drove from TinkerTown on up to Madrid, which is a comely little artist's community with extremely nice people, from the server of our excellent lunch to the barista at the coffee shop & bed/breakfast where we're staying. (They were closed, but she got the stuff back out to make John a free iced coffee anyway.) There are dozens of little homes converted to galleries of glass, metalwork, recycled art, and other things, mostly pretty much out of my reach (we were in a rug shop that was AMAZING, if you were looking to drop a couple grand on a Moroccan rug.)  I did buy a Talavera bowl, which I did not need, and a shirt, which I also did not need. John bought nothing, because he has good sense.

Tonight we're just relaxing.  We were sitting outside on the patio of the coffee shop - it's just a small house, with the coffee shop downstairs, and the upstairs converted to a single-room B&B - enjoying the birds (I kept a grip on my camera) and the thankfully declining heat, but the mosquitoes drove us upstairs. So I'm making trip notes, and John is happily watching politics and munching leftover fried pickles from lunch.  Yes, fried pickles. They were delicious.

Tomorrow:  Tesuque Flea Market, Tesuque Glassworks, Shidoni Foundry, Chimayo Sanctuary, and on to Espanola for a Motel 6 night. (They can't ALL be unique, you know.)  Lots to do, but we'll get through as much as we can!